While the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend assessment (the basis of the indicators under Trends in Basic Reading Skills among School-Age Children) provides an assessment of basic skills, the main NAEP reading assessment evaluates fourth-, eighth-, and 12th-grade students’ ability to tackle more-demanding reading tasks that are in line with current curricula.
Findings and Trends - In 2015, a majority of students at each grade level failed to demonstrate proficiency in reading, math, or science.
- Among fourth graders, 36% of students demonstrated reading skills at or above the proficient level in 2015, while 31% displayed below basic skills (Indicator I-1d).
- The proportion of eighth and 12th graders demonstrating at least proficiency on the reading assessment was similar to that of their younger counterparts. In the upper grades, students were somewhat less likely than fourth graders to demonstrate very low reading achievement (Indicators I-1e and I-1f).
- In 2015, fourth-grade students performed better on the math assessment than on the reading, with a share demonstrating below basic skills that was 13 percentage points smaller than that for reading.
- Among eighth graders, reading performance was similar to that in math and science in 2015.
- At the 12th-grade level, students performed better in reading than in either science or math in 2015.
- At the two lower grade levels the improvement in student math achievement from the early 1990s to 2015 was considerably greater than that in reading. The percentage of students scoring at the proficient level or higher on the math assessment rose 27 percentage points from 1990 to 2015 at the fourth-grade level and 18 percentage points among eighth graders. In contrast, the improvement in reading was only eight percentage points for fourth graders and five percentage points for eighth graders over the same time period.
- Among 12th graders, reading achievement declined somewhat from 1992 to 2015, while math achievement was virtually unchanged between 2005 (the earliest year for which data are available) and 2015.
- Active Data Visualization I-1v allows users to compare states according to the share of their fourth and eighth grade students that demonstrated reading proficiency on the 2015 NAEP reading assessment.
I-1d: Percentages of Fourth Graders Scoring at Reading Achievement Levels Compared with Those for Math and Science, Early 1990s–2015* |  | * NAEP main assessment. Percentages for each year may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
** Accommodations not permitted in this year.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Data accessed via the NAEP Data Explorer at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx. Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org). |
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I-1e: Percentages of Eighth Graders Scoring at Reading Achievement Levels Compared with Those for Math and Science, Early 1990s–2015* |  | * NAEP main assessment. Percentages for each year may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
** Accommodations not permitted in this year.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Data accessed via the NAEP Data Explorer at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx. Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org). |
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I-1f: Percentages of 12th Graders Scoring at Reading Achievement Levels Compared with Those for Math and Science, Early 1990s–2015* |  | * NAEP main assessment. Percentages for each year may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
** Accommodations not permitted in this year.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Data accessed via the NAEP Data Explorer at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx. Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org). |
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I-1v: Share of Fourth and Eighth Graders Demonstrating Reading Proficiency, by State, 2015 | | * Noted differences are statistically significant at 5% level. The states whose bars are shaded grey had shares of proficient students that were not measurably different from the share of all US students scoring that that level or above. Proficiency is as measured by the NAEP main assessment.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Data accessed via the NAEP Data Explorer at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx. Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org). |
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About the Data| The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) includes two assessments in reading. One of these is specifically designed to generate long-term trend data and has remained essentially unchanged since it was first given to students in 1971. The other, referred to as the “main” NAEP reading assessment and the basis of this indicator, changes in response to current educational practices and curricula. (For a detailed comparison of the two assessments, see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/ltt_main_diff.asp.)
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the federal agency responsible for administering NAEP, the main NAEP reading assessment “measures a range of reading skills, from identifying explicitly stated information, to making complex inferences about themes, to comparing multiple texts on a variety of dimensions.”
A student’s level of achievement is judged to be “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” or “advanced” depending on his or her score on the appropriate scale. A score at the “basic” level indicates that a student has demonstrated partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade. A score of “proficient” indicates solid academic performance—students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter. An “advanced” score represents superior performance. These achievement scales are grade-specific. Thus, for example, a child scoring at the “advanced” achievement level on the 12th-grade exam in a given subject area has demonstrated different skills than a fourth grader scoring at the “advanced” level. (See https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieve.aspx for a description of the skills associated with each achievement level.)
The NAEP Data Explorer (NDE) permits analysis of both the long-term trend and main NAEP data sets by gender, ethnicity, and other key variables. With NDE one can also obtain results of recent reading assessments for individual states and compare these with student outcomes in other parts of the country. For both an overview of NDE and tips for its effective use, see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/NDEQuickReferenceGuideWebVersion05.18.09.pdf. NDE itself is located at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx. About the Data| The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) includes two assessments in reading. One of these is specifically designed to generate long-term trend data and has remained essentially unchanged since it was first given to students in 1971. The other, referred to as the “main” NAEP reading assessment and the basis of this indicator, changes in response to current educational practices and curricula. (For a detailed comparison of the two assessments, see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/ltt_main_diff.asp.)
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the federal agency responsible for administering NAEP, the main NAEP reading assessment “measures a range of reading skills, from identifying explicitly stated information, to making complex inferences about themes, to comparing multiple texts on a variety of dimensions.”
A student’s level of achievement is judged to be “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” or “advanced” depending on his or her score on the appropriate scale. A score at the “basic” level indicates that a student has demonstrated partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade. A score of “proficient” indicates solid academic performance—students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter. An “advanced” score represents superior performance. These achievement scales are grade-specific. Thus, for example, a child scoring at the “advanced” achievement level on the 12th-grade exam in a given subject area has demonstrated different skills than a fourth grader scoring at the “advanced” level. (See https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieve.aspx for a description of the skills associated with each achievement level.)
The NAEP Data Explorer (NDE) permits analysis of both the long-term trend and main NAEP data sets by gender, ethnicity, and other key variables. With NDE one can also obtain results of recent reading assessments for individual states and compare these with student outcomes in other parts of the country. For both an overview of NDE and tips for its effective use, see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/NDEQuickReferenceGuideWebVersion05.18.09.pdf. NDE itself is located at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx. About the Data| The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) includes two assessments in reading. One of these is specifically designed to generate long-term trend data and has remained essentially unchanged since it was first given to students in 1971. The other, referred to as the “main” NAEP reading assessment and the basis of this indicator, changes in response to current educational practices and curricula. (For a detailed comparison of the two assessments, see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/ltt_main_diff.asp.)
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the federal agency responsible for administering NAEP, the main NAEP reading assessment “measures a range of reading skills, from identifying explicitly stated information, to making complex inferences about themes, to comparing multiple texts on a variety of dimensions.”
A student’s level of achievement is judged to be “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” or “advanced” depending on his or her score on the appropriate scale. A score at the “basic” level indicates that a student has demonstrated partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade. A score of “proficient” indicates solid academic performance—students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter. An “advanced” score represents superior performance. These achievement scales are grade-specific. Thus, for example, a child scoring at the “advanced” achievement level on the 12th-grade exam in a given subject area has demonstrated different skills than a fourth grader scoring at the “advanced” level. (See https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieve.aspx for a description of the skills associated with each achievement level.)
The NAEP Data Explorer (NDE) permits analysis of both the long-term trend and main NAEP data sets by gender, ethnicity, and other key variables. With NDE one can also obtain results of recent reading assessments for individual states and compare these with student outcomes in other parts of the country. For both an overview of NDE and tips for its effective use, see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/NDEQuickReferenceGuideWebVersion05.18.09.pdf. NDE itself is located at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naeptools.aspx.
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