Tuesday, September 20, 2005

NAEP and Our Student Writers

I've been researching our nations schools and what kind of writing students they produce. So far, I'm fairly alarmed.

According to a study done in 2002 (National Assessment of Educational Progress) by the government and reported by the National Center of Education Statistics, writers tested "in 2002, between 24 and 31 percent of the students in each of the three grades performed at or above the Proficient level."

Let me try to explain this a bit. A lot of work went into deciding just what, exactly, could be expected of a writer in the fourth, eighth, or twelth grade, based on responses from a large number of educators and concerned citizens. The NAEP and NCES both back these scales. Based on a 300 point scale, there are 4 levels: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. A writer who scores in the Proficient range is believed to be writing at the expected and hoped for level for his/her grade level.

Based on that, knowing that only 24 to 31 percent of students managed to write at the level expected for their grade, I'm alarmed. If this study is to be believed, only a quarter to one third of our students are writing proficiently. What does this say about the writers we're producing? What does this say about our educational system? More than that, I am worried about the future for these students.

Of course, the authors of this study point out that nearly all scores are higher than those in 1998. Apparently, we're improving. But, it would seem that a small improvement is just not enough.

Also, this study reported expected (for me) results for other areas:

*White and Asian Pacific/Islanders performed better than other races in all grades.
*Fringe urban (suburban) schools performed better than inner urban or rural schools.
*Students that were eligible for free or reduced lunches did not perform as well as those that were not eligible.

One other note. Female students scored better than their male counterparts in all grades. On average, females scored 17 points higher in fourth grade, 21 points higher in eighth grade, and 25 points higher in twelth grade. As an English student, I've noticed that there have always been more women than men in my classes. Is there a connection?

*****All of this data was pulled from theNational Center of Education Statistics. You can check my facts or find out more here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/writing/results2002. ******

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