Average mathematics scale scores, by race/ethnicity, grades 4 and 8: 1990–2003
View complete data with standard errors for grade 4 and grade 8.
* Significantly different from 2003. 1Special analyses raised concerns about the accuracy and precision of national grade 8 Asian/Pacific Islander results in 1996 and grade 4 Asian/Pacific Islander results in 2000. As a result, they are omitted. 2Sample size was insufficient to permit a reliable estimate for American Indian/Alaska Native students in 1990 and 1992 at grades 4 and 8, and in 1996 at grade 8.
NOTE: At each grade, approximately 1 percent of students were classified as American Indian/Alaska Native or Other (not shown). In addition to allowing for accommodations, the accommodations-permitted results (1996–2003) differ slightly from previous years' results and from previously reported results for 1996 and 2000, due to changes in sample weighting procedures.
Significance tests were performed using unrounded numbers. NAEP sample sizes have increased in 2003 compared to previous years, resulting in smaller detectable differences than in previous assessments.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2003 Mathematics Assessments.
Major Findings
At both grades 4 and 8, Asian/Pacific Islander students scored higher on average in 2003 than did White students. Also, White students and Asian/Pacific Islander students had higher average scores than their Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native peers.
In 2003, Hispanic students and American Indian/Alaska Native students scored higher on average than Black students at both grades.
White, Black, and Hispanic students in grades 4 and 8 had higher average scores in 2003 than in any of the previous assessment years since 1990.
There was no significant change detected in the average score for Asian/Pacific Islander students between 2000 and 2003 at grade 8. The average scores for Asian/Pacific Islander students were higher in 2003 than in 1990 at both grades 4 and 8.
See the score gaps between White students and Black students and between White students and Hispanic students.
See national mathematics achievement-level results by race/ethnicity for grade 4 and grade 8.
