NOTE: The NAEP reading scores have been evaluated at certain performance levels. Scale ranges from 0 to 500. Students scoring 150 (or higher) are able to follow brief written directions and carry out simple, discrete reading tasks. Students scoring 200 are able to understand, combine ideas, and make inferences based on short uncomplicated passages about specific or sequentially related information. Students scoring 250 are able to search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations about literature, science, and social studies materials. Students scoring 300 are able to find, understand, summarize, and explain relatively complicated literary and informational material. Includes public and private schools. Excludes persons not enrolled in school and those who were unable to be tested due to limited proficiency in English or due to a disability. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic origin. Data for 1971 are not shown because students of Hispanic origin were included in the White and Black race categories. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2006). Digest of Education Statistics, 2005 (NCES 2006-030), table 108, data from U.S. Department of Education, NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), various years, 1975–2004 Long-Term Trend Reading Assessment.