DoDEA Eighth Graders at or Near the Top in Writing

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2003
Contact: Charles Hoff
DoDEA Office of Communications
Voice: (703) 588-3262
Email:Charles.Hoff@hq.dodea.edu

DoDEA Eighth Graders at or Near the Top in Writing
Minority Students Continue Exceptional Achievements

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA—On July 10, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) released the Writing results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered in the winter of 2002. The assessment included 46 states and jurisdictions at grade 4 and 47 states and jurisdictions at grade 8. This assessment measured students' ability to write narrative, informative and persuasive compositions. Department of Defense (DoD) fourth and eighth graders, domestically and overseas, scored significantly higher than the national averages.

Achievement and Rankings

Eighth grade students in the DoD schools continued their nation leading scores according to results released by the Department of Education. Eighth grade students in the Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS), the DoD schools in seven states, Puerto Rico and Guam, scored 164, which tied with Connecticut for the highest score in the nation. The Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS), the overseas schools run by the Department of Defense, scored 161 the third ranked score. Both DDESS and DoDDS schools scored well above the national average score of 152.

NAEP 2002 Average Writing Scale Score: Grade 8
Rank	State/Jurisdiction	Average Scale Score
1	DDESS, Connecticut	164
2	Massachusetts, Vermont	163
3	DoDDS	161
4	Ohio	160
5	Delaware	159
6	Maine, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland	157
7	Nebraska	156
8	Washington, Kansas, Oregon	155

	Nation	152

Fourth grade students in the Department of Defense schools also scored above the national average. Fourth grade students in DoDDS scored 159 and DDESS students scored 156. The national average score for fourth grade was 153.

NAEP 2002 Average Writing Scale Score: Grade 4
Rank	State/Jurisdiction	Average Scale Score
1	Connecticut	174
2	Massachusetts	170
3	Delaware, New York	163
4	DoDDS, North Carolina	159
5	Vermont, Florida, Maine, Washington	158
6	Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland	157
7	DDESS, Pennsylvania, Minnesota	156
8	Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana, Texas	154

	Nation	153

DoD schools saw a positive increase in the state-by-state rankings when compared to results of the 1998 Writing test for eighth grade students. DoD eighth graders in DDESS moved from a ranking of 2nd to a tie for #1 in the nation in 2002. The Writing test for fourth graders was conducted for the first time in 2002 and therefore no changes can be reported.

NAEP Writing National Rank Scores for 1998 and 2002
All Students	Grade 8		Grade 4
All Students	1998	2002	2002
DDESS	2nd	1st	7th
DoDDS	3rd	3rd	4th

Minority Achievement

Minority students in the Department of Defense schools scored at the top of the charts when compared to their counterparts at both grade levels tested. Eighth grade African American students in DDESS and DoDDS scored 154 and 149, respectively, which is higher than the next highest scores earned by Delaware (145) and Washington (142). The national average for all eighth grade black students was 134.

NAEP Writing National Rank Scores for African American Students
African American	Grade 8		Grade 4
African American	1998	2002	2002
DDESS	1st	1st	1st
DoDDS	3rd	2nd	2nd

At the fourth grade level, DDESS African American students tied with their Massachusetts counterparts for the top score in the nation with 151. DoDDS African American students tied with their Delaware counterparts with 150 for a ranking of 2nd in the nation. The national average for fourth grade black students was 139.

DDESS and DoDDS Hispanic eighth graders maintained their #1 and #2 rankings from the 1998 Writing test when compared with Hispanic students in other states and jurisdictions. DoD Hispanic eighth grade students scored 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 all eighth grade students.

NAEP 2002 Average Writing Scale Scores: Grade 8 Hispanic Students
Hispanic	1998		2002
Hispanic	Score	Rank	Score	Rank
DDESS	153	2nd	160	1st
DoDDS	154	1st	155	2nd
Hispanic 8th Grade National Average	130		135
Total 8th Grade National Average	148		152

Hispanic fourth grade scores in DoDDS and DDESS ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the nation when compared with their counterparts. Hispanic students from Connecticut and Florida tied for the highest average scale score (154) at grade four. DoD fourth grade Hispanic students scored 10 or more points above the average for Hispanic students across the nation. The national average score for Hispanic fourth graders was 140.

NAEP 2002 Average Writing Scale Scores: Grade 4 Hispanic Students
Hispanic	2002
Hispanic	Score	Rank
DDESS	150	3rd
DoDDS	152	2nd
Hispanic 4th Grade National Average	140
Total 4th Grade National Average	153

In September, 2003, the Department of Education will release additional NAEP performance results from tests taken in the winter of 2003. In 2003, NAEP tested students in Mathematics and Reading. In the four month period from June, 2003 to September 2003, the Department of Education will have provided student performance in Mathematics, Reading and Writing. This series of student performance results will provide a comprehensive picture of school performance across the nation.

Additional NAEP Information

Detailed statistical information on the 2002 NAEP Writing assessment, and all other 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 Writing 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