Digest of Education Statistics: 2005
Digest of Education Statistics: 2005

NCES 2006-030
June 2006


Table 119. Percentage of students at or above selected mathematics proficiency levels, by age, sex, and race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1978 through 2004
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
           |                  9-year-olds\1\            |                  13-year-olds\2\           |                  17-year-olds\2\
           |____________________________________________|____________________________________________|_____________________________________________
           |          |           | Numerical|Moderately|           | Numerical|Moderately|          |           | Numerical|Moderately|
           |          |           |operations|   complex|           |operations|   complex|Multi-step|           |operations|   complex|
           |          |  Beginning|       and|procedures|  Beginning|       and|procedures|   problem|  Beginning|       and|procedures|Multi-step
Selected   |    Simple| skills and| beginning|       and| skills and| beginning|       and|   solving| skills and| beginning|       and|   problem
character- |arithmetic|understand-|   problem|   reason-|understand-|   problem|   reason-|       and|understand-|   problem|   reason-|solving and
istic      |  facts\3\|     ing\4\|solving\5\|    ing\6\|     ing\4\|solving\5\|    ing\6\|algebra\7\|     ing\4\|solving\5\|    ing\6\| algebra\7\
___________|__________|___________|__________|__________|___________|__________|__________|__________|___________|__________|__________|___________
1          |        2 |         3 |        4 |        5 |         6 |         7|        8 |        9 |        10 |       11 |       12 |        13
___________|__________|___________|__________|__________|___________|__________|__________|__________|___________|__________|__________|___________
Total      |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
1978 ......| 96.7(0.3)|  70.4(0.9)| 19.6(0.7)|  0.8(0.1)|  94.6(0.5)| 64.9(1.2)| 18.0(0.7)|  1.0(0.2)|  99.8(0.1)| 92.0(0.5)| 51.5(1.1)|  7.3 (0.4)
1982 ......| 97.1(0.3)|  71.4(1.2)| 18.8(1.0)|  0.6(0.1)|  97.7(0.4)| 71.4(1.2)| 17.4(0.9)|  0.5(0.1)|  99.9 (‡) | 93.0(0.5)| 48.5(1.3)|  5.5 (0.4)
1986 ......| 97.9(0.3)|  74.1(1.2)| 20.7(0.9)|  0.6(0.2)|  98.6(0.2)| 73.3(1.6)| 15.8(1.0)|  0.4(0.1)|  99.9 (‡) | 95.6(0.5)| 51.7(1.4)|  6.5 (0.5)
1990 ......| 99.1(0.2)|  81.5(1.0)| 27.7(0.9)|  1.2(0.3)|  98.5(0.2)| 74.7(1.0)| 17.3(1.0)|  0.4(0.1)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.0(0.5)| 56.1(1.4)|  7.2 (0.6)
1992 ......| 99.0(0.2)|  81.4(0.8)| 27.8(0.9)|  1.2(0.3)|  98.7(0.3)| 77.9(1.1)| 18.9(1.0)|  0.4(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.6(0.5)| 59.1(1.3)|  7.2 (0.6)
1994 ......| 99.0(0.2)|  82.0(0.7)| 29.9(1.1)|  1.3(0.4)|  98.5(0.3)| 78.1(1.1)| 21.3(1.4)|  0.6(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.5(0.5)| 58.6(1.4)|  7.4 (0.8)
1996 ......| 99.1(0.2)|  81.5(0.8)| 29.7(1.0)|  1.6(0.3)|  98.8(0.2)| 78.6(0.9)| 20.6(1.2)|  0.6(0.1)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.8(0.4)| 60.1(1.7)|  7.4 (0.8)
1999 ......| 98.9(0.2)|  82.5(0.8)| 30.9(1.1)|  1.7(0.3)|  98.7(0.2)| 78.8(1.0)| 23.2(1.0)|  0.9(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.8(0.5)| 60.7(1.6)|  8.4 (0.8)
2004 ......| 99.3(0.1)|  88.6(0.8)| 41.9(1.2)| ---  (†) |  98.6(0.2)| 83.5(1.0)| 29.0(1.1)| ---  (†) |  ---  (†) | 96.7(0.4)| 58.6(1.3)|  6.9 (0.6)
           |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
Male       |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
1978 ......| 96.2(0.5)|  68.9(1.0)| 19.2(0.6)|  0.7(0.2)|  93.9(0.5)| 63.9(1.3)| 18.4(0.9)|  1.1(0.2)|  99.9(0.1)| 93.0(0.5)| 55.1(1.2)|  9.5 (0.6)
1982 ......| 96.5(0.5)|  68.8(1.3)| 18.1(1.1)|  0.6(0.1)|  97.5(0.6)| 71.3(1.4)| 18.9(1.2)|  0.7(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 93.9(0.6)| 51.9(1.5)|  6.9 (0.7)
1986 ......| 98.0(0.5)|  74.0(1.4)| 20.9(1.1)|  0.7(0.3)|  98.5(0.3)| 73.8(1.8)| 17.6(1.1)|  0.5(0.2)|  99.9 (‡) | 96.1(0.6)| 54.6(1.8)|  8.4 (0.9)
1990 ......| 99.0(0.3)|  80.6(1.0)| 27.5(1.0)|  1.3(0.4)|  98.2(0.3)| 75.1(1.8)| 19.0(1.2)|  0.5(0.2)|  99.9 (‡) | 95.8(0.8)| 57.6(1.4)|  8.8 (0.8)
1992 ......| 99.0(0.3)|  81.9(1.0)| 29.4(1.2)|  1.4(0.3)|  98.8(0.4)| 78.1(1.6)| 20.7(1.1)|  0.5(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.9(0.6)| 60.5(1.8)|  9.1 (0.7)
1994 ......| 99.1(0.3)|  82.3(0.9)| 31.5(1.6)|  1.4(0.4)|  98.3(0.4)| 78.9(1.5)| 23.9(1.6)|  0.8(0.3)| 100.0 (‡) | 97.3(0.6)| 60.2(2.1)|  9.3 (1.0)
1996 ......| 99.1(0.2)|  82.5(1.1)| 32.7(1.7)|  2.0(0.5)|  98.7(0.3)| 79.8(1.4)| 23.0(1.6)|  0.8(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 97.0(0.7)| 62.7(1.8)|  9.5 (1.3)
1999 ......| 98.8(0.3)|  82.6(0.9)| 32.4(1.3)|  1.9(0.4)|  98.5(0.3)| 79.3(1.1)| 25.4(1.2)|  1.2(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.5(0.8)| 63.1(2.1)|  9.8 (1.1)
2004 ......| 99.3(0.2)|  89.3(0.9)| 43.5(1.2)| ---  (†) |  98.3(0.3)| 82.8(1.2)| 32.6(1.6)| ---  (†) |  ---  (†) | 96.6(0.6)| 60.6(1.6)|  8.8 (1.0)
           |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
Female     |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
1978 ......| 97.2(0.3)|  72.0(1.1)| 19.9(1.0)|  0.8(0.2)|  95.2(0.5)| 65.9(1.2)| 17.5(0.7)|  0.9(0.2)|  99.7(0.1)| 91.0(0.6)| 48.2(1.3)|  5.2 (0.7)
1982 ......| 97.6(0.3)|  74.0(1.3)| 19.6(1.1)|  0.5(0.1)|  98.0(0.3)| 71.4(1.3)| 15.9(1.0)|  0.4(0.2)|  99.9 (‡) | 92.1(0.6)| 45.3(1.4)|  4.1 (0.4)
1986 ......| 97.8(0.4)|  74.3(1.3)| 20.6(1.3)|  0.6(0.3)|  98.6(0.3)| 72.7(1.9)| 14.1(1.3)|  0.3(0.1)| 100.0 (‡) | 95.1(0.7)| 48.9(1.7)|  4.7 (0.6)
1990 ......| 99.1(0.3)|  82.3(1.3)| 27.9(1.3)|  1.0(0.3)|  98.9(0.2)| 74.4(1.3)| 15.7(1.0)|  0.2(0.1)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.2(0.8)| 54.7(1.8)|  5.6 (0.8)
1992 ......| 99.0(0.3)|  80.9(1.1)| 26.3(1.5)|  1.0(0.4)|  98.6(0.2)| 77.7(1.1)| 17.2(1.4)|  0.3 (‡) | 100.0 (‡) | 96.3(0.8)| 57.7(1.6)|  5.2 (0.8)
1994 ......| 98.9(0.3)|  81.7(0.9)| 28.3(1.3)|  1.1(0.4)|  98.7(0.3)| 77.3(1.0)| 18.7(1.4)|  0.5(0.3)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.0(0.6)| 57.2(1.4)|  5.5 (0.9)
1996 ......| 99.1(0.4)|  80.7(0.9)| 26.7(1.1)|  1.2(0.4)|  98.8(0.3)| 77.4(1.1)| 18.4(1.5)|  0.5(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.7(0.6)| 57.6(2.2)|  5.3 (0.8)
1999 ......| 99.0(0.2)|  82.5(1.2)| 29.4(1.4)|  1.6(0.4)|  99.0(0.4)| 78.4(1.2)| 21.0(1.4)|  0.6(0.3)| 100.0 (‡) | 97.2(0.4)| 58.5(1.9)|  7.1 (1.1)
2004 ......| 99.3(0.2)|  87.9(1.0)| 40.3(1.5)| ---  (†) |  98.8(0.3)| 84.1(1.1)| 25.6(1.1)| ---  (†) |  ---  (†) | 96.8(0.5)| 56.7(1.6)|  5.1 (0.6)
           |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
White,     |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
   non-His-|          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
   panic   |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
1978 ......| 98.3(0.2)|  76.3(1.0)| 22.9(0.9)|  0.9(0.2)|  97.6(0.3)| 72.9(0.9)| 21.4(0.7)|  1.2(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 95.6(0.3)| 57.6(1.1)|  8.5 (0.5)
1982 ......| 98.5(0.3)|  76.8(1.2)| 21.8(1.1)|  0.6(0.1)|  99.1(0.1)| 78.3(0.9)| 20.5(1.0)|  0.6(0.1)| 100.0 (‡) | 96.2(0.3)| 54.7(1.4)|  6.4 (0.5)
1986 ......| 98.8(0.2)|  79.6(1.3)| 24.6(1.0)|  0.8(0.3)|  99.3(0.3)| 78.9(1.7)| 18.6(1.2)|  0.4(0.1)| 100.0 (‡) | 98.0(0.4)| 59.1(1.7)|  7.9 (0.7)
1990 ......| 99.6(0.2)|  86.9(0.9)| 32.7(1.0)|  1.5(0.4)|  99.4(0.1)| 82.0(1.0)| 21.0(1.2)|  0.4(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 97.6(0.3)| 63.2(1.6)|  8.3 (0.7)
1992 ......| 99.6(0.1)|  86.9(0.7)| 32.4(1.0)|  1.4(0.3)|  99.6(0.2)| 84.9(1.1)| 22.8(1.3)|  0.4(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 98.3(0.4)| 66.4(1.4)|  8.7 (0.9)
1994 ......| 99.6(0.2)|  87.0(0.8)| 35.3(1.3)|  1.5(0.4)|  99.3(0.2)| 85.5(0.9)| 25.6(1.6)|  0.7(0.3)| 100.0 (‡) | 98.4(0.4)| 67.0(1.4)|  9.4 (1.1)
1996 ......| 99.6(0.1)|  86.6(0.8)| 35.7(1.4)|  2.0(0.4)|  99.6(0.2)| 86.4(1.0)| 25.4(1.5)|  0.8(0.2)| 100.0 (‡) | 98.7(0.4)| 68.7(2.2)|  9.2 (1.0)
1999 ......| 99.6(0.1)|  88.6(0.8)| 37.1(1.4)|  2.2(0.4)|  99.4(0.3)| 86.7(0.9)| 29.0(1.3)|  1.2(0.3)| 100.0 (‡) | 98.7(0.4)| 69.9(2.0)| 10.4 (1.1)
2004 ......| 99.7(0.1)|  92.6(0.6)| 49.0(1.4)| ---  (†) |  99.1(0.2)| 90.5(0.8)| 36.0(1.3)| ---  (†) |  ---  (†) | 98.4(0.4)| 69.0(1.3)|  8.5 (0.8)
           |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
Black,     |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
   non-His-|          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
   panic   |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
1978 ......| 88.4(1.0)|  42.0(1.4)|  4.1(0.6)|   #  (†) |  79.7(1.5)| 28.7(2.1)|  2.3(0.5)|   #  (†) |  98.8(0.3)| 70.7(1.7)| 16.8(1.6)|   #   (†)
1982 ......| 90.2(1.0)|  46.1(2.4)|  4.4(0.8)|   #  (†) |  90.2(1.6)| 37.9(2.5)|  2.9(1.0)|   #  (†) |  99.7(0.2)| 76.4(1.5)| 17.1(1.5)|   #   (†)
1986 ......| 93.9(1.4)|  53.4(2.5)|  5.6(0.9)|   #  (†) |  95.4(0.9)| 49.0(3.7)|  4.0(1.4)|   #  (†) | 100.0 (‡) | 85.6(2.5)| 20.8(2.8)|   #   (†)
1990 ......| 96.9(0.9)|  60.0(2.8)|  9.4(1.7)|   #  (†) |  95.4(1.1)| 48.7(3.6)|  3.9(1.6)|   #  (†) |  99.9 (‡) | 92.4(2.2)| 32.8(4.5)|  2.0 (1.0)
1992 ......| 96.6(1.1)|  59.8(2.8)|  9.6(1.4)|   #  (†) |  95.0(1.4)| 51.0(2.7)|  4.0(0.7)|   #  (†) | 100.0 (‡) | 89.6(2.5)| 29.8(3.9)|  0.9  (‡)
1994 ......| 97.4(1.0)|  65.9(2.6)| 11.1(1.7)|   #  (†) |  95.6(1.6)| 51.0(3.9)|  6.4(2.4)|   #  (†) | 100.0 (‡) | 90.6(1.8)| 29.8(3.4)|   #   (†)
1996 ......| 97.3(0.8)|  65.3(2.4)| 10.0(1.2)|   #  (†) |  96.2(1.3)| 53.7(2.6)|  4.8(1.1)|   #  (†) | 100.0 (‡) | 90.6(1.3)| 31.2(2.5)|  0.9  (‡)
1999 ......| 96.4(0.6)|  63.3(2.1)| 12.3(1.5)|   #  (†) |  96.5(1.1)| 50.8(4.0)|  4.4(1.4)|   #  (†) |  99.9 (‡) | 88.6(2.0)| 26.6(2.7)|  1.0  (‡)
2004 ......| 97.6(0.7)|  77.0(2.4)| 23.6(2.0)| ---  (†) |  97.2(0.6)| 67.2(2.2)|  9.0(1.1)| ---  (†) |  ---  (†) | 91.7(1.9)| 26.0(2.6)|  0.9 (0.5)
           |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
Hispanic   |          |           |          |          |           |          |          |          |           |          |          |
1978 ......| 93.0(1.2)|  54.2(2.8)|  9.2(2.5)|   #  (†) |  86.4(0.9)| 36.0(2.9)|  4.0(1.0)|   #  (†) |  99.3(0.4)| 78.3(2.3)| 23.4(2.7)|  1.4 (0.6)
1982 ......| 94.3(1.2)|  55.7(2.3)|  7.8(1.7)|   #  (†) |  95.9(0.9)| 52.2(2.5)|  6.3(1.0)|   #  (†) |  99.8 (‡) | 81.4(1.9)| 21.6(2.2)|  0.7 (0.4)
1986 ......| 96.4(1.3)|  57.6(2.9)|  7.3(2.8)|   #  (†) |  96.9(1.4)| 56.0(5.0)|  5.5(1.1)|   #  (†) |  99.4 (‡) | 89.3(2.5)| 26.5(4.5)|  1.1  (‡)
1990 ......| 98.0(0.8)|  68.4(3.0)| 11.3(3.5)|   #  (†) |  96.8(1.1)| 56.7(3.3)|  6.4(1.7)|   #  (†) |  99.6 (‡) | 85.8(4.2)| 30.1(3.1)|  1.9 (0.8)
1992 ......| 97.2(1.3)|  65.0(2.9)| 11.7(2.5)|   #  (†) |  98.1(0.7)| 63.3(2.7)|  7.0(1.2)|   #  (†) | 100.0 (‡) | 94.1(2.2)| 39.2(4.9)|  1.2  (‡)
1994 ......| 97.2(1.2)|  63.5(3.1)|  9.7(1.8)|   #  (†) |  97.1(1.3)| 59.2(2.2)|  6.4(1.8)|   #  (†) | 100.0 (‡) | 91.8(3.6)| 38.3(5.5)|  1.4  (‡)
1996 ......| 98.1(0.7)|  67.1(2.1)| 13.8(2.3)|   #  (†) |  96.2(0.8)| 58.3(2.3)|  6.7(1.2)|   #  (†) |  99.9 (‡) | 92.2(2.2)| 40.1(3.5)|  1.8  (‡)
1999 ......| 98.1(0.7)|  67.5(2.5)| 10.5(1.6)|   #  (†) |  97.2(0.6)| 62.9(2.5)|  8.2(1.4)|   #  (†) |  99.9 (‡) | 93.6(2.2)| 37.7(4.1)|  3.1 (1.1)
2004 ......| 99.6(0.2)|  82.6(2.4)| 26.9(2.7)| ---  (†) |  97.3(0.8)| 68.4(3.3)| 14.3(1.8)| ---  (†) |  ---  (†) | 92.1(2.1)| 32.3(2.1)|  1.3 (0.5)
___________|__________|___________|__________|__________|___________|__________|__________|__________|___________|__________|__________|___________
---Not available.
†Not applicable.
#Rounds to zero.
‡Reporting standards not met.
\1\Virtually no students were able to perform multistep problems and algebra.
\2\Virtually all students knew simple arithmetic facts.
\3\Scale score of 150 or above.
\4\Scale score of 200 or above.
\5\Scale score of 250 or above.
\6\Scale score of 300 or above.
\7\Scale score of 350 or above.
NOTE: Excludes persons not enrolled in school and those who were unable to be tested due to limited proficiency in English or due to a disability. Includes public and private schools. Totals include other racial/ethnic groups not shown separately. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1999 NAEP Trends in Academic Progress; and unpublished tabulations, NAEP Data Explorer (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/), retrieved July 2005. (This table was prepared February 2006.)