Hawaii looks at bright side of 8th-grade writing results
Though still among nation's lowest, state's scores were up in 2007
Hawai'i ranks among the bottom four states in eighth-grade writing
skills, according to 2007 test results from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress released yesterday.
Hawai'i also was in the bottom four in 2002 when the test was last administered.
State
officials pointed out that, while still low in state rankings, Hawai'i
students brought up their average score. Hawai'i's score of 144 was up
six points since 2002.
About Literacy and Dialect Speakers
"Of the students entering high school in Hawai'i, 80 percent are
writing below grade level," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance
for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, in a
written statement. "They don't have the writing skills they need to
succeed.
"With employers looking at the ability to write well as
essential for any job candidate, our high schools need to do more to
make sure students are adequately prepared for the 21st century
workplace."
'nation's report card'
The NAEP, known commonly as the
"Nation's Report Card," is a battery of tests examined under the
federal No Child Left Behind law, which mandates that all students be
at grade level in core subject areas by the year 2014.
The 2007 NAEP writing test examined some 140,000 eighth-grade students at more than 7,640 schools nationwide.
On
the writing test, students are given a variety of tasks such as writing
a letter to the editor of a newspaper, offering advice to younger
students, reporting to a school committee and writing a story based on
a poem, cartoon or photograph.
Only about 20 percent of Hawai'i's
eighth-grade students are "proficient" or "advanced" at writing,
compared with 31 percent nationally, according to the results.
DROP OUT / PUSHED OUT
How long do children have the right to stay in school?
girls outscore boys
Hawai'i's average score lags behind most states and lags significantly behind the highest achieving states.
For
instance, 56 percent of New Jersey eighth-graders were at the
proficient or advanced level. New Jersey's average score was 175, the
highest in the nation.
NAEP also examines various socioeconomic factors, including gender, language and poverty.
In Hawai'i, girls outscored boys 155 to 134. That gap has been relatively unchanged since previous tests in 2002 and 1998.