Child Trends / Hispanic Institute
Reading is a developmental process, in which children must navigate a sequence of increasingly di cult tasks.
1. As students move through school grades, they progress through changing environments of supports, task requirements, and knowledge demands. Reading is a skill that is built over time, and a tool for further learning. Reading achievement by the end of third grade is a critical checkpoint, for by this time reading to learn needs to take precedence over learning to read. Students who are still poor readers by the end of third grade are less likely to understand what is taught in later grades. In fact, the likelihood of high school graduation can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by fourth-grade reading scores.
2. Most students in U.S. public schools perform below the “pro cient” level in reading, according to national benchmark tests. In 2015, 35 percent of all fourth-graders scored at or above the pro cient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, also known as “The Nation’s Report CardTM”); at eighth grade, the proportion was 33 percent. Moreover, reading achievement varies substantially by race and ethnicity. Nearly half of white students (46 percent) scored at or above pro cient in grade four, while less than a quarter (21 percent) of Hispanic students reached that level.
3.This gap in fourth-grade reading achievement is pervasive, ranging from 10 scale points (approximately one grade level4) in Louisiana, to 33 points in Pennsylvania and Minnesota (the equivalent of more than three grade levels).5 Such gaps are concerning, in part because Hispanic children make up 1 in 4 of all U.S. children today6 and, by 2030, will be 1 in 3.
Here, we examine Hispanic students’ NAEP reading scores over the past decade on the fourth- and eighth-grade reading assessments—nationally, by state, for large cities, and for selected urban school districts.
Key Findings
• National level (all public schools). Across the nation, from 2005-2015, reading scores for Hispanic fourth- and eighth- graders increased by the equivalent of roughly half a grade level. We found score increases for all measured country-of- origin subgroups (i.e., Cuban Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other Hispanic/Latino).
• State results. Over the last decade, more than one third of states saw improvements in Hispanic students’ reading scores at fourth or eighth grades. Data from the most recent four years suggest that progress has slowed. Signi cant fourth- grade gains were apparent in only seven states, and signi cant eighth-grade gains were apparent in only three. Average 2015 reading scores for Hispanic students varied substantially by state, depending on the grade assessed.
• Selected urban school districts. In large U.S. cities over the last 10 years, reading score increases for Hispanic fourth- and eighth-graders were similar to those at the national level. School districts in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and Washington, DC (all of which serve a large percentage of low-income Hispanic students) were among the top performers over the decade.
About this report
We used NAEP data to examine Hispanic students’ reading scores. NAEP is the largest continuing, nationally representative assessment of what U.S. students know and can do in various subject areas, including reading. NAEP provides our only common metric for academic achievement across time and across states. Testing in reading is conducted every other year, in the spring of the fourth- and eighth-grade years. States also have their own assessments, but those results are not comparable to each other.
