Students in D.C. schools has scored unexpectedly well in this year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), after falling behind for 30 years.
The District’s best advancement was in “fourth grade reading” and “eighth grade math” since the test was first administered three decades ago.
Thanks to Hispanic students’ test scores with an eight-point rise since 2017, D.C. became the only school system that advanced in eighth grade reading.
The average score of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) for NAEP reading at grade four in 2019 is 214, while the figure is 251 for grade eight.
According to the NAEP assessments, the percentage of eighth-grade DCPS White students remain at 14, while black students consist of 61 percent, Hispanics are at 21 percent and Asians are two percent.
A total of 68 percent of public school eighth-graders in the District are eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
As for mathematics, grade four students at DCPS made an average score of 235. Eight graders scored 269 on average.
Over the past two years, both fourth and eighth graders regressed in terms of reading scores all around the country, while eighth graders have fallen behind in math and reading since the first year of the test.
In 2019, thirty-six percent of fourth-grade students in the US stated that “they definitely can explain the meaning of something they have read.” The percentage is the same for eight graders.