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Digest of Education Statistics: 2011
Digest of Education Statistics: 2011

NCES 2012-001
May 2012


Table 126. Average reading scale score and standard deviation, by sex, race/ethnicity, percentile, and grade: Selected years, 1992 through 2011
Race/ethnicity, percentile, and grade 19921 19941 1998 2000 2002 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Total Male Female
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
  Average reading scale score2 
All students                                                
4th grade 217 (0.9) 214 (1.0) 215 (1.1) 213 (1.3) 219 (0.4) 218 (0.3) 219 (0.2) 221 (0.3) 221 (0.3) 221 (0.3) 218 (0.3) 225 (0.3)
8th grade 260 (0.9) 260 (0.8) 263 (0.8) (†) 264 (0.4) 263 (0.3) 262 (0.2) 263 (0.2) 264 (0.3) 265 (0.2) 261 (0.3) 270 (0.2)
12th grade 292 (0.6) 287 (0.7) 290 (0.6) (†) 287 (0.7) (†) 286 (0.6) (†) 288 (0.7) (†) (†) (†)
                                                 
Race/ethnicity                                                
4th grade                                                
White 224 (1.2) 224 (1.3) 225 (1.0) 224 (1.1) 229 (0.3) 229 (0.2) 229 (0.2) 231 (0.2) 230 (0.3) 231 (0.2) 228 (0.3) 234 (0.3)
Black 192 (1.7) 185 (1.8) 193 (1.9) 190 (1.8) 199 (0.5) 198 (0.4) 200 (0.3) 203 (0.4) 205 (0.5) 205 (0.5) 200 (0.5) 210 (0.6)
Hispanic 197 (2.6) 188 (3.4) 193 (3.2) 190 (2.9) 201 (1.3) 200 (0.6) 203 (0.5) 205 (0.5) 205 (0.5) 206 (0.5) 203 (0.7) 209 (0.6)
Asian/Pacific Islander 216 (2.9) 220 (3.8) 215 (5.6) 225 (5.2) 224 (1.6) 226 (1.2) 229 (0.7) 232 (1.0) 235 (1.0) 235 (1.2) 231 (1.3) 238 (1.6)
Asian (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) 236 (1.3) 233 (1.3) 239 (1.6)
Native Hawaiian/
      Pacific Islander
(†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) 216 (1.9) 213 (3.1) 219 (2.9)
American Indian/
     Alaska Native
(†) 211 (6.6) (†) 214 (6.0) 207 (2.0) 202 (1.4) 204 (1.3) 203 (1.2) 204 (1.3) 202 (1.3) 196 (1.9) 208 (1.6)
                                                 
8th grade                                                
White 267 (1.1) 267 (1.0) 270 (0.9) (†) 272 (0.4) 272 (0.2) 271 (0.2) 272 (0.2) 273 (0.2) 274 (0.2) 269 (0.3) 279 (0.3)
Black 237 (1.7) 236 (1.8) 244 (1.2) (†) 245 (0.7) 244 (0.5) 243 (0.4) 245 (0.4) 246 (0.4) 249 (0.5) 243 (0.6) 254 (0.5)
Hispanic 241 (1.6) 243 (1.2) 243 (1.7) (†) 247 (0.8) 245 (0.7) 246 (0.4) 247 (0.4) 249 (0.6) 252 (0.5) 249 (0.6) 256 (0.6)
Asian/Pacific Islander 268 (3.9) 265 (3.0) 264 (7.1) (†) 267 (1.7) 270 (1.1) 271 (0.8) 271 (1.1) 274 (1.1) 275 (1.0) 271 (1.0) 280 (1.3)
Asian (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) 277 (1.0) 273 (1.1) 282 (1.4)
Native Hawaiian/
      Pacific Islander
(†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) (†) 254 (2.2) 247 (2.8) 260 (3.2)
American Indian/
     Alaska Native
(†) 248 (4.7) (†) (†) 250 (3.5) 246 (3.0) 249 (1.4) 247 (1.2) 251 (1.2) 252 (1.2) 247 (1.6) 256 (1.8)
                                                 
12th grade                                                
White 297 (0.6) 293 (0.7) 297 (0.7) (†) 292 (0.7) (†) 293 (0.7) (†) 296 (0.6) (†) (†) (†)
Black 273 (1.4) 265 (1.6) 269 (1.4) (†) 267 (1.3) (†) 267 (1.2) (†) 269 (1.1) (†) (†) (†)
Hispanic 279 (2.7) 270 (1.7) 275 (1.5) (†) 273 (1.5) (†) 272 (1.2) (†) 274 (1.0) (†) (†) (†)
Asian/Pacific Islander 290 (3.2) 278 (2.4) 287 (2.7) (†) 286 (2.0) (†) 287 (1.9) (†) 298 (2.4) (†) (†) (†)
American Indian/
     Alaska Native
(†) 274 (5.8) (†) (†) (†) (†) 279 (6.3) (†) 283 (3.7) (†) (†) (†)
                                                 
Percentile3                                                 
4th grade                                                
10th 170 (1.9) 159 (1.5) 163 (2.1) 159 (2.3) 170 (0.9) 169 (0.5) 171 (0.4) 174 (0.4) 175 (0.5) 174 (0.4) 169 (0.5) 180 (0.4)
25th 194 (1.1) 189 (1.1) 191 (1.7) 189 (1.4) 196 (0.5) 195 (0.4) 196 (0.3) 199 (0.3) 199 (0.4) 200 (0.4) 196 (0.4) 203 (0.5)
50th 219 (1.3) 219 (1.3) 217 (1.3) 218 (1.7) 221 (0.5) 221 (0.3) 221 (0.2) 224 (0.3) 223 (0.3) 224 (0.3) 221 (0.5) 227 (0.4)
75th 242 (1.1) 243 (1.3) 242 (0.9) 243 (0.8) 244 (0.5) 244 (0.3) 244 (0.3) 246 (0.3) 245 (0.3) 246 (0.3) 243 (0.4) 248 (0.4)
90th 261 (1.4) 263 (1.7) 262 (0.9) 262 (1.4) 263 (0.4) 264 (0.3) 263 (0.3) 264 (0.4) 264 (0.3) 264 (0.4) 262 (0.3) 267 (0.5)
                                                 
8th grade                                                
10th 213 (1.2) 211 (1.9) 216 (1.7) (†) 220 (0.5) 217 (0.6) 216 (0.3) 217 (0.4) 219 (0.5) 221 (0.3) 215 (0.4) 227 (0.6)
25th 237 (1.1) 236 (1.1) 241 (0.7) (†) 244 (0.5) 242 (0.3) 240 (0.2) 242 (0.3) 243 (0.4) 244 (0.3) 240 (0.4) 249 (0.4)
50th 262 (1.1) 262 (0.7) 266 (0.7) (†) 267 (0.5) 266 (0.3) 265 (0.2) 265 (0.2) 267 (0.3) 267 (0.2) 263 (0.4) 271 (0.3)
75th 285 (0.8) 286 (1.1) 288 (1.0) (†) 288 (0.4) 288 (0.3) 286 (0.2) 287 (0.2) 288 (0.4) 289 (0.3) 284 (0.3) 293 (0.3)
90th 305 (1.3) 305 (1.2) 306 (0.8) (†) 305 (0.5) 306 (0.2) 305 (0.2) 305 (0.2) 305 (0.4) 307 (0.2) 302 (0.5) 311 (0.4)
                                                 
12th grade                                                
10th 249 (0.8) 239 (0.9) 240 (0.6) (†) 237 (1.5) (†) 235 (1.1) (†) 238 (0.8) (†) (†) (†)
25th 271 (0.8) 264 (0.9) 267 (0.8) (†) 263 (1.3) (†) 262 (0.8) (†) 264 (0.8) (†) (†) (†)
50th 294 (0.8) 290 (0.6) 293 (0.6) (†) 289 (0.7) (†) 288 (0.8) (†) 291 (0.7) (†) (†) (†)
75th 315 (0.5) 313 (0.8) 317 (0.7) (†) 312 (0.6) (†) 313 (1.1) (†) 315 (0.9) (†) (†) (†)
90th 333 (0.7) 332 (1.2) 336 (0.8) (†) 332 (0.9) (†) 333 (1.1) (†) 335 (0.9) (†) (†) (†)
  Standard deviation4  of the reading scale score
All students                                                
4th grade 36 (0.6) 41 (0.6) 39 (0.7) 42 (0.9) 36 (0.3) 37 (0.2) 36 (0.1) 36 (0.2) 35 (0.2) 36 (0.1) 37 (0.2) 35 (0.2)
8th grade 36 (0.3) 37 (0.4) 35 (0.5) (†) 34 (0.3) 35 (0.2) 35 (0.1) 35 (0.2) 34 (0.2) 34 (0.1) 35 (0.2) 33 (0.2)
12th grade 33 (0.4) 37 (0.5) 38 (0.4) (†) 37 (0.4) (†) 38 (0.4) (†) 38 (0.3) (†) (†) (†)
—Not available.            
†Not applicable.
‡Reporting standards not met (too few cases).
1 Accommodations were not permitted for this assessment.
2 Scale ranges from 0 to 500.
3 The percentile represents a specific point on the percentage distribution of all students ranked by their reading score from low to high. For example, 10 percent of students scored at or below the 10th percentile score, while 90 percent of students scored above it.
4 The standard deviation provides an indication of how much the test scores varied. The lower the standard deviation, the closer the scores were clustered around the average score. About two-thirds of the student scores can be expected to fall within the range of one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the average score. For example, the average score for all 4th-graders in 2011 was 221, and the standard deviation was 36. This means that we would expect about two-thirds of the students to have scores between 257 (one standard deviation above the average) and 185 (one standard deviation below). Standard errors also must be taken into account when making comparisons of these ranges. For a discussion of standard errors, see Appendix A: Guide to Sources.
NOTE: Includes public and private schools. For 1998 and later years, includes students tested with accommodations (1 to 10 percent of all students, depending on grade level and year); excludes only those students with disabilities and English language learners who were unable to be tested even with accommodations (2 to 6 percent of all students). Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011 Reading Assessments, retrieved November 1, 2011, from the Main NAEP Data Explorer (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/). (This table was prepared November 2011.)