The National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP, began using NAEP in 2013 to estimate the percentage of grade 12 students who possess the knowledge and skills in reading and mathematics that would make them academically prepared for first-year college coursework.
Advertisement
Twenty-five percent of 12th graders scored at or above the proficient level in math. And for average reading scores, both white and African-American students dipped two percent below 2013 levels, while Hispanic students held the same average score and Asian students actually increase by one percent.
In 2015, NAEP tested about 19,000 students in reading and 13,000 in math.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered a national yardstick by which to measure student achievement.
South Dakota eighth-graders, meanwhile, scored slightly lower in both math and reading skills than in past years, but remained above the national average.
Results dropped the most for students who were already struggling.
The cost of the state-by-state reporting and the fact that such reporting is not legally required for 12th grade results – in contrast to the requirement for fourth and eighth grade results – resulted in the decision against reporting the results by state. The test was given between January and March 2015 in math and reading to about 31,900 seniors in all 50 states, District of Columbia, and the U.S. “NAEP slices its results into four categories: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient and Advanced”.
In 2015, average math performance among seniors slipped two points, to 152 on a 300-point scale.
In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, NAEP staffers said they couldn’t speculate why scores were going down and whether the decreases were a result of new education policies like the Common Core State Standards.
But this recent data shows the majority of those students would have to take remedial coursework in college in order to catch up.
In math, the average score was 152 on a 300-point scale, which was almost two points lower than the 2013 average and constituted a statistically significant decrease. They said they know that in part because the declines on math were consistent across the areas tested, including geometry, data analysis and algebra.
Educators should be “pleased that graduation rates are increasing” but also need to acknowledge that not all those graduates are “making the academic progress” needed to be ready for college, good-paying jobs or the military, said Bill Bushaw, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.
NAEP results, also known as The Nation’s Report Card, are measured at three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient and Advanced.
37 percent of grade 12 students across the nation performed at or above the Proficient level, including 6 percent who scored at the Advanced level, in 2015. “That means we have students who normally would not be there [but] are there”, Carr said. “I think that’s something we need to think about”. “The students at the lower end are getting worse”.
Breaking out the 12th-grade scores by race since 2005 show some small differences in trends among groups, as well as yawning and largely stagnant achievement gaps.
While 32 percent of white students and 47 percent of Asian students scored at proficient or above in math, only 7 percent of black students and 12 percent of Hispanic students did.
In Washington D.C., 90 percent of students participating in the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), serving an approximately 97 percent minority population with an average household income of less then $22,00, graduate.
Advertisement
The latest 12th-grade results follow similarly disappointing news on fourth- and eighth-grade exams released past year, showing scores had dropped. The 2015 scores for reading were 267 on average, one point lower than 2013.
