STATEMENT ON NAEP 2002 WRITING REPORT CARD

MARILYN WHIRRY

Member, National Assessment Governing Board;
Former 12^th Grade English Teacher and
National Teacher of the Year 2000

The National Assessment report on writing for 2002 gives us a new second look at how well American students are learning one of the most crucial skills they can take with them from school to the rest of their lives. In many ways, these results are similar to the first look we had in the Writing Report Card for 1998, which was the first time that the current NAEP writing assessment was administered.

There is some positive news in the results we are releasing today. Not only has writing improved at both the fourth and eighth grades, but the proportion of students reaching the Basic achievement level is reasonably high at all three grades that NAEP tests. Altogether, about 75 to 85 percent meet this standard of partial mastery for their grade. They are able get their main points across albeit with some mistakes and some confusion.

Unfortunately, the proportion that can compose the organized, coherent prose required for writing at the Proficient level is still quite small. Although Proficient is not a standard for professional writers or for winners of a children's writing contest, it does require clear language and supporting detail. Also, spelling and grammar should be consistently correct. How well organized and developed this writing should be depends on the grade level. But at all three NAEP grades less than a third of the national sample reached the Proficient achievement level. At grade 12 just 24 percent achieved this goal.

Yet, the improvements since 1998 are encouraging. The proportion at Proficient rose at both fourth and eighth grades. So did average scores, whether measured by gender or race or poverty. In fourth grade, as the percentile rankings show, there were gains throughout the whole distribution of student performance. The performance of the best young writers improved. So did the skills of those at the bottom.

At eighth grade, however, even though all demographic groups shared in the improvement, the gains were concentrated in the top half of the test score distribution. And in 12^th grade the situation is mixed in a disturbing way.

In 2002 the average score of high school seniors remained flat; so did the proportion reaching Proficient. The averages by race/ethnicity did not change significantly. But the average for males, already low, fell significantly, while for female students, it held steady.

Overall, the proportion of high school seniors reaching Basic—not an exalted standard by any means—fell from 78 to 74 percent, which means that those below Basic increased from 22 to 26 percent. This disturbing deterioration also appears at the 10th and 25th percentiles, where achievement dropped significantly.

Meanwhile, the very best 12^th grade writers are writing better. The scores at the 90^th percentile, the top ten percent of the distribution, went up significantly. There also was a gain—from 1 percent to 2 percent—in those writing the rich, compelling prose required at the Board's Advanced achievement level.

Unfortunately, the writing gap among high school seniors-between the best writers and the others—is getting wider.

What's going on that might explain what is happening?

As a cross-sectional survey, NAEP cannot prove definitively what causes what. But it can be used with other sources to shed some light.

As you know, around the country there have been major efforts to improve student writing in elementary and middle schools. Often these are part of a tremendous push to improve reading comprehension, and the two skills—reading carefully and writing clearly—can best be developed together.

I like to think of reading and writing instruction as part of a huge circle: students read something that is well-written, talk about it, and then put their thoughts down on paper—clearly and succinctly—for someone else to read and respond to. As you know, NAEP does not follow particular programs or schools. But it seems very clear from what I've seen as I travel around the country that the efforts to improve reading and writing have reinforced each other.

In my travels as National Teacher of the Year I witnessed the substantial expansion of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs in the high schools. The students in these programs get a great deal of writing in all their classes. This is important because the only way to learn to write is through writing, and these students are doing just that. But obviously, the schools are not giving the same attention to the writing of all students. It's not that the teachers are unsympathetic or uncaring. But the time needed for this type of teaching and grading is enormous. I believe all members of the school community must find ways to have students write regularly, and the schools must set higher expectations for all students, not just the top ones.

Only a few writers will become eloquent or compelling, but the Board believes all students should be able to reach the Proficient level, where prose is strong and coherent and choice of language is precise. I hope this will be the expectation of the new writing section that the College Board is introducing in 2005 in its SAT exams.

As a timed, on-demand assessment, NAEP cannot tell us about our students' ability to produce a carefully polished piece of writing. The Board set NAEP's performance standards with this limitation in mind. But students are given 25 minutes to respond to each prompt on the assessment. That is a fair amount of time, and almost all have time enough to complete their assignments.

I have used timed writing assignments in my own classes, and found them to be valuable. Some people complain that the situation is artificial, giving students only so many minutes to write. But there are many situations where people face deadlines in finishing work assignments and writing reports. The ability to analyze a problem quickly and write what you think clearly and succinctly is important—not just on tests but in many professions and many lives.

But this does not mean just dashing off a few lines. It requires some planning, even for the 25-minute assignments that NAEP gives. The assessment offers some tips on planning and space in its test booklets for doing it. The evidence in the assessment itself—and from many other sources as well—is that the planning pays. At all three grades, the more planning students did, the higher their average scores. Those who showed evidence of planning for both prompts they were given did significantly better than those who planned for only one, and those who planned only once scored higher than those who did no planning at all.

Another point from NAEP's background questions, which are posted on the web, is that students who say they go back and make changes in what they first write perform better than those who never review. That seems like common sense. It is also part of the process by which writing can be taught.

For good writing, and that is what NAEP seeks at its Proficient achievement level, requires good thinking and care. The writing should be insightful, not just smooth. As I've told my students, the ability to write clear English prose is more than an incidental tool. It is a crucial means to organize our own ideas, to find out what we are thinking, and to connect with those we are trying to reach.

This new NAEP report makes it clear that many students are able to write at a basic, minimally effective level. At the lower grades they are making gains. But by the time students graduate high school they should be able to produce more than disorganized self-expression or Internet chat. It is the responsibility of every teacher to lead students in their struggle to become writers. We must walk them up the ladder of understanding. We must show students that learning any skill—but most of all writing—is an active, difficult, but satisfying process. To give our students this ability is to give them a sort of freedom—the freedom to think clearly and to express their thoughts well.