People seemed to like my
post explaining how changing demographics are masking improvements on the NAEP reading test. One comment that’s been voiced a couple times, by
Kevin Drum and others, is that I used the Long-Term Trend NAEP as opposed to what everyone else was talking about, the main NAEP reading scores that were released last week. As I explained in the post, I used the Long-Term trend in this case because it has undergone fewer changes over the years and has been in use for longer. But, my point is not just limited to this version; it also applies to the main NAEP. Here are the score increases for fourth-grade reading from 1992 to 2009, by race/ethnicity:
Overall: +4
Whites: +6
Blacks: +13
Hispanics: +8
Asian/ Pacific
Not-the-April-Fools Edition.
