Cross-district comparisons of average reading scale scores, grade 4 public schools: By urban district, 2003
Grade 4
Instructions: Read across the row corresponding to a district listed to the left of the chart. Match the shading intensity to the key to determine whether the average reading scale score of this district was found to be higher than, not statistically significantly different from, or lower than the district in the column heading. For example, in the row for New York City at grade 4: New York’s average score was lower than that of the nation and of Charlotte; not significantly different from those of San Diego, Houston, and Boston; and was higher than those of large central cities, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and the District of Columbia.
District had higher average scale score than the district listed at the top of the column.
No statistically significant difference detected from the district listed at the top of the column.
District had lower average scale score than the district listed at the top of the column.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2003 Trial Urban District Reading Assessment.
Major Findings
In order to provide a context for the data collected in the 2003 TUDA, results are presented for students attending public schools in the nation as a whole, as well as for public schools located in large central cities across the nation. "Urban districts" refers to the ten districts reported in this trial study. Eight of the ten urban districts consist entirely of schools in cities with a population of 250,000 or more (i.e., large central cities as defined by NCES); two of them (Charlotte and Los Angeles) consist primarily of schools in large central cities, but also have from one-quarter to one-third of their fourth- and eighth-grade students enrolled in surrounding urban fringe or rural areas. All of the data for both districts were used to compare with data from large central cities and the nation.
At grade 4, the average score of students in Charlotte was not found to differ statistically from the average score of public-school students in the nation.
The average scores of all the other districts were lower than the average score of the nation.
Students in Charlotte and New York City scored higher on average than those in large central city public schools, while students in Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and the District of Columbia scored lower on average.
