Proficiency Levels

The NAEP trend data also provide a look at shifts in the percentage of students who reach each proficiency level. (See appendix tables 1-10 and 1-12 for the mathematics and science proficiency level descriptions used through 1990.) In mathematics, students at age 17 have shifted slightly from lower to higher levels of mathematics. Between 1978 and 1990, fewer 17-year-old students scored only at level 200 where they were developing an understanding of addition and subtraction; a greater percentage of students demonstrated proficiency in the use of decimals, fractions, percents, geometric figures, and graphs (level 300). However, the percentage of students who could solve problems in algebra and geometry did not change (level 350). In science, no real shifts occurred. (See appendix table 1-11.)

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