DoDEA Schools Best in the U.S. on Nation’s Report Card

Fourth and eighth-grade students attending Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools led the nation in scoring on the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Assessment and fourth-grade Mathematics Assessment. DoDEA ranked second in the 2019 NAEP 8th Grade Mathematics Assessment. This year’s fourth and eighth-grade student performance builds on DoDEA’s strong showing in 2017 on the NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments.

DoDEA students’ average scale scores ranged from 10 to 18 percentage points higher than corresponding national average scores, and mostly increased while national average scores mostly decreased.

“I am extremely proud of our students’ performance on the 2019 NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments,” said DoDEA Director, Thomas M. Brady. “The dedication and hard work of our teachers and administrators, along with the implementation of a rigorous College and Career Ready Curriculum, improved on the already impressive performance by DoDEA students on the 2017 NAEP.”

“In 2019, DoDEA had the highest performance among black and Hispanic students of any state or jurisdiction. This resulted in us having the smallest statistical gaps in average score between white and black or white and Hispanic students on the NAEP. Given this continuing success, we believe that our commitment to providing a world class education to military-connected students, along with the DoD commitment to families, will allow us to continue to focus our emphasis on equity in our strategic plan and eventually eliminate achievement gaps in our system,” said Brady.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history. NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools; instead, it offers results regarding subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students (e.g., fourth graders) and groups within those populations (e.g., Hispanic students). NAEP results are based on a sample of student populations of interest.

DoDEA NAEP 2019

The NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments were administered using digital-based assessments (DBA) to fourth and eighth grade students in the nation’s public schools. For more information about NAEP digital-based assessments, please visit https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/dba/.

DoDEA 2019 NAEP READING RESULTS

4th Grade

• In 2019, the average scale score for DoDEA 4th grade students on the NAEP Reading Assessment was 235, while the average scale score for public school students was 219 (national public).
• The DoDEA percentile average scale scores in 2019 (235) is higher than the national percentile average scale score (220) on the NAEP Grade 4 Reading Assessment.
• The DoDEA average score in 2019 (235) was not significantly higher than the average score in 2017 (234) and was higher than their average score in 1998 (220).
• The percentage of students in DoDEA who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 49 percent and this was greater than the national estimate (34 percent). This percentage was greater than that in 2017 (48 percent) and in 1998 (34 percent) when the NAEP reading assessment was administered for the first time in DoDEA. No significant difference in the percentage of students that score proficient and advanced since 2017.

8th Grade

• The DoDEA average score on the eighth grade NAEP 2019 Reading Assessment was 280 while the average score for public school students was 262.
• DoDEA eighth grade students performed significantly higher than students in other states in on the NAEP 2019 Reading Assessment.
• The DoDEA average score on the 2019 NAEP Reading assessment was not significantly higher than the average score of in 2017 (280) and was higher than their average score in 1998 (269).
• The percentage of students in DoDEA who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 52 percent and this was greater than the national estimate (32 percent). This percentage was not significantly higher from that in 2017 (51 percent) and was greater than that in 1998 (37 percent).

Table 1 shows a comparison of reading performance scores of DoDEA students and those in national public schools.

DoDEA 2019 NAEP MATHEMATICS RESULTS

4th grade Math

• In 2019, the DoDEA average score on the fourth grade NAEP Mathematics Assessment was 250 significantly higher than the average score for public school students (240).
• The DoDEA average score in 2019 (250) was higher than the average score in 2017 (249) and was higher than their average score in 2000 (227). This increase reflects the national trend of increasing performance on the Grade 4 NAEP Mathematics Assessment.
• The percentage of students in DoDEA who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 54 percent and this was greater than the national average (40 percent). This percentage was greater from that in 2017 (51 percent) and in 2000 (21 percent) when the NAEP mathematics assessment was administered for the first time in DoDEA.

8th grade math

• The DoDEA average score on the eighth grade NAEP Mathematics Assessment was 292, while the average score for public school students was 281.
• The DoDEA average score of 293 on the 2017 NAEP Mathematics Assessment was not significantly different from the DoDEA average score in 2019 was higher than their average score in 2000 (277).
• The percentage of students in DoDEA who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 41 percent and this was greater than the national average (33 percent). This percentage was not significantly different from that in 2017 (42 percent) and in 2000 (26 percent) when the NAEP mathematics assessment was administered for the first time in DoDEA.

Table 2 shows a comparison of mathematics performance scores of DoDEA students and those in national public schools.

DoDEA 2019 NAEP PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED STUDENT GROUPS

DoDEA 2019 NAEP Reading Results by Student Groups

With respect to fourth grade reading, female students achieved a higher average scale score in reading than that of the male students. White students in DoDEA had an average score that was higher than the average scores of Blacks and Hispanic students, but not significantly different from the average score of Asian students. The percentage of White students (55) performing at or above Proficient was greater than corresponding Black (37) and Hispanic (44) students, but not significantly different from the percentage of Asian students (52). Figure 1 shows the average NAEP 2019 reading scores of DoDEA students by gender and ethnicity.

Figure 1. NAEP 2019 Reading Grade 4 Average Scale Score Gap Report

With respect to eighth grade reading, female students achieved a higher average scale score in reading than that of the male students. The difference between student performance at or above Proficient level between male and female is significant; 47 percent and 58 percent respectively. White students in DoDEA had an average score that was higher than the average scores of Black and Hispanic students, but not significantly different from the average score of Asian students. The percentage of White students performing at or above Proficient was greater than corresponding percentages of Black and Hispanic students, but not significantly different from the percentage of Asian students. Figure 2 shows the average NAEP 2019 reading scores of DoDEA students by gender and ethnicity.

Figure 2. NAEP 2019 Reading Grade 8 Average Scale Score Gap Report

DoDEA 2019 NAEP Mathematics Results by Student Groups

With respect to fourth grade mathematics, male students in DoDEA had a higher average scale score (252) than female students (249) on the NAEP 2019 assessment. The percent of male students (57) that performed at or above Proficient was significantly higher than female students (50). White students in DoDEA had an average score that was significantly higher than the average scores of Blacks and Hispanic students, but was not significantly different than that of Asian students. The percentage of White students performing at or above Proficient was significant higher than corresponding Black and Hispanic students, but not significantly different than that of Asian students. Figure 3 shows the average NAEP 2019 mathematics scores of DoDEA students by ethnicity.

Figure 3. NAEP 2019 Mathematics Grade 4 Average Scale Score Gap Report

With respect eighth grade mathematics, male students in DoDEA had an average scale score in mathematics (293) that is not significantly different from that of female students (291). The difference between gender performance at or above Proficient was also not significantly significant. White students in DoDEA had an average score that was significantly higher than the average scores of Blacks and Hispanic students, but was significantly lower than that of Asian students. The percentage of White students performing at or above Proficient was significant higher than corresponding Black and Hispanic students, but was significantly different than that of Asian students. Figure 4 shows the average NAEP 2019 mathematics scores of DoDEA students by ethnicity.

Figure 4. NAEP 2019 Mathematics Grade 8 Average Scale Score Gap Report

DoDEA 2019 NAEP PERFORMANCE BY CONTENT SUBSCALE

The NAEP Framework for Mathematics assesses students in five broad areas of mathematical content – Algebra, Data Analysis, Geometry, Measurement, and Number Operations. DoDEA students in 4th grade performed higher than 8th grade students in four content areas except for geometry. Students performed highest in Grade 4 measurement and Grade 8 Geometry.

The NAEP Framework for Reading assesses students in two broad areas of reading – gain information and literary experience. NAEP 2019 performance of students in grade 4 and 8 are comparable between the two reading content areas.

NAEP uses Item Response Theory (IRT) scaling and NAEP marginal estimations to estimate scale scores for each of the mathematics content areas at each grade. Each scale score distribution is transformed to NAEP scale scores that ranges from 0 to 500. Subscale effect sizes are used to compare performance in the different content areas. For more information about NAEP analysis, IRT, and scaling, see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/tdw/analysis/.

Additional Information Detailed information on the 2019 NAEP Reading and Mathematics assessment and all other NAEP assessments can be found on the web at: http://www.nationsreportcard.gov.

DoDEA plans, directs, coordinates, and manages pre-kindergarten through 12th grade education programs for school-age children of Department of Defense personnel who would otherwise not have access to high-quality public education. DoDEA schools are located in Europe, the Pacific, Western Asia, the Middle East, Cuba, the United States, Guam, and Puerto Rico. DoDEA also provides support and resources to Local Educational Agencies throughout the United States that serve children of military families.

Appendix A

NAEP Comparison Data (2017 and 2019)

Reading, Grade 4

Reading, Grade 8

Mathematics, Grade 4

Mathematics, Grade 8