there are all different subjects that are part of naep. it's expensive but it give us a very good snapshot of how we're doing, what progress we're making. and progress has been slow. oddly enough, the biggest progress that's been made in reading and math was made before the adoption of no child left behind. >> host: that's interesting. what was it that was done to get those results? >> guest: well, i think there was an emphasis of improving without penalties. i think information itself is a valuable spur to improvement. but i think we may have reached kind of a bottoming-up point with all of this beating up on people and that's why we've seen so little progress. we don't -- we don't really have -- i mean, to make progress, for instance, in reading you need a lot of knowledge. and there's no emphasis on general knowledge and we have emphasis in knowledge skills and we have children who are trained like parrots and seals to take the state test but then when naep tests the same children they haven't taken test preparation for naep because it

unfortunately, a recent national association of educational progress, naep, test scores shows little or no -- since 2007. despite the best efforts of many, this data demonstrates that must more must be done to improve mathematics demonstration and -- education. that is why the joint policy board of mathematics has chosen the 2010 theme, mathematics and sports, for this year's mathematics month. it will highlight the interception of sports world with the wide world of mathematics in universal language that is used to investigate questions ranging from the trajectory of a baseball to the weight of a star. sports offer a variety of data, strategies and probability each uniquely suited to mathematical analysis beyond its obvious use in evaluating baseball players and football quarterbacks. mathematics is necessary to design the different patterns on golf balls and the composition of racing tires. today's baseball and basketball teams are utilizing complex new mathematical formulas to assemble the best teams at the lowest cost. this sports theme will provide students with countless opport