“We must do better,” said IRA President Timothy Shanahan
Overall, results of the latest national achievement tests in reading for high school students were disappointing to literacy experts, educators, and government officials. The report released February 22, 2006, by the National Assessment of Educational Progress details results from 2005, the most recent year during which students were tested.
International Reading Association president Timothy Shanahan noted that “the latest 12th-grade reading scores are troubling. Particularly distressing are the results for boys and language-minority students. They are definitely going in the wrong direction, and reveal why enhanced primary-grade reading instruction is insufficient.”
To remedy the situation, IRA has been meeting regularly since 2005 with the U.S. Department of Education, education associations and members of Congress to promote the Striving Readers Initiative. The program funds research on reading interventions for middle and high school students, and seeks to develop classroom-based strategies including professional development for subject matter teachers, while at the same time including rigorous experimental evaluation in any component of the initiative.
According to The Nation’s Report Card: 12th-Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005, 12th graders scored lower in reading assessments than in 1992, though not significantly different than in 2002. At grade 12, students identified as English language learners (ELLs) basically flat-lined: Their average scores were not significantly different from those in 2002 or 1998. Both boys’ and girls’ scores have declined in comparison to 1992, but the performance gap between the genders widened, with female students outscoring male students. The report charts test results from 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2005 for reading and 2005 for math.
Students who are tested are statistically representative of all 12th-grade students across the United States. More than 21,000 students in grade 12 from 900 schools (including public, private, and Department of Defense schools) participate in the testing—12,000 in reading and 9,000 in math. The results are broken down for the nation as a whole and by region: Northeast, South, Midwest, and West.
Average scores by region in 2005 show a higher score for students in the Midwest than in the Northeast, but both regions scored higher than students in the South and West.
Results of testing were further categorized as percentages of students performing at or above three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. Basic denotes “partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at a given grade,” according to the report. Proficient translates into demonstrating competency in challenging subject matter and Advanced means superior performance.
Again, the news was not good: Except for the highest-performing students (90th percentile), declines were seen at all levels of performance since 1992. Further, the percentage of students performing at or above Basic level decreased from 80 in 1992 to 73 in 2005, and the percentage of students performing at or above the Proficient level decreased from 40 to 35.
“We must do better,” Shanahan said. “America needs ambitious efforts to improve reading achievement from birth through high school, and that includes families and schools.”
Family members’ educational level can exert influence on reading achievement. More students are reporting that at least one parent graduated from college. In general, higher levels of parental education mean higher scores for their children on the NAEP assessment, but in 2005 average reading scores were still lower—regardless of the level of parental education reported.
The content of reading material used to test students includes reading for literary experience, reading for information, and reading to perform a task. Scores declined in all three reading contexts: a 2-point decrease in reading for information, a 6-point decrease in reading to perform a task and a 12-point decrease in reading for literary experience.
There is more bad news.
Despite efforts undertaken to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the goal of eliminating the achievement gap between racial and ethnic minorities is proving elusive. The score gaps between white and black students and white and Hispanic students are relatively unchanged since 1992. And what statistically significant reading performance change did occur was not a positive one: White and black students actually scored lower in 2005 than in 1992.
A side note is that since the first reading assessment was administered in 1992, the proportion of white students in the population has dropped, from 74% in 1992 to 67% in 2005. The percentage of Hispanic students in the same period increased from 7 to 14.
The NAEP also tested 12th graders in math, but for 2005, a new mathematics framework was adopted to reflect changes in high school standards and coursework. The changes do not allow for ready comparisons with earlier testing. Number properties and operations, measurement and geometry, data analysis and probability, and algebra form the core framework of the revised test. Basic, Proficient, and Advanced levels also are used based on cutoff scores.
Though the NAEP does not correlate reading and math achievement, common sense dictates that reading proficiency is a necessary component of student achievement in math. The content tested in the reading assessment includes two skills that can translate to success in math: reading for information and reading to perform a task. Reading across the curriculum, therefore, is necessary for scholastic success and success in life.
“Teachers of all subjects simply must be better prepared to address the literacy demands of their subject matter,” Shanahan said. “An inability to read well harms the individual because of the huge opportunity costs he or she must bear throughout life; and it is harmful to all of us, because it undermines our national productivity and thwarts the dream of a full-participation society.”
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a congressionally mandated project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The National Center for Education Statistics, a department within the Institute of Education Sciences, administers NAEP. The Commissioner of Education Statistics is responsible by law for carrying out the NAEP project.
The report is available online at http://nationsreportcard.gov. The NCES web catalog is found at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch. You may order the report online at www.edpubs.org.
“Nation’s Report Card” shows overall decline in reading test scores for 12th graders since 1992. (April 2007). Reading Today, 24(5), 3.
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