Interpreting Naep Scales

Interpreting NAEP Scales

NAEP 1992 Reading Report Card for the Nation and the States

The National Assessment of Educational Progress' (NAEP) 1992 reading assessment was administered to nationally representative samples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students attending public and private schools, and to state representative public-school samples of fourth graders in 43 jurisdictions. Nearly 140,000 students were assessed in all. Data were summarized on the NAEP reading proficiency scale ranging from 0 to 500, and results were reported according to three achievement levels at each grade--basic, proficient, and advanced. Major findings were that (1) 59% of the fourth graders, 69% of eighth graders, and 75% of twelfth graders reached the basic level or beyond; (2) 25%, 28%, and 37% of grade 4, 8, and 12 students met or exceeded the proficient level, respectively; (3) from 2% to 4% of students at any of the grade levels achieved the "advanced" performance level; (4) fourth graders within the basic level generally understood simple narratives; (5) eighth graders reading within the basic level demonstrated literal understanding of passages; (6) twelfth graders within the basic level were able to interpret aspects of the passages they read and make connections between their reading and their own knowledge; (7) students attending private schools had higher average reading proficiency than students at public schools; (8) considerable variation in performance existed within and across participating states; (9) females had higher average reading proficiency than males at all three grade levels; and (10) fourth graders appeared to be learning reading through varied instructional approaches. (Contains 67 tables and 9 figures of data; a detailed description of anchoring the achievement levels, an overview of procedures, state contextual background factors, and reading passages are attached.) (RS)

Reading