Most troubling, approximately 18 percent of fourth-grade studenus and 27 percenu eighth-grade students were at the below-basic level Despite encouraging gains in the NAEP scores over the last 30 years due to important shifts to standards-based instruction(particularly at the elementary level) (Kloosterman Rutledge, & Kenney, 2009b), U.S. students' performance still reveals some students have disappointing levels of competency.