Fact Sheet
Achievement Levels
Basic—Partial mastery of knowledge and skills needed for proficient work at each grade level
Proficient—Strong performance for grade level; has mastery of knowledge, and skills needed; using Bloom's Taxonomy, they have knowledge, application, and analysis abilities
Advanced—
Demonstrates exceptional performance
Why place a focus on adolescent literacy?
Challenges:
Here is a quick glance at the status of the literacy educational achievement for adolescents.
Eighth-Grade Scores NAEP Reading 2003
- 3 percent of eighth-grade students performed at an advanced level on the NAEP Reading Assessment in 2003.
- 29 percent of eighth-grade students performed at the proficient level on the NAEP Reading assessment in 2003.
- 42 percent of eighth-grade students performed at basic level on the NAEP reading assessment.
- 26 percent of students achieved a below basic score on the NAEP Reading Assessment in 2003.
(The Nation's Report Card, Reading, highlights 2003. NCES 2004-452)
Eighth-Grade Scores NAEP Writing 2002
- 2 percent of students achieved an advanced level of performance.
- 28 percent of eighth-grade students performed at the proficient level.
- 54 percent of eighth-grade students performed at the basic level.
- 15 percent of eighth-grade students performed below basic.
(The Condition of Education 2004, page 122, NCES)
Dropout Rates
"Five out of every 100 individuals ages 15–24 who were enrolled in high school the previous October had left high school without successfully completing a high school program. These annual, national, and state dropout estimates have not changed appreciably in recent years."
Kaufman, P., Alt, M. N., & Chapman, C. D. (2004). Dropout rates in the United States: 2001 (NCES 2005-046). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved April 1, 2005, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005046.pdf (Adobe Reader PDF 368 KB)
Opportunities:
No Child Left Behind provided the impetus for strengthened teacher quality provisions. Content-area teachers are required to hold an endorsement in the subjects they teach. We now have the opportunity to strengthen instructional knowledge for content-area teachers. Department of Education–funded initiatives and research will help transform this into reality.