Grade 4 NAEP Reading: Flat or Declining, Though With Some Results Better Than The Nation

| Post By Susan Perkins Weston |

As noted in the previous post, Kentucky saw a decline in fourth grade reading from 2015 to 2017, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Those results showed no improvement for groups by English learner status, disability status, eligibility for free or reduced price meals, and race. Instead, there were statistically significant declines for English learners and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as well as their classmates who were not English learners and those who were not eligible for those meals.

Kentucky's Hispanic students, students with identified disabilities, and students eligible for free/reduced meals had results significantly better than similar students nationally, and students without identified disabilities also had a lead. White students were the one group with results significantly below similar students across the nation.

These disappointing results deserve thoughtful analysis and close attention. Future posts will share group results on the other tests, and the full NAEP results are available now from the NAEP Data Explorer here.


This post has been revised to use versions of the charts that identify the tested subject and grade in each chart title. The included data has not been changed.