NAEP Scores Disappointing

NAEP scores are out. For those looking for unequivocal good news, the 2005 report on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was not it. Reading scores inched up slightly in fourth-grade but dropped a tiny bit in eighth-grade. Math scores at the fourth-grade level were up significantly, less so in eighth grade.

But if we know anything, we know that only part of the story is in those aggregate numbers. The really interesting stories are in the disaggregated numbers.

When we disaggregate the data, fourth-grade math numbers look better because every demographic group – Black, Latino, White, Asian, Native American and low-income children – posted the highest scores ever recorded on the main NAEP test. In fourth-grade reading, all groups of students, with the exception of Native American children, also scored at their highest levels since the first administration of the main NAEP.

Even more profound, the proportion of African-American fourth-graders performing below basic in math has declined from 65 percent to 40 percent since 2000. In many states, the percentage of students who score “Below Basic,” dropped for not only African-American students but also Latino and poor students. This is significant because it is these students who have been so long neglected by many schools and who have been stuck at the bottom of the achievement ladder for a long time. In many places, they are climbing. For example, in New Jersey, the percentage of poor students who scored below basic dropped by 9 points from 2003 to 2005; Latinos dropped by 7 points and African Americans by 12 points. It would be better if they had all moved into the proficient category, but moving them out of below basic reflects that schools are beginning to focus on teaching our most vulnerable students at least enough so that they understand whether a number is even or odd, can subtract two-digit numbers from three-digit numbers, and grasp mathematics at its most basic.

New Jersey isn’t alone in getting this growth – states as different as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arkansas all saw substantial improvements in the percentage of African- American, Latino, and poor students scoring below basic.

Lots of others stories are found at the state level.

Take, for example, Massachusetts, which has pursued rigorous school reform for some time now, and has some of the highest standards currently in use. It is now scoring at the top of the country for reading for Whites and African Americans, although its scores for Latino students are still disappointing.

North Carolina, which was a leader in school reform throughout the 1990s, and improved on NAEP in the 1990s, seems to have stalled between 2003 and 2005, which raises questions about whether it needs to recalibrate and reconfigure its standards and assessments.

One thing is certain: the education world will be analyzing NAEP data for some time to get insights into which states are on the right track and which ones seriously off-track.

To read some interesting analysis of NAEP, go to The Education Trust. To see the NAEP data itself, go to NAEP.