Educational Achievement

 
Source: National Center for Educational Statistics

Math Proficiency

• Math proficiency assesses a student’s ability to accurately perform mathematical operations ranging from simple skills and knowledge to complex procedures and multi-step algebraic problems.  In 1999, virtually all 17-year-olds scored 250 or more, indicating proficiency in numeric operations and beginning problem solving; 59 percent scored 300 or above, demonstrating grasps of moderately complex procedures and reasoning.  These percentages were up from 92% and 52%, respectively, in 1978.

• The mathematics proficiency scores of black and Hispanic 17-year-olds also improved more dramatically during this period, with 89% of black and 94% of Hispanic students scoring 250 or more in 1999, compared to 71% of blacks and 78% of Hispanics in 1978.  These reduced the gaps with white students’ scores (99% over 250 in 1999) but still left imposing differences to overcome.  
  

-Source: National Center for Educational Statistics

Reading Proficiency

• Reading proficiency levels range from students having partially developed skills and understanding of the material to the student being able to understand complicated information. Scale ranges from 0 to 500. A score of 300 implies an ability to find, understand, summarize, and explain relatively complicated literary and informational material.  A score of 250 suggests one can search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations about literature, science, and social studies materials. With a score of 200, one should be able to understand and combine ideas, and make inferences based on short uncomplicated passages about specific or sequentially related information. 
  

• The average reading proficiency scores of 9-year-olds in 1999 (211.7) were slightly higher than their scores in 1971 (207.6).  The scores of 13-year-olds also increased slightly, from 255.2 in 1971 to 259.4 in 1999, and those of 17-year-olds remained statistically unchanged (285.2 in 1971 and 287.8 in 1999).  Females outscored males in reading proficiency at all ages.
  

• The average reading proficiency score of black 9-year-olds rose from 208 in 1971 to 212 in 1999, while that of 13 year olds rose from 255 to 259.   Black 17-year-old students achieved greater increases, rising from 239 in 1971 to 264 in 1999, even while reducing their dropout rates.  These gains of 17-year-old and 9-year-old blacks reduced the gaps with comparable white students.
  

• On average, blacks (264 and 283 respectively) and Hispanics (271 and 293 respectively) score lower than whites (315 and 295) in reading and mathematics at the end of 12th grade. The black and Hispanic differences from whites at the end of 12th grade are statistically the same size as at the end of 8th grade. These results suggest that the reading and mathematics achievement differences between white and minority students do not increase over the high school years. All of the significant differences in reading and mathematics achievement between whites and black and Hispanic minority groups at the end of 12th grade reflect differences in achievement between the groups before they enter high school. These results suggest that if blacks and Hispanics entered high school with the same achievement levels as whites, the racial differences in 12th-grade reading and mathematics achievement would be small and statistically insignificant.
  

References

The Condition of Education 2001, Indicator 10 Trends in the Reading Proficiency of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-Olds   http://www.nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2001/section2/indicator10.html

The Condition of Education 2001, Indicator 12 Trends in the Mathematics Proficiency of 9-, 13-, and 17-year -Olds http://www.nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2001/section2/indicator12.html

The Condition of Education 2001, Indicator 13 Trends in the Science Performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-Year-Olds, http://www.nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2001/section2/indicator13.html

Issue Brief: Reading and Mathematics Achievement: Growth in High School
December 1997 http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98038.html

Long Term Trends in Student Reading Performance Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1998
http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98464.html

The Condition of Education 1998, Indicator 16 Trends in the reading proficiency of 9-, 13-, and
17 -year -olds http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/condition98/c9816a01.html

Prepared by Cassandra Cantave and Roderick Harrison for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Updated August 2003. 

 

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