New NAEP scores: it’s a gray day for Kentucky in reading, too — The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions

The results from the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress have been released. My earlier blog pointed out that it’s a “Gray Day” for Kentucky in math. That goes ditto for reading, as well.

Using a map generator in the newly revised NAEP web site, I generated the maps below for state progress on NAEP in reading in the fourth and eighth grade. Here is how that looks, taking the fourth grade situation first.

Kentucky’s gray shading shows our fourth grade students made no statistically detectable progress in reading in that two-year interval.

As I did earlier for math, let’s compare this to the new KPREP results (found in the 2012 and 2013 Unbridled Learning State Report Cards web site. First, set the year in the home page and then click on the “State Report Card” section. Next, click on the link that says “Printer Friendly Report Card (PDF)” to access the report cards).

The Report Cards show that between 2012 and 2013 the KPREP fourth grade reading proficiency rate rose from 47.1 percent to 48.8 percent, a rise of 1.7 points.

The “Summary Data Tables” Excel spreadsheets available in the new NAEP release from this page show Kentucky’s Grade 4 NAEP Reading proficiency increased from 35 to 36 percent, basically a flat, statistically insignificant difference.

However, while recent changes in NAEP and KPREP forth grade reading proficiency are not much different, KPREP is reporting 2013 proficiency in Kentucky was 48.8 percent while NAEP says it’s much lower at only 36 percent, a difference of nearly 13 points.

Now, here is the new Grade 8 NAEP Reading map.

Once again, it’s a gray day for the Bluegrass State. No significant change in performance is reported for Kentucky on Grade 8 NAEP Reading between 2011 and 2013.The NAEP Excel spreadsheet for reading says Kentucky’s eighth grade NAEP proficiency rate changed by a statistically insignificant amount from 36 percent to 38 percent.

In notable contrast, between 2012 and 2013 KPREP tells us eighth grade reading proficiency in Kentucky rose notably from 46.7 to 52.4 percent, a surge upward of 5.7 points. That surge is definitely not reflected in the NAEP.

Even worse, the discrepancy in proficiency rates between NAEP and KPREP for eighth grade reading is now over 14 points. That is highly problematic and indicates KPREP eighth grade reading scoring is not only too liberal, but it also has gotten even more liberal over the two years that KPREP has been around.

Overall, in both fourth and eighth grade reading and in eighth grade math as well, KPREP is being scored notably more liberally than NAEP and the discrepancy may be growing based on the most currently available information from both assessments.