News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2003
Contact: Charles Hoff
DoDEA Office of Communications
Voice: (703) 588-3262
Email:Charles.Hoff@hq.dodea.edu

National Test Rates DoDEA Students Tops in Reading
DoDEA Eighth Graders Lead the Nation in Reading
Minority Students Top the Charts in Both 4th and 8th Grade

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA—On June 19, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment administered in the winter of 2002. The assessment included 48 states and jurisdictions at grade 4 and 47 states and jurisdictions at grade 8. Department of Defense (DoD) fourth and eighth grade students, domestically and overseas, scored significantly higher than the national averages.


Achievement and Rankings

      Eighth grade students in the DoD schools topped the nation in performance on the national reading test according to results released by the Department of Education. Eighth grade students in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS), the overseas schools run by the Department of Defense, scored 273, the highest score earned on the test by any state or jurisdiction. Eighth graders in the Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS), the DoD schools in seven states, Puerto Rico and Guam, tied for second with Vermont with a score of 272, well above the national average score for eighth grade students of 263.

      Fourth grade students in the Department of Defense schools also scored near the top of the nation on the national reading test. Fourth grade students in DDESS scored 225 and DoDDS students scored 224. Both DDESS and DoDDS scored substantially above the national average of 217.

      DoD schools saw a positive increase in the state-by-state rankings when compared to results of the 1998 reading test. DoD eighth graders moved from the 1998 3rd and 4th place to #1 and #2 in the nation in 2002. DoD fourth graders increased from 5th and 7th place in 1998 to 4th and 5th place in 2002.

Minority Achievement

      Minority students in the Department of Defense schools scored at the top of the charts when compared with their counterparts at both grade levels tested. Eighth grade African American students in DoDDS and DDESS scored 263 and 260 respectively, which is significantly higher than Hawaii in third place with 253, and Virginia and Delaware with 252. The national average for all eighth grade black students was 244. At the fourth grade level, African American students in DoDDS and DDESS tied for the best score in the nation with 215, ahead of the state of Washington (213) and Massachusetts (212). The national average for fourth grade black students was 198.

      DDESS and DoDDS Hispanic eighth graders maintained their #1 and #2 ranking from the 1998 reading test when compared with Hispanic students in other states and jurisdictions. DoD Hispanic eighth grade students scored more than 20 points above the average for Hispanic students across the nation. Hispanic eighth graders in both DDESS and DoDDS also scored higher than the overall national average for eighth grade students of all racial/ethnic groups.

      Hispanic fourth graders in DoDDS and DDESS were tied for second place in the nation (222) when compared with their counterparts. Fourth grade Hispanic students in Virginia topped the nation with a score of 224. DoD Hispanic fourth grade students scored more than 20 points above the average for Hispanic students across the nation. The national average score for Hispanic fourth graders was 199.

      In the next several mo nths, the Department of Education will release NAEP state performance results from the 2002 Writing assessment, and the 2003 Mathematics and Reading assessments. The tests, widely known at the "Nation’s Report Card", is designed to measure what students know and can do in a variety of subjects.

Additional NAEP Information

      Detailed statistical information on the 2002 NAEP Reading assessment, and all previous NAEP assessments, can be found on the web at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/search.asp

      Assessment items and samples of student responses from the 2002 Reading assessment, along with sample questions from other subject area tests, can be found on the web at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/pickone.asp

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