Education Week - May 14, 2014 - 6

PUTTING SENIORS' SCORES IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT
* Significantly different from 2013.
500
310
300
290
280
0
New National Assessment of Educational Progress data show 12th graders' scores in reading and math
stayed the same compared with 2009. Looking back further, reading achievement is lower than in 1992.
In 1998, the test was administered with and without
accommodations. The bottom score includes students
receiving accommodations; the top score does not.
READING
292*
287
ACCOMMODATIONS
NOT PERMITTED
'92
'94
291*
290*
ACCOMMODATIONS
PERMITTED
'98
'02
'05
'09
'13
287
288
286*
288
300
160
150
140
0
MATHEMATICS
153
150*
153
'05
'09
'13
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics
At Grade 12, NAEP Achievement
Stalls in Reading, Mathematics
By Liana Heitin
Twelfth graders' math and reading
performance has stagnated since
2009, including among individual
racial and ethnic groups, according
to a new round of results from
the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, prompting renewed
concerns about the persistence of
achievement gaps.
The testing data from naep,
known as "the nation's report card,"
show that the average mathematics
score for high school seniors remained
at 153, on a 300-point scale,
when comparing the 2013 results
with those from 2009. Just 26 percent
of students scored at or above
the "proficient" level in math-again
the same as four years ago.
In reading, the national average
stayed flat at 288, on a 500-point
scale, with 37 percent of students
scoring at or above proficient, according
to the naep report issued
last week.
Black, Hispanic, and American
Indian/Alaska Native students
continued to score well below their
white peers in math and reading.
The black-white gap is still the
largest, with African-American students
scoring about 30 points below
whites in both subjects, the data
show. Since 1992, the black-white
score gap has increased by 5 points
on the naep scale.
At an event in Washington, where
the scores were announced, Susan
Pimentel, a curriculum specialist and
a lead writer for the Common Core
State Standards, said it is "unsettling"
that that gap in the last 20 years "has
gotten wider when we've [paid] so
much attention to closing the gap."
In reading, 47 percent of white
students scored proficient or above
in 2013, compared with 16 percent
of black students and 23 percent of
Hispanics. And in math, 33 percent
of whites scored proficient or above,
while only 7 percent of black students
and 12 percent of Hispanic
students did the same.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan lamented the findings.
"We must reject educational stagnation
in our high schools, and as
[a] nation, we must do better for
all students, especially for AfricanAmerican
and Latino students," he
said in a statement.
Meanwhile, of the 11 states where
state-level data were available for
2009 and 2013, only Arkansas and
Connecticut had scores that were
higher by a statistically significant
margin in both subjects this round.
Changes in Test-Takers
Results on naep are reported at
Great change
begins with
great ideas.
three achievement levels: "basic,"
"proficient," and "advanced." Proficient,
for naep purposes, means
students "have had success with the
challenging content on that grade
level," said Cornelia Orr, the executive
director of the National Assessment
Governing Board, during a
May 6 call with reporters.
A nationally representative sample
of about 92,000 12th graders
took the test between January and
March of 2013.
Doug and Lynn Fuchs
* Peabody Professors and Nicholas Hobbs Co-Chairs in
Special Education and Human Development
* Co-Directors of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Reading Clinic
* Leaders in response to intervention and two of the most highly
cited researchers in the social sciences
Explore Our Difference
peabody.vanderbilt.edu
6 | EDUCATION WEEK | May 14, 2014 | www.edweek.org
While scores in math and reading
remain unchanged compared with
2009, the average for reading has
decreased by 4 points since the test's
first administration in 1992. In math,
scores have risen by 3 points since
2005, when a new test framework was
introduced. Prior math results are not
considered valid for comparison.
John Easton, the acting commissioner
of the National Center for
Education Statistics, which administers
naep, said that since 1992, graduation
rates have increased from 74
percent to 81 percent of students.
For that reason, he said, the recent
testing sample "includes more lowerperforming
students who would have
dropped out in the past."
In addition, the rates of students
identified with disabilities and as
English-learners have gone up, and
exclusion rates for the test have gone
down. The percentage of white students
has declined from 74 percent to
58 percent, and the Hispanic population
has grown from 7 percent to
20 percent. (The population of black
students has remained steady.)
But Mr. Easton emphasized, "Our
12th grade population is our 12th
grade population, and we don't
explain away test scores based on
demographics."
Common-Core Alignment
This is the second time naep has
included grade 12 results from individual
states as part of a pilot program.
States are required to participate
in naep for 4th and 8th grades
in order to receive federal aid under
the No Child Left Behind Act. Starting
in 2009, states could volunteer
to participate as individual entities-separate
from the nationally
representative sample-at grade 12.
Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida,
Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, South
Dakota, and West Virginia all participated
in 2009 and 2013. This year,
Tennessee and Michigan also took
part. Of the 11 states that received
scores in 2009 as well, four showed
improvement in math: Arkansas,
Connecticut, Idaho, and West Virginia.
Two states-Arkansas and
Connecticut-showed improvement
in reading over the past four years.
Connecticut had the highest percentage
of students score at or above
proficient in reading in 2013, with 50
percent. The state was also the only
one to narrow the achievement gap
between white and black students
over the past four years, bringing it
down by 9 points. A statement from
the Education Trust, a Washingtonbased
nonprofit that advocates closing
achievement gaps, said, "This
is especially encouraging because
other data sources have shown that
Connecticut has some of the widest
achievement gaps in the nation."
Massachusetts had the highest
percentage of those at or above proficient
in math, with 34 percent.
With two state consortia's tests
aligned to the Common Core State
Standards slated to debut next year,
many people wonder if naep offers
clues as to how high school students
will perform. Ms. Orr of nagb, which
sets policy for naep, called that "the
million-dollar question."
"How will [the testing consortia]
report scores out in terms of scales
and proficiency levels, and how will
those align with the naep scores in
terms of proficiency levels-all of
that is yet unknown," she said. Even
so, an initial review found that the
naep items are "quite closely aligned
with the common-core content."
On May 14, nagb planned to issue
its first report on what naep data
can say about student preparedness
for endeavors beyond 12th grade.
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Education Week - May 14, 2014

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