New Jersey Eighth-Graders Tops in the Nation in Writing

New Jersey Eighth-Graders Tops in the Nation in Writing
New Jersey eighth-graders are the best writers in the nation for their grade level, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests given last winter, Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy announced today.
In their first year taking the writing test, eighth-graders at 111 schools throughout New Jersey scored statistically better than all but one of the 45 states that participated in the writing test, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.
“It is gratifying to see such a strong performance by our eighth-grade students,” said Governor Jon S. Corzine. “Effective writing skills are an essential element of competing and being successful in the 21st century economy and I am indeed pleased that the efforts of all of our educators are yielding such positive results.”
While New Jersey’s score was better than Connecticut’s, the difference was not statistically significant. New Jersey’s average scale score was 175, which is higher than the national average of 154. According to 2007 NAEP results, New Jersey eighth-graders performed better than their peers nationwide in the major subgroups tested: male, female, white, black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, eligible for the National Lunch Program and not eligible for the National Lunch Program.
“Dating back to 1985, we have assessed our students’ ability to write as part of the Language Arts Literacy standardized tests,” Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy said. “Every one of our standardized tests contains a written section. None of this happens overnight – these results stem from a continued focus on educational reforms and best practices. Our students understand what is expected of them and in this case, they achieved phenomenal results.
“The NAEP test is the only real national comparison to see how states stack up against one another,” Commissioner Davy continued. “To see these results – to be the best in the nation – is an incredible accomplishment. Our eighth-grade students have demonstrated they have a good foundation upon which they can build continued success.”
New Jersey students typically fare well on the NAEP tests. While NAEP didn’t test fourth-grade in writing in 2007, Gov. Corzine did laud fourth-graders for their success on both the reading and math tests when the results were announced in September:
§ In reading, New Jersey students trailed only Massachusetts and tied with three other states – Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
§ New Jersey fourth-grade math students fared better than students in every state in the nation except Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Kansas. As in the reading results, only Massachusetts scored higher.
“The findings of this study exemplify our commitment to improving educational attainment in our elementary schools,” Gov. Corzine said in September. “We equate our increases to sound preschool and early childhood education programs in New Jersey. They are providing our youngest students with a solid foundation of basic fundamentals, and the efforts are achieving positive results.” This is the first year New Jersey has participated in the NAEP writing test, which was given in January and February of last year. The score scale for the writing test is from 0 to 300 and is broken into four categories: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced proficient.
Among the key findings announced today:
§ The percentage of total students in New Jersey that performed at or above the proficient level (56 percent) is higher than the national average (31 percent);
§ New Jersey eighth-graders scored better than all states except Connecticut in the following categories: overall score, whites and males;
§ 98 percent of the white students who took the test scored at grade level;
§ Hispanic students scored slightly higher (162) than all other states except Wyoming (153) – according to the NCES, scores of 162 and 153 are not statistically different from one another for the NAEP test; and
§ New Jersey’s students with disabilities average scale score (139) was better than the national average (118), on par with Massachusetts and Connecticut and better than all other states that participated.
African-American students in New Jersey scored comparable to the national average on the test (152 versus 154) and better than the national average for the demographic.
While the majority of the findings are good news for New Jersey, Commissioner Davy said the gap between white and African-American student scores (32 points, which is greater than the national average of 22 points) needs to be addressed.
“While our African-American students scored on par with the national average, there is still work to be done,” the Commissioner said. “DOE has already implemented a Middle Schools to Watch program that will share best practices statewide. Also, through our new state monitoring system, we continue to pinpoint what is working and what isn’t. We are confident we will see improvement.”
The writing NAEP assessment is administered every four years at randomly selected schools. The writing test is voluntary. This year, Alaska, Maryland, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota and the District of Columbia chose not to participate.
NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools, but offers results regarding instructional experiences, school environment for populations of students (for example, fourth-graders and eighth-graders) and subgroups of those populations (for example, male students, students with disabilities).
For more information, please contact the Department of Education Public Information Office at (609) 292-1126.

The Nation's Report Card: by NAEP

Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 twelfth-grade reading and mathematics assessments and the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study (HSTS) were just released.

The twelfth-grade reading and mathematics report provides national results on the performance of America's high school seniors on NAEP.

The Nation's Report Card: America's High School Graduates presents information about the types of courses 2005 high school graduates completed, how many credits they earned, and the grades they received. Information on the relationships between high school academic records and performance on the NAEP mathematics and science assessments is also included.

Both reports examine results for student groups including race/ethnicity and gender.

Reading findings include:
* Decline in scores and the percentages of students at or above Proficient and at or above Basic compared with 1992. There have been no significant changes at these levels since 2002.
* No significant change in the White-Black or White-Hispanic gap compared with previous years.

Mathematics findings include:
* Sixty-one percent performed at or above Basic, and 23 percent were at or above Proficient.
* NOTE: Due to changes to the framework for 2005, results can't be compared to previous years.

High School Transcript Study findings include:
* Graduates in 2005 completed more rigorous curricula than previous graduates.
* The overall grade point average (GPA) has been climbing since 1990 and was 2.98 in 2005.
* Graduates with stronger academic records obtain higher NAEP scores.

Full results are available at:
http://nationsreportcard.gov

Including 2005 twelfth-grade science results released earlier, at:
http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2005/

To download, view and print the publications as PDF files, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007467
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007468


To obtain hard copy of many IES products as well as hard copy and
electronic versions of hundreds of other U.S. Department of Education
products please visit http://www.edpubs.org or call 1-877-433-7827 (877-4-EDPUBS).

National Study Comparing Public and Private Schools

National Study Comparing Public and Private Schools

On July 14, 2006, the National Center for Education Statistics released a study titled "Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling" that uses a sophisticated statistical analysis to examine the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores of public and private school students.

The goal of the study was to examine differences in mean (NAEP) reading and mathematics scores (grade 4 and grade 8) between public and private schools when selected characteristics of students and/or schools were taken into account. Among the student demographic characteristics considered were gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, income and identification as an English language learner.

Among the school characteristics considered were school size and location, and
composition of the student body and of the teaching staff. In particular, if the student populations enrolled in the two types of schools differed systematically with
respect to background characteristics related to achievement, then those differences would be confounded with straightforward comparisons between school types.

The full report from NCES can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006461

The National Catholic Education Association points out that this study looks at results on one test score at a given time – it does not measure progress over time. The NCEA argues that the single-year snapshots of test scores provide limited information about student achievement and nothing about the relative quality of public and private schools.

Click here to read an NCEA analysis of the report and a link to the full text of the document.