What Do the NAEP Reading Scores Mean?

The latest round of national test scores for reading are out. The average scores on the 2024 tests were lower overall (opens in new window) for both 4th and 8th graders compared to the previous NAEP scores from 2022. That means score declines that began after 2017 have continued to deepen.

“Student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels,” Dr. Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said at a media briefing. “Reading scores continue to decline, and our lower-performing students are reading at historically low levels.”

If you’re a teacher, you likely see the headlines each time NAEP comes out, and you may even feel the heat when scores stagnate or decline. But how do these national tests work if your students aren’t necessarily taking them? And what do the results really tell us? 

Reading Universe has some answers. Here’s what to know about the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.

Sometimes known as “the nation’s report card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress is a group of tests that are given to samples of 4th, 8th, and 12th graders around the country. The National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education, administers the assessments. The first NAEP tests were given in 1969. 

NAEP is meant to be a common measure of student achievement – or a way to see on a large scale how kids in the U.S. are doing academically. You might think of it as a barometer for the country’s achievement.

The math and reading tests for 4th and 8th grades are given every two years – and those are the results that get the most attention. The 12th grade math and reading tests are generally given every four years. But there are NAEP tests in many other subjects as well, including science, civics, economics, geography, music and visual arts, and “technology and engineering literacy.” Those tests tend to be administered less frequently.

About 117,000 students in 4th grade and 115,000 students in 8th grade took the most recent NAEP tests in reading. 

It’s important to understand that different students take the tests each time they’re administered, so NAEP is not a tool for looking at individual student progress. In fact, NAEP does not release the names of schools or students who participate. 

But the sample of students aims to be nationally representative, meaning it seeks to reflect the country’s geographic, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity, and should be a good indicator of how all U.S. students are doing.

To administer the tests, NAEP representatives go to participating schools during regular school hours and bring all the needed materials. Students take one subject test, which lasts just an hour. They also answer survey questions (opens in new window) about their learning experiences in school and at home.

About five years ago, the NAEP tests went from paper and pencil to fully digital assessments. 

Students with disabilities and English Learners who receive accommodations for regular classroom testing are included in the testing and can also receive those accommodations during NAEP tests. 

The NAEP reading test is a measure of reading comprehension – and it’s known to be quite challenging.

Students read literary and informational texts that NAEP has deemed grade-appropriate and answer questions about them. Some questions are multiple choice and others require students to write extended responses. 

Here’s a sample question from a 4th grade reading test. Before answering, students read a version of “The Bell of Atri.” This question is considered easy:

About 64% of students got this question right (it’s ‘B’). 

Here’s a sample 4th grade question that’s considered hard:

Only about 15% of students showed “full comprehension” based on their answer to this question. More than half of students showed “little or no comprehension.”

Along with national data, NAEP releases results for each state and for about two dozen big urban districts. 

NAEP uses four scoring categories (opens in new window): below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced.

It’s important to understand that on the NAEP scores, “proficient” is a high bar — even higher than what you’d consider on grade level. Students who are proficient demonstrate understanding of challenging content at their grade level, as well as the ability to apply and analyze it. 

A lot of people use the term “proficient” incorrectly when it comes to NAEP, because under state assessment systems proficient usually equates to grade-level performance. But when NAEP tells us only 31% of 4th graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading, that might not be quite as alarming as it sounds. More students than that are likely meeting the grade-level benchmarks in their state.

What experts are alarmed about, however, is the growing number of students scoring below basic on NAEP. Students who fall within that category, meaning they did not reach even the lowest level of achievement, likely struggle to understand a simple story or even determine the meaning of familiar words in context.

The NAEP results are also broken down by different demographic groups. For example, you can view trends in performance by race/ethnicity, gender, type of school (public, public charter, or private), students with and without disabilities, and English Learner status.

Because of this, the results offer an indication of where achievement gaps have widened or decreased — which alerts educators and policymakers about where to consider putting their attention.

Unfortunately … lots of things. 

Overall, the test scores can tell us what is happening, but they cannot tell us why. 

The reading scores, in particular, can’t explain which skills students are struggling with. Is the difficulty mostly with decoding the words in front of them? Or is it more a problem with understanding what those words mean? Which part of the Simple View of Reading is leading to low scores?

And while each time the scores are released everyone will have a theory about what led to the ups and downs, you should view those interpretations with a grain of salt. Because in truth, the only thing the scores tell us definitively is … well, the scores. They tell us how students performed on this particular test, but they can’t explain why, or how students might have done if the test had been constructed differently.