Today the National Center for Education Statistics is releasing the findings from the Nation's Report Card: Writing 2002 the most recent report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The report presents data on the writing achievement of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students across the nation, and of 4th and 8th graders in participating states and jurisdictions.

Features of the Assessment
Content: The NAEP Writing Assessment identifies three purposes for writing-informative, narrative, and persuasive-and asks students to write essays, narratives, and letters on the basis of writing tasks appropriate to their grade. For example, as a persuasive writing task, 4th-graders were asked to imagine that their favorite book was missing from the school library and to write a letter to convince the school librarian to buy a new copy. Additional, more detailed examples are included in the report. To encourage students to edit their work, each student received a brochure on "How to Plan for Writing." Students were given space to plan and revise their writing. Trained raters scored student-writing responses.

Timeline: The 2002 Writing Assessment is the second national writing assessment in a series that began in 1998. The 2002 Writing Report Card has national data for 1998 and 2002 for all three grades. It has state-level data for the 4th grade in 2002 for the first time, and state-level data for the 8th grade in 1998 and 2002.

Sample Size: At the 4th grade, about 139,000 students in 5,500 schools were assessed, in 48 states and other jurisdictions. At the 8th grade, more than 118,500 students in 4,700 schools participated, in 47 states and other jurisdictions. At the 12th grade, participants included over 18,500 students in 700 schools, fewer students and schools because it is a national sample only.

Special Needs Students: In both 1998 and 2002, the NAEP writing assessment allowed accommodations for special needs students who required them to participate. Special needs students include both students with disabilities and limited English proficient students. Although most special needs students do not require accommodations to participate in NAEP, some cannot participate in NAEP even with accommodations.

In 2002, 19 percent of 4th graders, 17 percent of 8th graders, and 11 percent of 12th graders were identified as special needs students. Other NAEP assessments show a pattern of increasing numbers of special needs students, which can be observed in writing as well by comparing the 1998 and 2002 percentages. At each grade in both assessment years, a large majority of special needs students were assessed either with or without accommodations. In 2002, close to 75 percent of special needs students in all three grades participated in the assessment.

In individual states and other jurisdictions, the exclusion rates are sometimes higher and sometimes lower than the national average of 5 percent at 4th grade and 4 percent at 8th grade. The exclusion rates in individual states and other jurisdictions across the two grades range from 1 percent to 10 percent.

Results Reported from the Assessment
The NAEP Writing Assessment uses separate scales, ranging from 0 to 300, for each grade to display student performance. In 1998, the base year, the average score for each grade was, by definition, 150. The report includes overall scores for national subgroups and participating states and jurisdictions.

Results are also reported according to three achievement levels established by the National Assessment Governing Board. These levels Basic, Proficient, and Advanced are intended to describe what students should know and be able to do at each level. Basic represents partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade. Proficient represents solid academic performance, and Advanced represents superior performance.

Because NAEP scores are based on samples, there is a margin of error associated with each score. When comparisons are made between scores, or between the percentages of students at the various achievement levels, the differences must be tested to see if they are larger than the margin of error involved. On the NCES PowerPoint slides that accompany this document, an asterisk indicates a statistically significant difference from 2002.

National Scale Score Results Across Years
At the national level for 4th graders, average scores are up by 4 points in 2002 as compared to 1998. Scores for 8th graders also increased, by 3 points. The average score for 12th graders did not show a significant change.

Scale Score Percentiles
Changes in national percentile scores show where changes in the overall scores are occurring. The improvements in 4th-grade scores in 2002 as compared to 1998 occurred across all five percentiles. Among 8th graders, scores increased for students performing in the top half-those at the 90th, 75th, and 50th percentiles. Scores for 12th graders show an increase for top-performing students at the 90th percentile but declines among lower performers at the 25th and 10th percentiles.

Percentage of Students by Achievement Levels
Measuring student performance by achievement level shows the same pattern as average scale scores. The percentage of 4th graders who scored at or above Basic and at or above Proficient was higher in 2002 than in 1998. The percentage of 8th graders at or above Proficient in 2002 showed an increase while the percentage at or above Basic did not. For the 12th grade, the percentage at or above Basic declined from 1998 to 2002, while the percentage at or above Proficient did not show a change. All three grades showed an increase, albeit small, for the percentage at Advanced.