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Average reading scale scores, by school-reported race/ethnicity, grades 4, 8, and 12: 1992–2002

* Significantly different from 2002.
¹ Sample sizes were insufficient to permit estimates for American Indian/Alaska Native in 1992 and 1998 at all three grades. Quality control activities and special analysis raised concerns about the accuracy and precision of grade 12 American Indian/Alaska Native data. As a result, they are omitted from this report.
² Sample sizes were insufficient to permit a reliable estimate for students classified as other races in all assessment years prior to 2002 at grades 4 and 12, and in 1994 and 1998 (where accommodations were permitted) at grade 8.
NOTE: Scale score results when testing accommodations were not permitted are shown in darker print, and when accommodations were permitted in lighter print.
In addition to allowing for accommodations, the accommodations-permitted results at grade 4 (1998-2002) differ slightly from previous years' results, and from previously reported results for 1998 and 2000, due to changes in sample weighting procedures. See appendix A of the 2002 Reading Report Card for more details.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2002 Reading Assessments.

Major Findings 

• Both White and Black fourth-graders had higher average reading scores in 2002 than in any of the previous assessment years.
• Average scores in 2002 were higher than those in 1992 and 1994 for White, Black, and Hispanic eighth-graders.
• Average scores for White and Black twelfth-grade students declined since 1992.
• White students and Asian/Pacific Islander students had higher average scores than Black and Hispanic students in 2002.
• White students outperformed their Asian/Pacific Islander peers at all three grades.

See the score gaps between White and Black students and between White and Hispanic students.

See national reading achievement level results by race/ethnicity for grade 4, grade 8, and grade 12.

Return to national subgroup results page.

Return to main results.

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Last updated 13 June 2003 (DSS)