Reading Gap Widens Between High- and Low-Performing Fourth-Grade Students
April 6, 2001
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"Over the past eight years, we have seen a gradual widening of the gap between the reading skills of the highest and lowest performing students," said Gary Phillips, Acting Commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). "In other words, the best students are reading better, while the worst students are falling further behind. This should not be confused with the race/ethnicity reading gap which has remained relatively constant over the same time period." "Although the gap between high and low performing students has widened," Dr. Phillips went on to say, "the average reading scores for America's fourth-graders have remained unchanged over the past eight years. Improvements in scores for high-performing students-those at the 75th and 90th percentiles-were offset by declining scores for low-performing students-those at the 10th percentile-so that the overall net effect was no change in the statistical average." Dr. Phillips spoke at the release of a new NCES report, The Nation's Report Card: Fourth-Grade Reading 2000, based on a test conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that included approximately 8,000 students nationwide. The NAEP Report Card compares reading scores for fourth-graders in 2000 with scores from previous assessments in 1992, 1994, and 1998. The NAEP Achievement Levels, standards for what student performance should be, reflected a similar pattern in scores. Specifically, the percentage of fourth-graders at or above Proficient increased from 29 to 32 percent, while the percentage at Advanced increased from 6 to 8 percent. In contrast, no significant change occurred in the percentages of fourth-graders performing at or above Basic (63 percent in 2000) and below Basic (37 percent in 2000). The NAEP Achievement Levels are developed by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), an independent body that sets policy for NAEP. Asians/Pacific Islanders were the only racial/ethnic group to show an overall improvement in their average scores over the period 1992-2000. As in the past, white and Asian/Pacific Islander fourth-graders had higher average reading scores than their black, Hispanic, and American Indian classmates.
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The report also revealed that female fourth-graders outperformed male fourth-graders, as they have done in the past. Although scores did not change significantly for either sex, the gap in favor of female students did widen from 1998 to 2000. Private-school fourth-graders also continued to have higher reading scores than public school fourth-graders, but there was no change in the scores for either group or in the difference between their scores. Fourth-Grade Reading 2000 is the first NAEP report to include scores for an assessment sample that allowed accommodations for students with disabilities (SD students) and limited-English-proficiency students (LEP students). In 2000, NCES used two different samples, one that did not permit accommodations and one that did, but only for students who were unable to participate without them. The "no accommodations" sample allowed NCES to compare student performance in 2000 with prior assessments, which did not permit accommodations. In 2001, NCES will be issuing two more NAEP "Report Cards" in mathematics and science. Both of these reports will cover the eighth and twelfth grades along with the fourth grade, and will include data for individual states as well as national data. (State participation in NAEP is voluntary; 40 or more states and other jurisdictions typically participate in a NAEP assessment.) The National Assessment of Educational Progress is administered by NCES, an agency within the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement. For further information on Fourth-Grade Reading 2000, please visit NCES's NAEP Web Site at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ All NAEP reports can be ordered by calling toll-free 1-877-4ED-Pubs (1-877-433-7827), TTY/TTD 1-877-576-7734; e-mailing at edpubs@edpubs.ed.gov; or via the Internet at http://edpubs.ed.gov At 2 p.m., April 6, 2001, NCES Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr will host a live web chat on Fourth-Grade Reading 2000 at http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/statchat/
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