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Average reading scale scores, by type of school, grades 4 and 8: 1992–2003

* Significantly different from 2003.
NOTE: Data were not collected at grade 8 in 2000. In addition to allowing for accommodations, the accommodations-permitted results at grade 4 (1998–2003) differ slightly from previous years' results, and from previously reported results for 1998 and 2000, due to changes in sample weighting procedures.
Significance tests were performed using unrounded numbers. NAEP sample sizes have increased since 2002 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), 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2003 Reading Assessments.   

Major Findings

• Public-school students scored lower on average than nonpublic-school students at both grades 4 and 8.
• The average score for fourth-grade public-school students in 2003 was not found to differ significantly from that in 1992.
• The average score of eighth-grade public-school students decreased between 2002 and 2003, but was higher in 2003 than in 1992.
• Average scores of fourth- and eighth-graders attending Catholic schools increased between 1992 and 2003.

See the achievement-level results by type of school for grade 4 and grade 8.

Return to national subgroup results page.

Return to main results.

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Last updated 1 March 2003 (JM)