Feb. 01, 2011
Back
to ERIC News
Results of the science assessment from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the Nation's Report Card—are now available in ERIC. The Nation's Report Card: Science 2009 Grades 4, 8, and 12 was released by the National Center for Education Statistics in late January.
The science assessment was given to national and state samples of more than 156,000 fourth-graders and 151,000 eighth-graders, and a national sample of more than 11,000 twelfth-graders. Participating students represented public and private schools in all states, the District of Columbia, and Department of Defense schools. Results are reported in two ways: as average scale scores on a 0-300 scale and as percentages of students at or above three achievement levels—Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.
A major finding of the report was that 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of twelfth-graders performed at or above the Proficient level in science. Seventy-two percent of fourth-graders, 63 percent of eighth-graders, and 60 percent of twelfth-graders performed at or above the Basic level. Only a small number of students—1 percent of fourth-graders, 2 percent of eighth-graders, and 1 percent of twelfth-graders—performed at the Advanced level. Twelfth-graders who reported coursework in biology, chemistry, and physics scored higher on average than those who reported taking just biology and chemistry, or only biology or other science courses.
The 2009 assessment was based on a new framework that emphasized four science practices: identifying science principles, using science principles, using scientific inquiry, and using technological design. Questions covered life science, physical science, and earth and space sciences. Because the framework was revised to reflect the latest advances in science, new research on science learning, and components of key international exams, the assessment results cannot be compared to those from previous years.
NAEP is administered and analyzed by the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences. Additional information about the science assessment is available from http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2009/
