When it comes to the state of American education, we’ve seen some plusses and minuses. On one hand, kids are doing far better at math than they were 20 years ago. On the other hand, their reading skills barely have moved in the past two decades. According to the latest test results compiled by the federal government, 40 percent of fourth graders were proficient in math—up a whopping 27 percentage points from 1990 when only 13 percent were proficient. Eighth-grade proficiency also has gone up dramatically. While the United States still lags behind some high-performing countries, there is evidence America is catching up. The same cannot be said for reading proficiency, however. Only 34 percent of fourth graders test at high levels in the discipline, up only slightly from the 29 percent who were proficient in 1990. “I’m disappointed but not surprised by these results,” says Sharon Darling, founder of the National Center for Family Literacy. “Children spend five times as much time outside the classroom as they do in school, and our country has 30 million parents or caregivers who are not good readers themselves, so they pass illiteracy down to their children.” (New York Times)