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

NCES 2008-084
September 2008

Student Performance in U.S. History

In 2006, no differences were observed among American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic students' scores on the NAEP history assessment.

Figure 4.5. Average U.S. history scale scores for American Indian/Alaska Native students and for all students, by grade: 1994, 2001, and 2006

‡ Reporting standards not met.
NOTE: Scale score ranges from 0 to 500. The U.S. history data include students for whom accommodations were permitted. For a discussion of the U.S. history scale score definitions, see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ushistory/scale.asp. Total excludes race/ethnicity categories not separately shown. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1994, 2001, and 2006 U.S. History Assessments and NAEP Data Explorer, retrieved January 2008, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/.

In U.S. history, NAEP creates a single scale score ranging from 0 to 500. NAEP's history assessment is organized around three concepts or dimensions: major themes of U.S. history, chronological periods, and ways of knowing and thinking about U.S. history.

In 2006, American Indian/Alaska Native students in the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades scored lower, on average, than White and Asian/Pacific Islander 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-graders. No differences were observed among American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic students' scores on the NAEP history assessment in 2006. No differences were detected between 2001 and 2006 in the U.S. history scores for American Indian/Alaska Native students at the 8th- and 12th-grade levels. As with its other recent assessments, NAEP uses a series of achievement levels on the U.S. history assessment. Among American Indian/Alaska Native students in 2006, some 41 percent of 4thgraders, 43 percent of 8th-graders, and 32 percent of 12th-graders achieved at the "at or above basic" proficiency level in history. American Indians/ Alaska Natives in the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades had a lower percentage of students achieving at the "at or above basic" proficiency level in history than Whites and Asian/Pacific Islander, but the percentage was not measurably different from that of Blacks and Hispanics across grades. American Indians/Alaska Natives had a lower percentage of students at the "at or above proficient" level than their White and Asian/ Pacific Islander peers, but a percentage not different from that of Black and Hispanic students in the 4th and 12th grades.

View Table 4.5a

View Table 4.5b