State's 8th-graders inch closer to nation on federal assessment
by Cynthia Howell
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Friday, April 4, 2008
Arkansas public school eighth-graders scored higher on the National Assessment of Educational Progress writing exam than in previous years, nudging closer to the national average.
The Arkansas eighth-graders in 2007 earned an average score of 151 — 3 points short of the national public school average of 154 on the federal government test that measured student skills in narrative, informative and persuasive writing.
The state’s average score in 1998 was 137, which was 11 points below the national average. In 2002, the last time the test was administered, the Arkansas average score rose to 142 but was still 10 points below that year’s national average of 152 on the assessment that is also known as “The Nation’s Report Card.”
Arkansas Education Commissioner Ken James said Thursday that the state’s 14-point gain since 1998 is the welcome result of hard work by educators and policymakers.
“This dramatic increase in writing scores, especially over the last five years, reflects the focus on academics in public education that has been made in policies at the state level and practices at the school level,” James said in a news release.
“No doubt, it’s the students who benefit when adults put their efforts in the right places. The ability to express one’s thoughts clearly in writing serves as the foundation for success throughout life, whether it’s those research papers in high school, term papers in college or memos, reports and briefs demanded in the workplace.”
The Education Trust, an independent education research and advocacy organization based in Washington , D.C. , on Thursday highlighted Arkansas ’ gains as being among the best in the nation, noting that each of the different subpopulations of students in the state showed increases.
No state made greater gains than Arkansas did among black and low-income students. The increase for the state’s black eighthgraders was 19 points between 1998 and 2007. The gains were 13 points for white students and 16 points for students from low-income families.
Education Trust President Kati Haycock noted efforts in Arkansas to develop rigorous education standards that are linked to classroom instruction and assessments.
“States like Arkansas are embracing the challenge,” Haycock said in response to the assessment results. “But they know that there is still a lot more work that must be done to not just narrow, but eliminate the gaps that have plagued our schools for generations.”
The National Center for Education Statistics, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education, administers the national assessments in reading, writing, math and other academic subjects.
The national exams are considered to be a check of each state’s own system of testing students for mastery of math and literacy skills as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act that was signed by President Bush in 2002.
If student scores on state exams — such as the annual Arkansas Benchmark and End of Course exams — are on the rise, those increases in achievement should also be reflected on the national assessments.
Nationally, about 140,000 eighth-graders in more than 7,640 schools in 45 states took the National Assessment writing exam. A smaller number of 12th-graders also took the writing exam and showed improvement, but there are no state-by-state results for that test.
Twelfth-graders earned an average score of 153 in 2007, which is a statistically significant increase compared with the average 148 in 2002 and 150 in 1998.
In Arkansas , a sample of about 2,400 eighth-graders in 124 schools took the writing test between January and March 2007. The results are reported only by state. Individual schools and students do not receive reports on how they performed.
Linda Arnold of Conway , past president of the Arkansas Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts, said the improvement is due partly to the training that is provided to English teachers to help their teaching be more effective.
But even more significant, she said, is the emphasis that schools put on teaching literacy skills in a wide array of subject areas and not limiting it to the English courses.
“We have literacy specialists in our schools who are doing an excellent job,” Arnold said. “There is a big push on writing [as a way] to learn in all subjects — not just English. That has helped tremendously in terms of helping students to become better writers.”
Arnold, a retired assistant professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas , said the state has improved its teacher licensure procedures “one-hundred-fold so that we are sure that people who go out to teach in public schools know what they are doing.
“That’s a secondary reason we are making improvements in all subject areas — our teachers are better,” she said. “They have the skills they need to be effective.
The writing results are reported by the National Center of Education Statistics in a variety of ways, including by levels of achievement.
Eighty-six percent of the Arkansas eighth-graders, for example, scored at a basic level or better on the exam, compared with 88 percent nationally. The remaining percentage of Arkansas eighthgrade test-takers scored at a below-basic level.
Students scoring at a basic level can produce a written response that shows a general understanding of the assigned writing task. The response includes supporting details for the main idea, and the grammar, punctuation and spelling that is accurate enough to communicate the message to the reader.
The goal, however, is for students to score at proficient or advanced levels on the national assessment. In Arkansas , 26 percent of eighth-graders scored at a proficient level, which is better than the 18 percent recorded in 2002 but still short of the 29 percent nationally. One percent of Arkansas students made it to the advanced level, compared with 2 percent nationally.
A proficient student is one who produces a response that shows understanding of the task and the audience and is organized with a clearly marked beginning and end. A proficient response also includes precise language, details, some variety in sentence structure and some analytical or creative thinking.
Arkansas test-takers mirrored national trends in that female students significantly outscored male students.
Arkansas eighth-grade boys earned an average score of 139 compared with 144 nationally. Arkansas girls scored an average 164, identical to the national score.
Eighth-graders from Arkansas ’ low-income families — as determined by their eligibility for subsidized school meals — similarly scored at the national average for low-income students: a score of 141. Arkansas test-takers who were not from low-income families earned an average score of 161 compared to 164 nationwide.
Scores broken down by racial and ethnic subgroups showed that Arkansas ’ white test-takers earned an average score of 156 compared with 162 nationally. Black Arkansas pupils earned an average score of 138, compared with 140 nationally. Hispanic test-takers earned a score of 141 in Arkansas , identical to the 141 average earned by Hispanic eighth-graders nationally.
The states with the greatest percentages of proficient and advanced students are New Jersey , where 56 percent of students scored at proficient or advanced levels, and Connecticut , where 53 percent of test-takers did the same.
James said the writing test results are the latest in a series of reports — dealing with academic achievement, teacher salaries, and technology — in which the Arkansas education system has shown gains.
“It is rewarding to see yet again a demonstration that Arkansas ’ efforts for public education are paying off for our students,” James said. “We have more to do, but results such as these inspire us to keep pushing for increased achievement for all students.”
