NAEP 1996 Science Cross-State Data Compendium for the Grade 8 Assessment

March 1998

Authors: Kellie K. Keiser, Jennifer E. Nelson, Norma A. Norris, and Stephen Szyszkiewicz

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Note that the 1996 Science Performance Standards: Achievement Results for the Nation and the States report may be of interest also. It is available from the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) and can be accessed online at the NAGB web site. Use one of the following links, which will open another Internet browser window, to access it (you must use version 3.0 or higher of the free Acrobat Reader software to view the PDF file successfully): browse it online in HTML format, or download it in a PDF file for viewing and printing (1,023K).

Introduction

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a congressionally mandated project of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that has, for more than a quarter of a century, continually collected and reported information on what American students know and can do. It is the nation’s only ongoing, comparable, and representative assessment of student achievement. Its assessments are based on a national probability sample of public and nonpublic school students enrolled in grades 4, 8, or 12. Results are provided only for group performance. NAEP is forbidden by law to report results at an individual or school level. The assessment questions are written around a framework prepared for each content area -- reading, writing, mathematics, science and others -- that represents the consensus of groups of curriculum experts, educators, and members of the general public on what should be covered in such a test. In addition, students, their teachers, and their schools are asked to fill out questionnaires, to gather information on student demographics, teacher preparation, instructional practices, school policies, and out-of-school activities related to educational achievement.

In response to legislation passed by Congress in 1988, the NAEP program includes voluntary state-by-state assessments. This report presents grade 8 science results from the NAEP 1996 state assessment program. The state assessment program was initiated in 1990 on a trial basis with the assessment of mathematics achievement of eighth-grade students in public schools. The 1992 Trial State Assessment (TSA) assessed public school students in fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics and fourth-grade reading. In 1994, 44 jurisdictions participated in a fourth-grade reading assessment. Because of the positive evaluations of the 1990, 1992, and 1994 TSAs, the "trial" designation has been removed from the 1996 state-level NAEP assessment. The NAEP 1996 science state assessment program was comprised of a state-by-state science assessment of eighth-grade students enrolled in both public and nonpublic schools, with 47 jurisdictions participating in this assessment program.

Because the NAEP state assessments are voluntary, the participating jurisdictions have the final authority to release or withhold their results. In 1996 all jurisdictions gave permission to have their results released. To help ensure valid state-by-state results, the 1996 state assessment program continued the use of minimum school and student participation rate standards (see the Technical Appendix for details) for its reporting activities. Results are not reported for jurisdictions that failed to meet these standards. Three states -- Nevada, New Hampshire, and New Jersey -- did not meet the minimum school participation standards for public schools; therefore, their grade 8 public school results are not presented in this report. Several other states failed to meet a second set of more stringent participation rate guidelines intended to alert the reader of the possibility of significant nonresponse bias. Results for these jurisdictions are included in the report and are noted in the relevant tables in the Technical Appendix. The participants included:

Figure 1.1: Participating Jurisdictions in the NAEP 1996 State Assessment Program in Science, Grade 8

This compendium presents eighth-grade cross-state results of the NAEP 1996 state assessment in science along with national and regional results from the NAEP 1996 National Assessment; no interpretations of the data are made in this document. It contains tables of cross-state information for the variables discussed in the NAEP 1996 Science Report Card for the Nation and States and the NAEP 1996 Science State Report and is intended to be used as a companion document to these reports. The results for the nation and the regions of the country are based on the nationally and regionally representative samples of public and nonpublic school students who were assessed as part of the national NAEP program. Using the regional and national results from the 1996 national NAEP program is necessary because of the voluntary nature of the state assessment program. Since not every state participated in the program, the aggregated data across states did not necessarily provide representative national and regional results. General information about the instrumentation, sampling, data collection, and analysis procedures for the state assessment program can be found in the NAEP 1996 individual state reports (Appendices A and C), in the Technical Appendix of this report, and in the Technical Report of the NAEP 1996 state assessment program in science.^[1]

Chapter 1 presents the results for the nation, the four regions, and the participating jurisdictions in the context of the overall average science scale scores and scale scores for fields of science and type of school. Chapter 2 presents scale score information for selected population subgroups: gender, race/ethnicity, parents’ highest education level, Title I participation and free/reduced-price lunch program eligibility.

Chapters 3 through 7 contain results by breakdowns of background information collected from the student, teacher, and school characteristics and policies questionnaires. In particular, school characteristics related to science instruction are examined in Chapter 3, and Chapter 4 reports on classroom practices related to science instruction. Chapter 5 reports on teacher and school activities related to the use of hands-on tasks in science instruction. Chapter 6 covers potential influences beyond school that facilitate learning science, and Chapter 7 pertains to teacher preparation.

How to Read the Tables in This Report

The title for each table indicates: (1) assessment year, grade, and school-type sample for which results are being presented; (2) the reported statistics (e.g. average scale scores or percentiles); and when appropriate, (3) the variables by which results are broken out. The abbreviation SS found in the column heading of the tables denotes average overall composite science scale score with the exception of Table 1.1, where it denotes the average overall scale score, as well as the scale scores for the indicated percentiles, and Table 1.2, where it denotes the average scale score for the fields of science. The standard error of the percentages and scale scores appears in parentheses and is abbreviated SE. The participating jurisdictions appear in the left margin, as follows: the nation and four regions of the United States; the participating states listed in alphabetical order; and other jurisdictions, including Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS), Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS), and Guam.

The results of the 1996 state assessment program provided in the report are based on state-level samples of eighth-grade public school students. The samples were selected based on a two-stage sample design selection of schools within participating states and selection of students within schools. The first-stage samples of schools were selected with probability proportional to the eighth-grade enrollments in the schools. Special procedures were used for states with many small schools, and for jurisdictions having a small number of schools. The national and regional results presented in this report are based on nationally representative probability samples of eighth-grade students. The sample was selected using a complex multistage sampling design involving the sampling of students from selected schools within selected geographic areas across the country.

Cautions in Interpretations

The reader is cautioned against making causal inferences related to population subgroup membership, background variables, effectiveness of public and nonpublic schools, and state educational systems. For example, differences observed among racial/ethnic subgroups can almost certainly be associated with a broad range of socioeconomic and educational factors not discussed in this report and possibly not addressed by the NAEP assessment program. Similarly, differences between public and nonpublic schools may be better understood after accounting for factors such as composition of the student body, parents’ education levels, and parental interest. Finally, differences in science performance among states most likely reflect an interaction between the effectiveness of the educational programs within the state and the challenges posed by economic constraints and student demographic demands.

Allen, N. L., Swinton, S. S., Isham, S. P., & Zelenak, C. A. (1997). Technical report of the NAEP 1996 state assessment program in science. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

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NCES 98-482 Ordering information

Last updated 22 March 2001 (RH)