Here’s Something Else That Would Have Been Good To Know Before That Big Close Vote

Not only who the mayor entertains down at the office but also the NAEP scores that have finally been released:

New York City’s fourth and eighth graders did not perform significantly better on federal math exams this year than in 2007, according to test scores released on Tuesday.

The results on the federal tests differ sharply from the city’s performance on state-administered tests, where the city has registered large gains in the last couple of years. On state exams, 71 percent of the city’s eighth graders met state standards this year, but just 26 percent were considered proficient or better on the federal exams.

In 2007, the last time the federal tests were administered, 22 percent of eighth-grade students in the city were proficient.

In the fourth grade, 35 percent of the students were proficient this year, compared with 34 percent two years ago.

. . .

Most of the other 17 large school districts whose results were reported Tuesday also showed gains over the last six years. Boston and Washington had larger increases than New York in the fourth grade, and San Diego had the most improvement in the eighth grade.

The city did improve more than the rest of the state on the 2009 federal tests, and the city’s fourth graders are now at nearly the same level as the rest of New York State.

The results of the federal test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and widely considered the gold standard in standardized testing, will be fodder for skeptics who believe that the mayor has not achieved the educational successes he claimed during his re-election campaign.

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.