SchoolFinder Blog

The National Writing Report Card has Arrived

Good evening. Last night, at a friend’s house, I caught a glimpse of American Idol. The glimpse lasted for all but two-minutes. But even that was too long. Lots of tears and lots of Ryan Seacrest.

Today, the NCES, the National Center for Education Statistics released the writing assessment results detailing the 2007 performance of eighth- and 12th-graders nationally. NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress , was given January through to students across the country. I wanted to title this post “American Writing Idol”, but chose not to after consulting with my magic eight ball.

You can a download copy of the 2007 Writing Report Card here
You can read a transcript of the online chat held with Associate Commissioner Peggy G. Carr about the results here
You can read the statement from Mark Schneider, Commissioner of the NCES here
You can watch the press release for the 2007 Writing Report Card held on April 3, 2008 here (no registration necessary)

Overall, the scores were higher in 2007, than in 2002 & 1998, previous years when the assessments were taken.
Of the 39 states that participated:

• 19 states increased
• 1 State decreased (North Carolina)
• 18 states showed no significant change

Some questions/answers I thought were interesting from the online chat with Peggy Carr; (highlighting by me!)

Q: What would you say is the most striking change in results from the 2002 assessment to the 2007 assessment?

A: Some of the more notable findings of the 2007 assessment included the following: The improvement at grade 12 in writing, which we have not seen in some of the other subjects recently; The improvement among male students at both grades 8 and 12; The narrowing of the performance gap between Black and White students; and Improvements in performance at the 8th grade in some of the large urban school districts since 2002.

Q: What changes will result from the NAEP Writing assessment moving to computer-based testing under the new framework?

A: That is an excellent question. We are currently in the process of developing the computer based NAEP Writing assessment as well as the implementation thereof. Among the many changes, one of them is that we are considering is the use of standard editing tools (e.g., spelling check). The impact of changes such as these on student group writing proficiency differences is difficult to predict.

Q: Do you think that the popularity of text messaging amongst kids and the shorthand-like manner in which they text is posing a negative impact on writing skills?

A: There is no way to answer your question directly using the 2007 NAEP writing results. However, the assessment included a few background questions on the use of technology that can be correlated with student scores using our NAEP Data Explorer.

Q: How does your school rate in national compare to NJ schools?

A: If you are asking about how 8th-grade students in New Jersey compared to the rest of the nation in writing, their average score was 175, which numerically was the highest in the nation. The New Jersey average (175) was significantly greater than the national average (154), considering just public schools. New Jersey’s 8th-graders scored higher than any other state in the assessment. Results for individual schools can not be reported. For the 12th grade, average scores are reported only at the national and regional levels.