Status and Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives: 2008

NCES 2008-084
September 2008

Student Performance in Reading

In 2007, American Indian/Alaska Native students in grades 4 and 8 scored lower than White and Asian/ Pacific Islander students on NAEP reading assessments.

Figure 4.2a. Average reading scale scores for American Indian/Alaska Native students and for all students, by grade: 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2007

— Not available.
NOTE: Scale score ranges from 0 to 500. Data were not collected at grade 8 in 2000. The reading data include students for whom accommodations were permitted. For a discussion of the reading scale score definitions, see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/scale.asp. Total includes race/ethnicity categories not separately shown.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2007 Reading Assessments and the NAEP Data Explorer, retrieved January 25, 2008, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/.

Figure 4.2b. Average 4th- and 8th-grade reading scores for American Indian/Alaska Native students attending Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and other public schools, by selected states: 2007

Average 4th- and 8th-grade reading scores for American Indian/Alaska Native students
attending Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and other public schools, by selected states:
2007

NOTE: Scale score ranges from 0 to 500. The reading data include students for whom accommodations were permitted. For a discussion of the reading scale score definitions see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/scale.asp. National and state data presented in this table represent American Indian/Alaska Native students only. Data for Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington, and Oregon are not shown because these states only participated in the 2007 NIES. Estimates include students who attended BIE and other public schools. Therefore, estimates presented here differ from those presented in table 4.2a, where private schools were included.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Performance of American Indian and Alaska Native Students at Grades 4 and 8 on NAEP 2007 Reading and Mathematics Assessments (NCES 2008-457). National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), National Indian Education Study (NIES), 2007.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assesses the skills of 4th-, 8th-, and 12thgrade students. In reading, potential NAEP scores range from 0 to 500. This reading scale score reflects students' performance across various content strands, including reading for literary experience, and reading for information, and, in grades 8 and 12, reading to perform a task.

In 2007, American Indian/Alaska Native students had lower average reading scale scores than White and Asian/Pacific Islander students in both the 4th and 8th grades. American Indian/Alaska Native students scored about the same as Black students in the 4th grade and Hispanic students in the 4th and 8th grades in 2007.

In addition to calculating an overall reading scale score, NAEP data are expressed as a series of achievement levels to indicate how well students perform against expectations for what students should know and be able to do. In 2007, a larger percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native 4th- and 8th-graders than Black 4th- and 8th-graders achieved "at or above proficient." Higher percentages of White and Asian/ Pacific Islander 4th- and 8th-grade students achieved "at or above proficient" than did American Indian/ Alaska Native 4th- and 8th-grade students.

Specific states with relatively large populations of American Indian/Alaska Native students were selected for NAEP's National Indian Education Study (NIES) in the years 2005 and 2007. In 2007, American Indian/Alaska Native 4th- and 8th-graders in Oklahoma had higher reading scale scores, on average, than their American Indian/Alaska Native peers nationwide. In contrast, the average reading scale scores of 4th- and 8th-graders nationally were higher than the scores of American Indian/Alaska Native students in Alaska, New Mexico, and South Dakota. In the seven states participating in the 2007 NIES, the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native students achieving at or above the basic level ranged from 29 percent in Arizona to 60 percent in Oklahoma for 4th-graders and from 40 percent in Arizona to 67 percent in Oklahoma for 8th-graders.

View Table 4.2a

View Table 4.2b

View Table 4.2c