NCES Quarterly, Winter 2001: Assessing the Best: NAEP’s 1996 Assessment of Twelfth-Graders Taking Advanced Science Courses

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Vol 3, Issue 4, Topic: Elementary and Secondary Education

Assessing the Best: NAEP’s 1996 Assessment of Twelfth-Graders Taking Advanced Science Courses

By: Christine Y. O’Sullivan and Wendy S. Grigg

This article was originally published as the Highlights of the Statistical Analysis Report of the same name. The sample survey data are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1996 Science Assessment.

Introduction
Highlights

Introduction

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the nation’s only ongoing survey of what students know and can do in various subject areas. Authorized by Congress and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the U.S. Department of Education, NAEP regularly reports to the public on the educational progress of students in grades 4, 8, and 12.

In addition to the main NAEP science assessment that was conducted at all three grade levels in 1996, a special study was done that focused on 12th-grade students taking advanced science courses in biology, chemistry, or physics during the 1995-96 school year. The purpose of the study was to assess what the top science students in the country know and can do in these subject areas.

The results of the study are presented in this report, which includes information on the science courses students reported taking, their overall performance on the advanced science study, and performance results for selected questions. Students’ overall performance on the advanced science study is reported using two scales, a biology scale and a chemistry/physics scale.* Wherever possible, information is also provided for students who participated in the 1996 main NAEP science assessment, including data for the subgroup of students who were not enrolled in advanced science courses.

Highlights

The following are some of the major findings from this study.

Science coursetaking

An estimated 23 percent of all 12th-grade students were taking advanced science courses in the 1995-96 school year.
Sixty-nine percent of students in the advanced science study and 23 percent of the students from the main NAEP assessment who were not enrolled in an advanced science course reported taking seven or more semesters of science.
Female students who participated in the advanced science study were more likely than males to go beyond 1 year of coursework in biology.
More than two-thirds of the students who participated in the advanced science study reported taking 1 or more years of biology (98 percent), chemistry (94 percent), or physics (70 percent). While a similar proportion of students who were not taking an advanced science course reported taking 1 or more years of biology (92 percent), there were fewer students taking 1 or more years of chemistry or physics (60 percent and 23 percent, respectively).

Performance on the advanced science study

Males outperformed females on questions that measured students’ knowledge of chemistry and physics (table A).
White students and Asian/Pacific Islander students had higher scale scores than Black students and Hispanic students for chemistry/physics and biology (tables A and B).
The average scale scores of students who attended public and nonpublic schools were about the same.

Performance on questions common to the advanced science study and the main assessment

Students in the advanced science study were more likely than students in the main NAEP science assessment to respond correctly to the set of common questions administered to both groups. The difference in scores on common questions between the advanced study and the main NAEP assessment ranged from 2 to 19 percentage points (table C).
In general, constructed-response questions in the advanced science study were more difficult than multiple-choice questions and tended to have a higher percentage of omits than multiple-choice questions. This was also true for the main NAEP assessment.

Footnote

*The results for chemistry and physics were combined into a single scale in order to be consistent with the main NAEP science assessment, in which similar questions were grouped together under the broad domain of “physical science.”

Data source: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1996 Science Assessment.

For technical information, see the complete report:

O’Sullivan, C.Y., and Grigg, W.S. (2001). Assessing the Best: NAEP’s 1996 Assessment of Twelfth-Graders Taking Advanced Science Courses (NCES 2001–451).

Author affiliations: C.Y. O’Sullivan and W.S. Grigg, Educational Testing Service.

For questions about content, contact Holly Spurlock (holly.spurlock@ed.gov).

To obtain the complete report (NCES 2001-451), call the toll-free ED Pubs number (877-433-7827), visit the NCES Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov), or contact GPO (202-512-1800).

Table A.—Chemistry/physics advanced science study scale scores, by gender, race/ethnicity, and type of school: 1996
Table A.- Chemistry/physics advanced science study scale scores, by gender, race/ethnicity, and type of school: 1996

NOTE: Average scores are based on a scale that ranges from 0 to 300.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1996 Science Assessment. (Originally published as table 2.7 on p. 13 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table B.—Biology advanced science study scale scores, by gender, race/ethnicity, and type of school: 1996
Table B.- Biology advanced science study scale scores, by gender, race/ethnicity, and type of school: 1996

NOTE: Average scores are based on a scale that ranges from 0 to 300.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1996 Science Assessment. (Originally published as table 2.6 on p. 13 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table C.—Percentage correct on common items for students in the advanced science study and main NAEP: 1996
Table C.- Percentage correct on common items for students in the advanced science study and main NAEP: 1996

¹mc = multiple-choice, scr = short constructed-response, ecr = extended constructed-response

²Question score obtained by students who participated in the advanced science study.

³Question score obtained by all students who took part in the main NAEP science assessment.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1996 Science Assessment. (Originally published as table 3.13 on p. 42 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)