9486 in the collection  

8th graders are in 9th, but showing improvement, not falling

The paper asked the White House to defend Obama's claim, and received no response. Kudos to them for refuting White House Spin and pointing out that US scores have gone up dramatically.

See: Gerald Bracey's classic TIMSS, Rhymes with 'Dims,' As in 'Witted

The Truth-O-Meter

In his first major education speech, President Obama endorsed charter schools, merit pay for teachers and increases in school spending. He justified his agenda partly by saying American students are slipping compared to counterparts around the world.

"We've let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us," Obama said in the March 10 speech to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "In 8th grade math, we've fallen to 9th place."

Since Obama brought up math, we decided to check his. Turns out we had to pull out the red pen.

We asked the White House to defend Obama's claim, and received no response. His claim that 8th-grade math students in the U.S. are in 9th place . . .

The St. Petersburg Times does not permit posting of their items. For the rest of the story. go to the url below.
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— The Truth-O-Meter
St Petersburg Times
2009-03-14
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/mar/13/barack-obama/8th-graders-are-9th-showing-improvement-not-fallin/

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