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Youth Indicators 1996 / Indicator 33


Indicator 33. Reading Proficiency


Student proficiency in reading, by age and selected characteristics of students: 1971 to 1992

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          |      9-year-olds      |     13-year-olds      |   17-year-olds\1\
Selected characteristics  |-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------
       of students        |1971 |1980 |1990 |1992 |1971 |1980 |1990 |1992 |1971 |1980 |1990 |1992
--------------------------|-----|-----|-----| ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----
  Total ..................  208   215   209   211   255   259   257   260   285   286   290   290

Sex
  Male ...................  201   210   204   206   250   254   251   254   279   282   284   284
  Female .................  214   220   215   215   261   263   263   265   291   289   297   296

Race/ethnicity
  White ..................  214   221   217   218   261   264   262   266   291   293   297   297
  Black ..................  170   189   182   185   222   233   242   238   239   243   267   261
  Hispanic ............... (\2\)  190   189   192  (\2\)  237   238   239  (\2\)  261   275   271

Parental education (as reported by students\3\)
  Not high school graduate  189   194   193   195   238   239   241   239   261   262   270   271
  Graduated high school ..  208   213   209   207   256   254   251   252   283   278   283   281
  Post high school .......  224   226   218   220   270   271   267   270   302   299   300   299

Reading materials in the
 home/4/
  Less than 2 items.......  186   ---   196   197   227   ---   240   241   246   ---   271   269
  3 items.................  208   ---   211   214   249   ---   255   256   274   ---   286   286
  4 items.................  223   ---   226   224   267   ---   266   271   296   ---   299   299

Control of school
  Public .................  ---   214   208   209   ---   257   255   257   ---   284   289   288
  Private ................  ---   227   228   225   ---   271   270   276   ---   298   311   310
-------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------

-Data not available.

/1/ All participants of this age were in school.

/2/ Test scores of Hispanics were not tabulated separately.

/3/ A quarter to a third of the 9-year-olds did not know their parents' education level.

/4/ The four items in the scale were: newspapers, magazines, more than 25 books, and an encyclopedia in the home.

NOTE: The NAEP scores range from 0 to 500, but have been evaluated at certain performance levels. A score of 300 implies an ability to find, understand, summarize, and explain relatively complicated literary and informational mate-rial. A score of 250 implies an ability to search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations about rather lengthy literature, science, and social studies materials. A score of 200 implies an ability to understand, combine ideas, and make inferences based on short uncomplicated passages about specific or sequentially related information. A score of 150 implies an ability to follow written directions and select phrases to describe simple pictures.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, Trends in Academic Progress; and NAEP 1992 Trends in Academic Progress.

Indicator chart and text.


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