05:49 PM CST on Thursday, December 1, 2005

By Carolyn Campbell / 11 News

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According to national test results released Thursday, HISD's fourth- and eighth-graders are outperforming most other big cities that were tested.

KHOU-TV

The average reading scores for fourth grade students in HISD is 211. The national average is 217.

HISD is among 11 other urban districts that volunteered to be tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"It's gives us an assessment of how are young people are doing," said HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra. "It basically says the district is being very successful in educating young people. Being a school district with over 90 percent minority, it's important we can successfully educate these young people."

The average reading scores for fourth-grade students in HISD is 211. The national average is 217, and the Texas average is 219.

Compared by city, New York’s average is 213, Boston is at 207, Atlanta's is 201 and Los Angeles' is 196.

"That's what makes me so pleased about this is that there's been continuous progress every single time that we've participated in this program," Saavedra said. "And it is a voluntary program. This is something that we, as a district, have volunteered to do because again, we want to know how our kids stack up against the national urban districts."

HISD eighth-graders’ scores in reading and math were not as good as those of the fourth-graders, but Saavedra said the national test shows the district's fourth- and eighth-graders are continuing to make progress in math and reading, especially black fourth-gradres.

Saavedra admitted more work still needs to be done to not only meet, but beat those national scores.

Eighth-grade teacher Julie Goodloe said, "I fully expect that the concepts that I'm teaching are gonna be learned ... as a district that's been the expectation, a higher level of expectation for every student."