U.S. city students grade low in science

The Washington Times reports:

Children in major U.S. cities perform worse than other students across the country on science tests given in elementary and middle school, a snapshot released by the government yesterday shows.
Ten urban school districts volunteered to take the tests and have their scores compared with public school students nationwide for the first time.
Fourth-graders in nine of the 10 city districts had lower average scores than public school students nationally. The only exception was Austin, Texas, where they performed at the national average.
In eighth grade, all 10 urban districts had average scores below the national average.

Doesn't the so called "progressive" educators care that the children are failing?