The NAEP released the 2009 Nation’s Report Card for Mathematics yesterday, and the results are pretty much the same as they were in 2007.

More than 168,000 fourth-graders and 161,000 eighth-graders across the country participated in the assessment, responding to questions about number properties and operations; measurement; geometry; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and algebra.

Overall, there were no gains in average test scores for fourth-graders from 2007 until 2009, and eighth-graders showed a 2-point increase. When you break down the results by state, 30 states showed no significant changes in scores for fourth or eighth-graders, 13 states showed small gains in either one grade or the other, and only five states showed slight increases in both grades.

In terms of proficiency, the percentages of fourth-graders performing at or above Proficient held steady at 39% since 2007. For eighth-graders, percentages rose slightly since 2007 to 34%.

I dug a little further, and found a chart showing fourth grade math scores from 1990 to 2007 broken down by race and ethnicity, and another showing the same breakdown for eighth graders. Looking at both charts is like staring at an actual photograph of our nation’s achievement gap. The gap between eighth grade white and black students is 32 points (it was 33 back in 1990), and between white and Hispanic students is 27 points (it was 24 back in 1990). (For a more detailed breakdown of scores, see here.)

Predictably, how these results are being interpreted depends on what state is doing the interpreting. For example, in Washington, D.C., the significant gains made by students is being interpreted as a promising sign in support of School Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Mayor Adrian Fenty’s school reform efforts.

New York is wondering why its students’ NAEP scores remained flat over the past two years while scores on their own state-administered standardized tests showed record gains.

Massachusetts is proud that its students had the highest scores in the country (with fourth-graders scoring an average of 252 and with 57% achieving proficiency), while in Mississippi, a state with one of the lowest scores, fourth graders scored an average of only 227 with a mere 22% achieving proficiency.

My overall conclusion when I read the results: this news is far from good.

A former employer of mine used to say that there’s no such thing as standing still. As the world keeps changing and moving forward, you’re either progressing and moving forward with it, or you’re letting it get out from under you and sliding back. Given how much money we pour into education each year, and how the need for a college degree is becoming increasingly important, for test scores and the achievement gap to remain the same is not a sign of stagnation, but of regression. As a country, we are falling further and further behind where we need to be. I think this report just confirms what we already know: there is still so much work to be done.