U.S. schools suspected of inflating reading test scores

Newsday reports:

Twelfth-graders show no improvement in reading skills on the latest national tests, but their grades continue to climb, according to federal officials who suspect the nation's schools are inflating grades.

Suspicions that teens' rising grade-point averages are unmerited were fueled by two national reports released Thursday morning at a Washington, D.C., news conference. Both reports are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a U.S.-sponsored program that tests students in academic subjects.

The latest test results -- in 12th-grade reading -- have hit their lowest point nationwide since assessment in that subject first started. On average, according to a new report on reading achievement, students scored 286 on a scale of 0 to 500 in 2005, down one point from 2002 and six points from 1992.

You mean more federal spending doesn't improve anything but government workers' pay?