The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2011

November 2011

Author: National Center for Education Statistics

Download The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2011 PDF for viewing and printing (29895K PDF)

---

Executive Summary

Students’ reading comprehension unchanged from 2009 at grade 4, and improves at grade 8

Higher percentage of eighth-graders perform at or above Proficient than in 2009

Examples of knowledge and skills demonstrated by students performing at each achievement level

Scores in 12 states higher than in 2009 at grade 4 or 8 and lower in 2 states

Score gaps narrow in some states

Nationally representative samples of 213,100 fourth-graders and 168,200 eighth-graders participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading. At each grade, students responded to questions designed to measure their reading comprehension across two types of texts: literary and informational.

Students’ reading comprehension unchanged from 2009 at grade 4, and improves at grade 8

At grade 4, the average reading score in 2011 was unchanged from 2009 but 4 points higher than in 1992.

• Scores were higher in 2011 than in 2009 for students from both higher-income families (i.e., students not eligible for the National School Lunch Program) and lower-income families (i.e., students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch).

At grade 8, the average reading score in 2011 was 1 point higher than in 2009, and 5 points higher than in 1992.

• Scores were higher in 2011 than in 2009 for White, Black, and Hispanic students but did not change significantly for Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian/Alaska Native students. While the White – Hispanic score gap was smaller in 2011 than in 2009, there was no significant change in the White – Black gap over the same period.

Trend in fourth- and eighth-grade NAEP reading average scores

* Significantly different (p < .05) from 2011.
See complete data for grade 4 and grade 8.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), various years, 1992-2011 Reading Assessments.

Back to Top

Higher percentage of eighth-graders perform at or above Proficient than in 2009

At grade 4, the percentages of students performing at or above Basic, at or above Proficient, or at Advanced did not change significantly from 2009 to 2011 but were higher in 2011 than in 1992.

Trend in fourth-grade NAEP reading achievement-level results

* Significantly different (p < .05) from 2011.
See complete data for grade 4.

At grade 8, the percentage of students performing at or above the Proficient level in 2011 was higher than in 2009 and 1992. The percentage of students at Advanced in 2011 (3.4) was higher than in 2009 (2.8). The percentage of students at or above Basic did not change significantly from 2009 to 2011 but was higher in 2011 than in 1992.

Trend in eighth-grade NAEP reading achievement-level results

* Significantly different (p < .05) from 2011.
See complete data for grade 8.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), various years, 1992–2011 Reading Assessments.

Back to Top

Examples of knowledge and skills demonstrated by students performing at each achievement level

Basic Interpret a character’s statement to describe a character trait (grade 4). Recognize the main purpose of an informative article (grade 8).

Proficient Recognize the main problem that the character faces in a story (grade 4). Recognize the main purpose of an informative article (grade 8).

Advanced Use story events to support an opinion about story type (grade 4). Form an opinion about a central issue in argument text and support with references (grade 8).

Back to Top

Scores in 12 states higher than in 2009 at grade 4 or 8 and lower in 2 states

Changes in average reading scores for public school students from 2009 to 2011

	Both grades	Grade 4 only	Grade 8 only
Higher	Hawaii Maryland	Alabama Massachusetts	Colorado Connecticut Idaho Michigan Montana Nevada North Carolina Rhode Island
Lower	No states	Missouri South Dakota	No states
Scores were not significantly different from 2009 at either grade in 38 states and jurisdictions.

Back to Top

Score gaps narrow in some states

At grade 4

Score gaps between higher- and lower-income students narrowed from 2003 to 2011 in four states. The states were Arizona, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Score gaps between higher- and lower-income students widened from 2003 to 2011 in seven states/jurisdictions. These states were Colorado, District of Columbia, Maine, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.

At grade 8

White – Black score gaps narrowed from 1998 to 2011 in 1 of 31 participating states with samples large enough to report results for both student groups. The state was Delaware.	White – Hispanic score gaps narrowed from 1998 to 2011 in 2 of 22 participating states with samples large enough to report results for both student groups. These states were California and Oregon.
Racial/ethnic gaps did not widen from 1998 to 2011 in any of the states that participated in both years.

Note: In NAEP, lower-income students are students identified as eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Higher-income students are not eligible for NSLP.

Back to Top

---

Download the complete report in a PDF file for viewing and printing:

The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2011 report PDF (29895K PDF)

NCES 2012-457  Ordering information


Suggested Citation
National Center for Education Statistics (2011). The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2011  (NCES 2012–457). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.

For more information, see the results of the 2011 Reading assessment on the Nation's Report Card website.

Back to Top