Big-City Schools Kick Off First Trial Urban NAEP  

Urban Schools Volunteer for Tough Test; Stiffen Resolve to Meet Highest Standards

WASHINGTON, July 22 - Six big-city school districts have set the initial benchmark for the first-ever trial urban National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), considered the nation's report card for measuring academic achievement.

The public school districts of Atlanta, Chicago, the District of Columbia, Houston, Los Angeles and New York City volunteered to participate in the NAEP 2002 Trial Urban District Assessment in reading and writing at grades 4 and 8.       

The urban districts volunteered to take the test in order to:

·     Demonstrate their continuing commitment to the nation's highest academic standards and to reaffirm their determination to raise student performance;

·     Assess the effect of their reforms over time and better gauge what works and what doesn't in improving urban school achievement; and

·     Compare themselves to their big-city counterparts in other states.   

The idea for a trial urban NAEP originated in 2000, when the Council of the Great City Schools requested that the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) conduct a trial NAEP assessment for large urban school districts that wanted to participate.

Results of the groundbreaking NAEP, released today by NAGB and administered by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics and supported with funds from Congressional appropriations committees, show:

·    New York City schools have the highest percentage of students, 19 percent, performing at or above "proficient" in fourth-grade reading of the other five urban school districts tested, compared with 30 percent of public school students nationwide;

·     New York City schools also have the highest percentage of students, 27 percent, performing at or above "proficient" in fourth-grade writing, placing them at the national average and Houston near it;   

·     Houston schools have the highest percentage of students, 48 percent, achieving at or above "basic" in grade four reading than the other five districts, compared with 62 percent of public school students nationwide; and

·     New York City schools have the highest percentage of students, 85 percent, performing at or above "basic" in fourth-grade writing, also placing them at the national average.

Of all the urban school districts tested in fourth-grade reading, Atlanta had 12 percent at or above "proficient" and 35 percent at or above "basic"; Chicago had 11 percent and 34 percent, respectively; the District of Columbia had 10 percent and 31 percent; Houston had 18 percent and 48 percent; Los Angeles had 11 percent and 33 percent; and New York City had 19 percent and 47 percent, respectively.

In fourth-grade writing achievement, Atlanta had 13 percent at or above "proficient" and 77 percent at or above "basic"; Chicago had 12 percent and 76 percent, respectively; the District of Columbia had 11 percent and 73 percent; Houston had 23 percent and 81 percent; Los Angeles had 16 percent and 77 percent; and New York City had 27 percent and 85 percent, respectively.

These and other cities are large enough to influence the nation's achievement results. There is some evidence, for example, that national gains in recently released fourth-grade reading NAEP scores were due, in part, to significant increases that big-city schools have seen in fourth-grade reading scores on 2002 state assessments, according to Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's largest urban school districts.

"The Council and its member districts are fully committed to high standards for urban schoolchildren and accountability for results. That's why these districts have volunteered to set a baseline to determine our progress on those standards in the future," stresses Casserly. "We want to judge the progress of our reforms, and to be able to gauge our achievement with other urban districts facing the same challenges."

Results for grade eight reading and writing in the NAEP 2002 Trial Urban District Assessment show:

·    Houston schools have the highest percentage of students, 17 percent, performing at or above "proficient" in eighth-grade reading than the other urban districts, compared with 31 percent of eighth-graders in public schools in the nation;

·    Houston schools have the highest percentage of students, 19 percent, performing at or above "proficient" in eighth-grade writing than the other urban districts, compared with 30 percent in the nation;

·    Chicago schools have the highest percentage of students, 62 percent, achieving at or above "basic" in eighth-grade reading than the other urban districts, compared with 74 percent of eighth-graders in the nation; and

·    Houston schools have the highest percentage of students, 74 percent, performing at or above "basic" in eighth-grade writing than the other urban districts, compared with 84 percent in the nation.

Of all the urban school districts tested in eighth-grade reading, Atlanta had 8 percent at or above "proficient" and 42 percent at or above "basic"; Chicago had 15 percent and 62 percent, respectively; the District of Columbia had 10 percent and 48 percent; Houston had 17 percent and 59 percent; and Los Angeles had 10 percent and 44 percent, respectively. New York City had too few eighth grade students to be included because of problems emerging in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

In eighth-grade writing achievement, Atlanta had 10 percent at or above "proficient" and 68 percent at or above "basic"; Chicago had 16 percent and 72 percent, respectively; the District of Columbia had 10 percent and 66 percent; Houston had 19 percent and 74 percent; and Los Angeles had 11 percent and 64 percent, respectively.  Again, eighth-grade scores were not available for New York City.

The trial urban NAEP also takes into account achievement gaps by race, income, language proficiency, and gender. White students, for example, had higher average scores than their black and Hispanic counterparts in all six urban districts, although D.C. had too few white eighth graders and Atlanta had too few Hispanic students on which to make meaningful comparisons. The size of the gaps differed from city-to-city and from group-to-group.

"There's a lot of work to be done to raise our overall performance and to close the gaps," Casserly emphasizes.  "We are calling on the federal government, the states, and others to help us get the job done."  

NAEP is considered a more rigorous test of student achievement than many of the individual state assessments. The federal No Child Left Behind Act will require that states take NAEP in order to assess the rigor of their standards and assessments.   

In the fall, a report will be released to show the 2003 Trial Urban District Assessment in reading and mathematics for the six urban districts and four others - Boston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cleveland and San Diego.  

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