Chart of the week: Digging into D.C.’s gains on the 4th grade national math assessment

Results from the biennial National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the Nation’s Report Card, were released last week for 2024. At the state level (including District of Columbia Public Schools, or DCPS, and public charter schools), D.C.’s 2024 scores were similar to 2022 in math for grade 8 and reading for both grades 4 and 8. However, D.C. experienced a large improvement of 8 percentage points in math for grade 4—outpacing the growth for all public schools and large cities.

D.C.’s 4^th grade math score of 231 now matches the large city average and is moving closer to the national public school average of 237. For comparison, the 90^th percentile score for large city jurisdictions is 277, and it is 280 for national public schools. D.C. has done so by moving students forward who are at both ends of the achievement distribution: The share of 4^th grade students in D.C. who are “below basic” has decreased by 8 percentage points since 2022, and the share who are advanced has increased by 5 percentage points.¹

Looking beyond the surface, what factors are related to math performance for D.C.’s 4^th grade students in 2024? NAEP offers comparisons of students in the 25^th and 75^th percentiles (with scores of 203 and 258, respectively) that start to tell part of how these improvements happened. Differences that are statistically significant for these groups are highlighted below.

• Attendance matters: Students who did not miss any days in the last month were more likely to be in the 75^th percentile compared to those who missed 3 or more days. This general finding also held for 8^th grade math students. 

• Student confidence matters: Students who have a high confidence level on a mathematics knowledge/skills index are more likely to be at the 75^th percentile. This is similar for 8^th grade math students. 

• Tutoring is more likely with lower achieving students: Most students in the 25^th percentile received tutoring in math in the past school year (62 percent), while the majority of students in the 75^th percentile (82 percent) did not receive tutoring. This differs from reports for 8^th grade math students in D.C. 

• Feedback on teachers was positive: Regardless of achievement level, the majority of students felt comfortable talking to their teachers, thought their teachers expected them to do well, and said teachers were available when needed. This differs from reports for 8^th grade math students in D.C. 

1. NAEP has defined three achievement levels for each grade: (i) NAEP Basic  denotes partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at a given grade; (ii) NAEP Proficient  represents solid academic performance for the given grade level and competency over challenging subject matter including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real world situations, and analytical skills appropriate to the subject matter; and (iii) NAEP Advanced  presumes mastery of both the NAEP Basic  and NAEP Proficient  levels and represents superior academic performance.