The Reading Report Card, 1971-88: Trends from the Nation's Report CardOffice of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 - Educational surveys - 67 pages Intended to serve as a resource for the many and varied groups concerned with improving students' reading proficiencies, this report from the Nation's Report Card provides a long-term perspective on students' reading skills and strategies based on a series of five national assessments conducted from 1971 to 1988. Each chapter of the report provides a different perspective on trends in students' reading abilities. The first chapter describes changes in the average reading performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds across the five reading trend assessments conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) between 1971 and 1988. The second chapter defines levels of reading proficiency and presents the percentages of students attaining these successive levels in each assessment. The third chapter summarizes trends in students' responses to questions on their reading instruction and experiences and investigates the relationships between these background factors and reading proficiency. Overall, the findings described in the report reveal generally positive but subtle changes in reading performance at the national level since 1971: (1) nine-year-olds assessed in 1988 read significantly better than their counterparts assessed in 1971, but this progress was made in the 1970s; (2) thirteen-year-olds' reading achievement has fluctuated slightly over the years; and (3) seventeen-year-old students assessed in 1988 read significantly better than their counterparts assessed in either 1971 or 1975. A procedural appendix and an appendix of data are attached. (RS) |
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0125 per comparison 05 per set 17-year-old students 1988 assessment 1988 reading bridge 9-year-olds AGE 13 AGE age groups age level assessed in 1988 average reading proficiency Black students bridge to 1984 category 1988 versus confidence interval dents Department of Education EDUCATION NOT GRADUATED Educational Testing Service errors are presented GRADUATED H.S. Hispanic students Hispanics in 1971 Item Response Theory Jackknifed standard errors javelin throwing level of reading MALE FEMALE 1971 mean reading proficiency NAEP assessments NATION'S REPORT CARD National Assessment OBSERVED ETHNICITY/RACE WHITE PARENTAL EDUCATION passages and items Percentage of 17-year-old percentage of students Percentiles POST H.S. presented in parentheses quicksand reading achievement reading skills reading trend assessments REGION NORTHEAST reporting category 1988 Rose Schneiderman sampling error skills and strategies SOUTHEAST Standard Deviation statistically significant difference students at age students with reading three ages TOTAL SEX MALE U.S. Department versus each prior Westat women