Good morning. I am Michael Casserly, Executive Director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of nearly sixty of the nation's largest urban school districts, serving some 6.6 million students. Thank you for the invitation to join you today.

I would like to commend Secretary Riley, Acting NCES Commissioner Gary Phillips, and NAGB Trustee Michael Nettles for this outstanding report on the academic performance of the nation's students.

It is, bar none, the most comprehensive and unbiased review of student achievement trends in reading, math, and science for three critical age groups that we have seen. It should answer, once and for all, the question about whether achievement has improved. The answers since 1990 are encouraging in mathematics and sobering in reading. And they are downright heartening in all subjects if one takes the longer thirty-year view.

It is clear, however, that the nation needs a major new and targeted initiative to improve reading. We need to do a better job of integrating reading in all subject areas and grades and ensure that our teachers can teach reading no matter what their area of specialty. The time for feel-good reading programs has ended.

  I will be brief in my remarks this morning. The previous speakers have done a good job of summarizing the findings of this study. The study, as you see, does not present data explicitly on urban schools.

  Still, the results are important to urban schools because it tells us about the achievement gaps. While we enroll only 14.3% of the nation's public school enrollment, our cities serve about 33% of the nation's African American students, 30% of its Hispanic students, and about 25% of the country's Asian American students. We also enroll about 25% of the nation's children eligible for free lunch.

  The good news in the NAEP data is that the achievement gaps by race, particularly the gaps between white and black students, have closed appreciably in all subjects across all grades since 1970. The bad news is that progress reducing the gaps since 1990 is mixed, depending on the group, the grade, and the subject. In some cases, the gaps have worsened. (The difference between math scores of 17-year-old whites and blacks was 31 points in 1999, compared with 21 points in 1990; and the difference between science scores of 13-year-old whites and Hispanics was 39 points in 1999, compared with 30 points in 1992.)

  It is hard to imagine that these national trends are not due partly to progress in urban schools, given our share of the nation's enrollment.

  The Council of the Great City Schools is conducting a separate analysis of central city trends on state NAEP scores. We are also examining big city trends on state assessments and on locally administered standardized tests. Our preliminary findings mirror the results being released today. Big city schools have improved significantly in math since 1992 but have not shown much progress in reading. We have a lot of work to do, especially in reading, and we need a lot of assistance from our state and federal partners.

  What is clear from our analysis is that some urban school systems are showing substantial progress. Others are not.

  Scores in Philadelphia, Houston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Louisville, San Francisco, Ft. Worth, Indianapolis, and others are showing unusually rapid gains. They are also closing the achievement gaps faster than most. Clearly some of our cities are doing things that others are not, something that our Task Force on Achievement Gaps is exploring in order to accelerate the achievement gains of all cities.

  Our preliminary research shows that the places improving the fastest are cities that have:

•  implemented higher standards more deeply into the classroom,
• more credentialed teachers,
• more extensive pre-school programs,
• better professional development for their teachers,
• more successful after-school and summer programs,
• lower class sizes,
• increased the proportion of students taking rigorous coursework, and
• implemented stronger accountability systems for students and staff.

 Urban schools have been using these reform strategies, to greater or lesser extent, for some years. The number of urban students who have successfully completed algebra by the end of 10th grade, for instance, has jumped from 37% in 1990-91 to 62% in 1996-97. Nearly 90% of the cities have raised standards. About 72% of our kindergartners are now in full-day programs. And over half of the major cities have moved to end social promotions.

  We are still facing major challenges, however. We are losing teachers, particularly math and science teachers, to higher paying suburbs. Our classes are too large. Our buildings are falling apart. Our pre-school programs are not reaching enough children. Our schools are actually getting larger. And our high schools do not have enough high-level courses. (Over two-thirds of the nation's white students had taken a second year of algebra or precalculus/calculus in 1999, compared with slightly more than half of the nation's African-American students, and less than half of Hispanic students.)

  As urban schools, we need to accelerate our progress, despite the challenges. We need to close the gaps. We need to stay with the standards. We will not back away from their implementation. We need to accelerate the learning of our poorest students beyond national averages. But we need the nation to meet us half way to ensure that our kids can meet them. Otherwise, our progress will never be any faster and our gaps will never be any narrower.

  (The Council of the Great City Schools is the only organization in the nation exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools.)