Skip Navigation
Digest of Education Statistics
2019 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 221.25. Average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scale score, by percentage of students in school eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, grade, and school locale: 2015 and 2019
[Standard errors appear in parentheses]
Grade and school
locale
Total Percent of students in school eligible for free or
reduced-price lunch1
0 to 25
percent
26 to 50
percent
51 to 75
percent
76 to 100
percent
1 2 3 4 5 6
Grade 4 (2019)                    
Total 220 (0.2) 240 (0.5) 227 (0.4) 217 (0.4) 206 (1.0)
City 215 (0.5) 241 (1.0) 230 (1.4) 216 (1.2) 204 (1.3)
Large 213 (0.7) 240 (1.8) 229 (2.7) 214 (2.2) 203 (1.1)
Midsize 216 (1.3) 243 (1.8) 232 (3.0) 218 (2.0) 207 (3.3)
Small 221 (1.2) 241 (1.6) 231 (2.0) 218 (1.6) 204 (3.4)

Suburban
226 (0.4) 241 (0.6) 229 (0.8) 218 (0.9) 206 (2.2)
Large 226 (0.5) 241 (0.7) 229 (0.9) 218 (0.9) 205 (2.3)
Midsize 222 (1.5) 236 (1.7) 226 (1.5) 219 (1.8) 211 (5.6)
Small 225 (1.7) 238 (1.9) 228 (2.5) 221 (4.1) 216 (3.2)

Town
217 (0.7) 232 (1.8) 224 (1.0) 215 (0.9) 209 (2.2)
Fringe 222 (1.0) 231 (2.7) 225 (1.9) 217 (1.7) 210 (3.3)
Distant 214 (1.4) 236 (2.9) 224 (1.7) 215 (1.2) 207 (4.0)
Remote 215 (0.9) 230 (4.3) 223 (1.3) 214 (1.6) 209 (2.2)

Rural
219 (0.6) 236 (1.2) 222 (1.0) 218 (0.9) 210 (2.6)
Fringe 221 (0.9) 238 (1.2) 223 (1.1) 218 (1.1) 210 (3.7)
Distant 217 (0.8) 228 (2.3) 220 (1.6) 220 (1.5) 210 (3.7)
Remote 213 (1.1) 226 (3.5) 224 (1.1) 215 (1.6) 215 (5.0)

Grade 8 (2019)
                   
Total 263 (0.3) 279 (0.5) 268 (0.6) 259 (0.6) 249 (0.9)
City 259 (0.7) 282 (1.3) 268 (1.1) 260 (1.4) 244 (1.5)
Large 257 (0.9) 284 (1.8) 269 (1.9) 261 (1.5) 245 (1.8)
Midsize 258 (1.6) 282 (2.9) 264 (2.9) 253 (4.6) 237 (3.5)
Small 264 (1.5) 279 (2.2) 271 (1.6) 263 (1.2) 248 (1.8)

Suburban
267 (0.4) 280 (0.6) 270 (1.1) 257 (1.2) 251 (1.1)
Large 268 (0.5) 280 (0.7) 270 (1.2) 257 (1.4) 251 (1.2)
Midsize 263 (1.1) 276 (1.5) 268 (1.4) 257 (1.8) (†)
Small 266 (1.4) 278 (4.2) 268 (1.9) 257 (2.9) (†)

Town
259 (0.8) 274 (1.8) 264 (1.2) 257 (1.4) 255 (3.5)
Fringe 262 (2.1) 276 (2.2) 264 (2.8) 256 (2.5) (†)
Distant 258 (1.0) 270 (2.5) 265 (1.4) 259 (1.9) 254 (8.1)
Remote 257 (1.4) 271 (4.9) 263 (0.9) 255 (2.2) 250 (2.6)

Rural
264 (0.5) 275 (1.1) 266 (0.8) 260 (0.8) 252 (1.9)
Fringe 266 (0.6) 276 (1.3) 267 (1.0) 261 (1.3) 252 (3.2)
Distant 262 (0.9) 275 (2.2) 265 (1.4) 258 (1.5) 253 (3.2)
Remote 258 (1.1) 264 (2.4) 264 (1.5) 261 (1.9) 248 (3.4)

Grade 12 (2015)2
                   
Total 287 (0.5) 298 (1.5) 289 (1.0) 282 (1.2) 266 (1.7)
City 284 (1.3) 299 (2.5) 293 (1.6) 280 (2.0) 261 (2.3)
Suburban 290 (0.9) 298 (2.2) 290 (1.8) 282 (1.9) 269 (3.7)
Town 287 (2.0) 308 (8.0) 286 (2.9) 289 (2.8) 272 (5.1)
Rural 287 (1.5) 294 (2.2) 286 (2.1) 281 (2.4) 271 (3.7)
†Not applicable.
‡Reporting standards not met (too few cases for a reliable estimate).
1 Nonresponse for this variable was greater than 15 percent but not greater than 50 percent.
2 Results for 2015 are shown because a NAEP Reading Assessment was not conducted at grade 12 in 2019. More detailed breakouts of school locale are not available at grade 12.
NOTE: Scale ranges from 0 to 500. Includes public, private, Bureau of Indian Education, and Department of Defense Education Activity schools. Includes students tested with accommodations (2 to 14 percent of all students, depending on grade); excludes only those students with disabilities and English language learners who were unable to be tested even with accommodations (2 percent of all students at all grades).
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2015 and 2019 Reading Assessments, retrieved November 8, 2019, from the Main NAEP Data Explorer (https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/). (This table was prepared November 2019.)

2019 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest