National Mathematics Assessment Shows Continued Progress for 4th and 8th-Graders
August 2, 2001
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A new report released today by the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows improvement for U.S. students in mathematics. "Scores for U.S. fourth and eighth grade students show continued progress over the last ten years. Scores for twelfth graders were higher in 2000 than in 1990, but lower than in 1996. Despite this progress, gaps between White students and Black and Hispanic students remain relatively unchanged since 1990," stated Gary W. Phillips, Acting Commissioner of NCES.
The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2000 presents national results on students' mathematics performance. The report also includes performance data collected on fourth-and eighth-graders in states and other jurisdictions. The assessment included approximately 13,500 fourth-graders, 15,700 eighth-graders, and 13,400 twelfth-graders nationwide. Approximately 102,000 fourth-graders in 46 states and other jurisdictions, and approximately 98,000 eighth-graders in 44 states and other jurisdictions participated in the state NAEP mathematics assessment. Dr. Phillips also noted that "Improvements at the state level generally reflected improvements similar to those at the national level. Twenty-six of the 36 states and jurisdictions that participated in the 2000 assessment and the first fourth-grade state assessment in 1992 showed higher average scores over the past eight years. Additionally, 27 of the 31 states and jurisdictions that participated in the 2000 assessment and the first eighth-grade state assessment in 1990 showed higher average scores in 2000." The NAEP achievement levels used in the assessment set standards for what student performance should be, and the achievement levels also reflected the same pattern as the student scores. At the fourth and eighth grades, the percent of students at or above the Proficient and Basic levels has increased consistently from 1990 to 2000, and the percent below Basic has consistently declined. In addition, the percent of students at or above the Advanced level was higher in 2000 than in 1990 and 1992. For grade 12, the percent of students at or above the Basic and Proficient levels was higher in 2000 than in 1990 and the percent below the Basic level was lower in 2000 than in 1990. The NAEP achievement levels are developed by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), an independent body that sets policy for NAEP. White, Black, and Hispanic students all showed improvement over the decade, achieving higher scores in 2000 than in 1990 at grades 4 and 8. White students had higher scores in 2000 than in 1990 at grade 12.
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In the 2000 assessment, White students, in all three grades, had higher scores, on average, than Black or Hispanic students, and the differences in scores were substantial. These large gaps between subgroups' performance have remained relatively unchanged since 1990.
At the state level, a group of nine states clustered at the top for highest average scores for fourth-graders in 2000: Minnesota, Massachusetts, Indiana, Connecticut, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, Kansas, and Vermont. (The average scores for these states did not differ significantly from one another.) At the eighth grade, students from three states tied for the lead in 2000: Minnesota, Montana, and Kansas. Fourth-graders in eight states had higher scores in 2000 than in both 1992 and 1996: Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wyoming. Eighth-graders in eight states had higher scores in 2000 than in 1990, 1992 and 1996: Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2000 is the first NAEP mathematics assessment to report 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 required them to participate. The "no accommodations" sample allowed NCES to compare student performance in 2000 with prior assessments, which did not permit accommodations. Providing accommodations had little or no impact on national or state scores. In Fall 2001, NCES will be issuing one more NAEP "Report Card," in science. Like the mathematics report card, the science report card will offer both national and state data 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 The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 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. EDT, August 2, 2001, NCES Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr will host a live web chat on the mathematics release at http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/statchat/
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