The 2011 assessment

Drawing on an extensive research base, the NAEP reading framework specifies the use of literary and informational texts in the assessment.

• Literary texts include fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry.
• Informational texts include exposition, argumentation and persuasive texts, and procedural texts and documents.

The term cognitive target refers to the mental processes or kinds of thinking that underlie reading comprehension. The framework specifies that the assessment questions measure three cognitive targets for both literary and informational texts.

• Locate and Recall. When locating or recalling information from what they have read, students may identify explicitly stated main ideas or may focus on specific elements of a story.
• Integrate and Interpret. When integrating and interpreting what they have read, students may make comparisons, explain character motivation, or examine relations of ideas across the text.
• Critique and Evaluate. When critiquing or evaluating what they have read, students view the text critically by examining it from numerous perspectives or may evaluate overall text quality or the effectiveness of particular aspects of the text.

The proportion of the assessment questions devoted to each of the three cognitive targets varies by grade to reflect the developmental differences of students.

The framework also calls for a systematic assessment of meaning vocabulary. Vocabulary assessment occurs in the context of a particular passage; that is, questions measure students' understanding of word meaning as intended by the author, as well as passage comprehension.

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Results

As illustrated above, the average reading score for the nation's fourth-graders in 2011 was unchanged from 2009. The score in 2011 was, however, 4 points higher than the score in 1992.

Other national results highlighted in this section show higher scores in 2011 than 2009 for students from both lower- and higher-income families. State results show higher scores in 2011 than 2009 for 4 of the 52 participating states and jurisdictions, and lower scores for 2 states.

There were no significant changes from 2009 to 2011 in the scores for lower-performing students (at the 10th and 25th percentiles), middle-performing students (at the 50th percentile), or higher-performing students (at the 75th and 90th percentiles). Scores for all five percentiles were higher in 2011 than in 1992.

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State performance at grade 4

The map below highlights changes in states' average fourth-grade reading scores from 2009 to 2011. Although there was no significant change nationally in the overall average score for public school students in 2009, scores were higher in 2011 than in 2009 in Alabama, Hawaii, Maryland, and Massachusetts. The average scores in Missouri and South Dakota were lower in 2011 than in 2009.

Thirty-two percent of fourth-grade public school students performed at or above the Proficient level in 2011, with percentages ranging from 19 percent in the District of Columbia to 50 percent in Massachusetts. The percentages of students at or above proficient were higher in 2011 than in 2009 for Louisiana, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

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What fourth-graders know and can do in reading

The item map below illustrates a range of reading behaviors associated with scores on the NAEP reading scale. The cut score at the lower end of the range for each achievement level is boxed. The descriptions of selected assessment questions that indicate what students need to do when responding successfully are listed on the right, along with the corresponding cognitive targets. The map on this page shows that fourth-graders performing at the Basic level with a score of 220 were likely to interpret a character's statement to provide a character trait. Students performing at the Proficient level with a score of 253 were likely to use information from an article to support an opinion. Students at the Advanced level with a score of 311 were likely to be able to use details from both the beginning and ending of a story to describe a change in a character's feelings.

Questions designed to assess the same cognitive target map at different points on the NAEP scale. This is so because the questions are about different passages; thus, an integrate/interpret question may be more or less difficult depending on the passage the question is referring to.