New Grade 12 NAEP data continues disappointments from lower grade results

I blogged a few days ago on the first results from the new, 2015 results for 12th grade students from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). That first blog focused on the low percentage of high school seniors that NAEP shows are really college ready in both reading and math (Just 37 percent).

Today, we examine the overall score trends for all students in reading and math. This first graph shows the NAEP reading score trend over time, which is reported on a 500-point scale.

G12 Reading Trend in Scores 1992 to 2015

Where you see an asterisk next to a score, such as for the 292 score posted in 1992, that score is statistically significantly different from the 2015 score, which is 287.

There are not many asterisks here, and they all date from the 1990s. So, reading performance has been flat for nearly two decades. And, the average reading ability of the nation’s 12th grade students has remained below the level NAEP deems to be “Proficient” reading. That isn’t good news.

Things deteriorate more when we look at math.

G12 Math Trend in Scores 1992 to 2015

In the case of math, the NAEP completely revised its testing frameworks in 2005 for the “Main NAEP,” which is where the new 12th grade results come from. So, the trend line to earlier test results in math was shattered for Main NAEP Grade 12 Math. To really drive this home, the NAEP even shifted the math scoring from a 500-point to 300-point scale.

Never the less, for the few years of data available, we see an asterisk for the 2013 data which shows the most recent 2015 score is statistically significantly lower than the score two years prior, which again is not good news. Also, apparently due to different student sample sizes in different testing years, the 2015 score is not statistically significantly higher than the score posted back in 2005.We also see that the most recent NAEP Grade 12 math average score is well below the proficient level. In fact, just by visual inspection of the two graphs in the blog, the average math performance is obviously closer to “Basic” level than is true for reading.

To reiterate, this isn’t good news.

By the way, there are some curious things going on related to NAEP’s “Proficient” scores for 12th grade students, so stay tuned for that next.

Tech notes:

The graphs are cut and pasted from the NCES web site’s math and reading scores sections.