2002 Trial Urban District Assessment in Writing

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Introduction
What Was Assessed?
Who Was Assessed?
How To Interpret NAEP Results
Scale Score and Achievement-level Results for the Trial Urban District Assessment
Snapshot Report in Writing

In 2002, NAEP conducted the first Trial Urban District Assessment in reading and writing. Federal appropriations authorized for the No Child Left Behind Act supported a multi-year study of the feasibility of a Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) of Educational Progress. In 2001, after discussion among the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Council of the Great City Schools, NAGB passed a resolution approving the selection of five large urban districts for participation in a TUDA, a special project within NAEP. The District of Columbia is part of main NAEP and was included in the TUDA for purposes of comparison.

The trial design calls for a sufficient sample size to make reliable district-level comparisons. Because individual states have assessments based on a variety of scores, scales, and test designs, districts have not been able to validly compare themselves to a district in another state. For the first time, the TUDA makes such comparisons possible.

As in the national and state assessments, students participating in the NAEP 2002 TUDA in writing were asked to write for three main purposes: narrative, informative, and persuasive.

The NAEP 2002 TUDA in writing used the same writing framework as the national and state assessments. In fact, the assessment instrument, procedures, and time-frame were identical with those in the NAEP 2002 assessment.

The TUDA was conducted in five urban public-school districts: Atlanta City, Chicago School District 299, Houston Independent School District, Los Angeles Unified, and New York City Public Schools. New York City took part in the assessment but met the required participation guidelines only at grade 4.

Sampling for the TUDA was modeled on the procedure for sampling states. The number of participating schools ranged from 38 to 76 per district at the fourth grade and from 15 to 69 per district at the eighth grade. The number of participating students per district ranged from 924 to 2,037 at the fourth grade and from 1,109 to 1,778 at the eighth grade.

Any noted differences in performance between groups of students are based on statistical tests. The tests consider both the size of differences between averages or percentages and the standard error of those statistics. Every test score estimate has a standard error—a range of a few points plus or minus the score—due to sampling error and measurement error. Statistical tests are used to determine whether the differences between average scores are significant. Only statistically significant differences are cited.

The reader is cautioned to rely on the reported differences in the text and tables, which are statistically significant, rather than on the apparent magnitude of any difference. The standard errors are available in the NAEP Data Tool, where there are procedures to test for statistically significant differences.

For more information on scale scores, achievement levels, and statistical significance of differences, go to interpreting NAEP results.

In order to provide a context for the data collected in the TUDA, results are presented for students attending public schools in the nation as a whole, as well as for public schools located in central cities across the nation. Following standard census definitions, a central city is a city of 50,000 people or more that is the largest in its metropolitan area, or can otherwise be regarded as "central," taking into account such characteristics as commuting patterns.

• Average writing scale score and selected percentiles, grades 4 and 8
• Cross-district comparisons of average writing scale scores, grade 4
• Cross-district comparisons of average writing scale scores, grade 8
• Percentage of students at or above each writing achievement level, grades 4 and 8
• Cross-district comparisons of percentage of students at or above Proficient in writing, grade 4
• Cross-district comparisons of percentage of students at or above Proficient in writing, grade 8

Download a copy of the Trial Urban District Assessment Report Card with more extensive results, including subgroup performance at the district level.

Download a copy of a one-page district Snapshot report in writing.

Explore the district data in more detail in the NAEP Data Tool. There you will find data on demographic subgroup performance as well as contextual background data at the district level. If you've never used the Data Tool before, look at the tutorial before you begin.

Source

Average writing scale scores and selected percentiles, grades 4 and 8 public schools: By urban district, 2002

			Scale score distribution
	Average
	scale score		25th percentile		50th percentile		75th percentile
Grade 4
Nation (Public)		153		128		153		178
Central city (Public) 1		147 **		122 **		146 **		171 **
Atlanta		140 *,**		117 *,**		139 *,**		161 *,**
Chicago		138 *,**		116 *,**		137 *,**		160 *,**
District of Columbia		135 *,**		113 *,**		134 *,**		157 *,**
Houston		148		123		147		174
Los Angeles		141 *,**		117 **		141 *,**		165 *,**
New York City ‡		153 *		128		154 *		178
Grade 8
Nation (Public)		152		127		153		178
Central city (Public) 2		143 **		117 **		144 **		170 **
Atlanta		130 *,**		107 *,**		129 *,**		151 *,**
Chicago		136 *,**		111 **		136 *,**		160 *,**
District of Columbia		128 *,**		105 *,**		128 *,**		152 *,**
Houston		138 **		113 **		139 **		165 **
Los Angeles		128 *,**		104 *,**		128 *,**		152 *,**

^‡ Although deemed sufficient for reporting, the target response rate specified in the NAEP guidelines was not met.
* Significantly different from central city public schools.
** Significantly different from nation (public schools).
¹ For comparison, at fourth grade 66 percent of students in central city public schools and 40 percent in public schools nationally were non-White. Also, 61 percent of students in central city public schools and 43 percent in public schools nationally were eligible for free/reduced-price lunch.
² For comparison, at eighth grade 61 percent of students in central city public schools and 36 percent in public schools nationally were non-White. Also, 48 percent of students in central city public schools and 34 percent in public schools nationally were eligible for free/reduced-price lunch.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2002 Trial Urban District Writing Assessment and 2002 Writing Assessement.

Major Findings 

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• The average score (on a 0 to 300 scale) for fourth-grade students in public schools in the nation was 153 and for students in central city schools was 147.
• The average score (on a 0 to 300 scale) for eighth-grade students in public schools in the nation was 152 and in central city schools was 143.
• At grade 4, the average score for students in the nation was higher than the average score in each of the districts except New York City and Houston, where the average scores were not found to be significantly different from the national average score.
• Fourth-grade students in New York City had higher average scores than fourth-graders in central city schools, while no significant differences were found between average scores for fourth- and eighth-grade students in Houston and those in central city schools.
• At grade 8, the average scores for students in the nation and for central city public schools generally were higher than those in urban districts, except in Houston where average scores were not found to be significantly different from central cities.

Data for New York City at grade 8 do not appear because the district did not meet the required 70 percent school participation rate.