Math Remains Sore Subject For Students With Disabilities, Report Finds

Students with disabilities continue to struggle with math, a nationwide report card released this month indicates.

The report from the Department of Education tracks math competency for students in fourth and eighth grades. Not all students with disabilities took the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which the report card is based on. But of those students with disabilities who were assessed, scores remained steady with the previous report released in 2007.

Among fourth graders with disabilities, 59 percent scored at or above basic level compared to 84 percent of students without disabilities. Meanwhile, 36 percent of eighth graders with disabilities are at or above basic level compared to 76 percent of other students, the report card found.

“None of us should be satisfied,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said of the report card. “More must be done to narrow the troubling achievement gap that has persisted in mathematics and to ensure that America’s students make greater gains.”