12th-Grade Reading and Math Scores Rise Slightly After a Historic Low in 2005

Reading scores for the nation’s 12th-grade students have increased somewhat since they dropped to a historic low in 2005, according to results of the largest federal test, released Thursday. Average math scores also ticked upward.

Experts said the increases, after years of dismal achievement reports, were surprising because every year the nation’s schools are educating more black and Hispanic students, who on average score lower than whites and Asians.

The black-white achievement gap dates back more than a century, though researchers debate why it persists. Researchers presume that language barriers pull down scores for Hispanics.

“It’s very good news because you have scores going up despite a demographic trend that pulls scores down,” said Grover J. Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institutionwho directed the Department of Education’s research division in the Bush administration.

The math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progressand administered by the Department of Education, were given in spring 2009 to a representative national sample of about 50,000 12th-grade students.

Educators and school policymakers closely monitor the national assessment scores much the way corporate leaders and economists watch for changes in the gross domestic product or employment trends.

On the 500-point scale used in the reading assessment, the average 12th grader scored 288 on the 2009 test, up from 286 in 2005. About 38 percent of 12th graders scored at or above the test’s proficiency level.

Although the latest scores were a short-term increase, Steven L. Paine, a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, noted that the average score in 2009 represented a drop of four points from the average score of 292 in 1992.

“If we go back almost 20 years and compare today’s national reading results, these scores are not quite what they should be,” Mr. Paine said by audio hookup during a news conference in Washington.

The latest results show that Asians overtook whites as the nation’s best readers at the 12th-grade level from 2005 to 2009. The average Asian 12th grader scored 298 in 2009, compared with 287 four years earlier. The average white student scored 296 in 2009, up from 293 in 2005. (After years of reading improvement, Asian fourth- and eighth-grade students first outscored whites in 2007 and 2009, respectively.)

The average Hispanic 12th grader scored 274 in 2009, a two- point rise from 2005. Black 12th graders, on average, scored 269 in 2009, up from 267 in 2005. Officials said these two-point changes in minority scores were not statistically significant.

Whether score increases can be considered significant depends on the test’s margin of error, which increases as the number of test-takers falls. Minority students made up a small fraction of total test-takers, making the margin of error for minority scores greater than for scores cited as a national average.

On the reading assessment, the proportion of test-takers who were Hispanic rose to 17 percent in 2009, from 14 percent in 2005. The percentage who were black also rose, while the percentage of whites fell to 61 percent, from 67 percent in 2005.

Not surprisingly, students who said they read a lot in school scored far higher than students who said they read little, said Mr. Paine, West Virginia’s schools superintendent. Students who reported reading 20 or more pages for school every day scored 25 points higher on average than students who reported reading five or fewer pages, he said.

On the math assessment, which is scored on a 300-point scale, the average 12th grader scored 153 in 2009, up from 150 in 2005.

Because the governing board changed the math test before its 2005 administration, the latest results cannot be compared with previous math tests given in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Twenty-six percent of 12th graders were proficient in math in 2009. By comparison, on the most recent national assessment of economics, administered in 2006, 42 percent of 12th graders were proficient. On the most recent science and history assessments, only 18 and 13 percent of 12th graders, respectively, showed proficiency.

Officials complain that it is difficult to persuade high school seniors to take the national assessments seriously. They are old enough to realize that because no student is individually scored, there are no consequences to performing poorly.