The Nation’s Report Card:
Trends in Academic Progress 2012
June 2013
Author: National Center for Education Statistics
Download The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012 (5.6 MB)
Executive Summary
Nine- and 13-year-olds make gains
Racial/ethnic and gender gaps narrow
Since the 1970s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has monitored the academic performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students with what have become known as the long-term trend assessments. Four decades of results offer an extended view of student achievement in reading and mathematics. Results in this report are based on the most recent performance of more than 50,000 public and private school students who, by their participation, have contributed to our understanding of the nation’s academic achievement.
Nine- and 13-year-olds make gains
Both 9- and 13-year-olds scored higher in reading and mathematics in 2012 than students their age in the early 1970s. Scores were 8 to 25 points higher in 2012 than in the first assessment year. Seventeen-year-olds, however, did not show similar gains. Average reading and mathematics scores in 2012 for 17-year-olds were not significantly different from scores in the first assessment year.
Since the last administration of the assessments in 2008, only 13-year-olds made gains—and they did so in both reading and mathematics.
Trend in NAEP reading and mathematics average scores for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students
Reading
Mathematics
See complete data for reading age 9, age 13, and age 17.
See complete data for mathematics age 9, age 13, and age 17.
* Significantly different (p < .05) from 2012.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), various years, 1971–2012 Long-Term Trend Reading and Mathematics Assessments.
Racial/ethnic and gender gaps narrow
Closing achievement gaps is a goal of both national and state education policy. The results from the 2012 NAEP long-term trend assessments show some progress toward meeting that goal. The narrowing of the White – Black and White – Hispanic score gaps in reading and mathematics from the 1970s is the result of larger gains by Black and Hispanic students than White students. Only the White – Hispanic gap in mathematics at age 9 has not shown a significant change from the early 1970s.
Female students scored higher in reading than male students at all three ages. The 2012 results show 9-year-old males making larger score gains than females. This has led to a narrowing of the gender gap at age 9 as compared to 1971.
In mathematics, male 17-year-old students scored higher than female students. The gender gap at age 17 narrowed because female students made gains from 1971 to 2012, but 17-year-old male students did not.
Characteristic | Student group | Score changes from 1971 | Score changes from 2008 | ||||
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Age 9 | Age 13 | Age 17 | Age 9 | Age 13 | Age 17 | ||
Overall | All students | ![]() |
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Race/ethnicity | White | ![]() |
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Black | ![]() |
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Hispanic1 | ![]() |
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Gender | Male | ![]() |
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Female | ![]() |
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Score gaps | White – Black | Narrowed | Narrowed | Narrowed | ![]() |
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White – Hispanic | Narrowed | Narrowed | Narrowed | ![]() |
Narrowed | ![]() |
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Female – Male | Narrowed | ![]() |
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Characteristic | Student group | Score changes from 1973 | Score changes from 2008 | ||||
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Age 9 | Age 13 | Age 17 | Age 9 | Age 13 | Age 17 | ||
Overall | All students | ![]() |
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Race/ethnicity | White | ![]() |
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Black | ![]() |
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Hispanic | ![]() |
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Gender | Male | ![]() |
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Female | ![]() |
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Score gaps | White – Black | Narrowed | Narrowed | Narrowed | ![]() |
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White – Hispanic | ![]() |
Narrowed | Narrowed | ![]() |
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Female – Male2 | ![]() |
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Narrowed | ![]() |
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1 Reading results for Hispanic students were first available in 1975. Therefore, the results shown in the 1971 section for Hispanic students are from the 1975 assessment. 2 Score differences between male and female students in mathematics were not found to be statistically significant (p < .05) at age 9 in 1973, 2008, or 2012, and at age 13 in 1973 and 2012. NOTE: Black includes African American, and Hispanic includes Latino. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), various years, 1971–2012 Long-Term Trend Reading and Mathematics Assessments.
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