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DoDEA students’ writing scores rise

Scores of eighth-grade students in Defense Department schools rose three points in the 2007 writing achievement tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, school officials announced Tuesday.

“It’s a significant increase,” said Jim Jarrard, education program specialist for the Department of Defense Education Activity. When the test was last administered in 2002, DoDEA students scored an overall 162. Scoring is on a scale of 0 to 300.

The Defense Department’s students scored 11 points higher than the national average of 154.

With an overall score of 165 in the most recent test, DoDEA retains its spot as the fourth-ranked jurisdiction in the nation, behind New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The school system’s black and Hispanic student scores ranked them the first in the nation compared with their peers in civilian public schools.

DoDEA’s black students scored 155, compared with the national average of 140 for their peers in civilian schools. Hispanic students scored 165, compared with an average of 141 for their civilian peers.

The tests were given from late January to early March 2007. School officials are preparing for the next round of NAEP testing, in reading and math, scheduled for late January 2009, Jarrard said.

Shirley Miles, DoDEA’s associate director for education and principal deputy director, credited teachers, students and effective curriculum initiatives for the achievements.

“Writing is one of the keys to success in life,” she said in a prepared statement. “It is an essential means of communication, self-expression and learning. We are pleased and encouraged with the results because they reflect how well our students are performing in writing and in language arts in general. We thank our teachers and students for their hard work and their commitment to continuous improvement.”

Jarrard said writing has always been emphasized in DoDEA schools.

“That historical emphasis continues to carry us forward,” he said.

The writing assessment is given to 8th- and 12th-graders. Only national scores are reported for 12th-graders. That score was 153, compared with 148 in 2002.

Fourth-graders do not take the NAEP writing tests, but they do take other NAEP tests.

The NAEP writing assessment evaluates students’ writing for three purposes — narrative, informative and persuasive. Students’ writings can receive one of six ratings ranging from “unsatisfactory” to “excellent.”

The test was first administered in 1998. In 2007, 45 states took part in the NAEP writing assessment in addition to DoDEA, for a total of 46 jurisdictions. About 140,000 8th-graders students took the test.