Superintendent Meria Carstarphen announced today that AISD’s fourth and eighth grade students continued to outperform their peers in large cities and other urban school districts on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card. The results for the 21 urban districts that participated in this year’s Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) of the NAEP were released today in Washington, D.C.

In 2011, Austin ISD’s fourth and eighth graders continued to perform well in mathematics and reading:

• The average scale score for fourth graders in math was 245, significantly higher than that of their peers in large cities (233), national public schools (240) and 18 of the 20 other TUDA districts (including Houston and Dallas). Overall, 87% of AISD fourth graders scored at or above Basic.
• The average scale score for eighth graders in math was 287, higher than their peers in large cities (274), national public schools (283) and 19 of the other 20 TUDA districts (including Houston and Dallas). Overall, 74% of eighth graders tested scored at or above the Basic level, a significant increase from 2005 (68%).
• The percentage of fourth graders scoring at or above Basic in reading (68%) was significantly higher than that of their peers in 15 other TUDA districts, large cities (55%) and was similar to that of their peers in national public schools (66%).
• The percentage of AISD’s eighth graders scoring at or above Basic in reading (71%) was significantly higher than 15 other TUDA districts and large cities (65%).

NAEP is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, within the U.S. Department of Education and is a nationally representative assessment that reports on what students know and can do in core academic subjects. AISD has participated in the NAEP urban schools assessment since 2005.