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NAEP 2024: Utah remains above national averages; eighth-grade reading shows localized decline
Summary
USBE staff briefed the committee on 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results: Utah outperformed the national average in many comparisons but showed a decline in eighth-grade reading (driven in analysis by declines on informational-reading measures among female students); statewide math results remained generally flat.
Darren Nielsen, assistant superintendent for student learning at the Utah State Board of Education, and Angela Battaglia, Utah's NAEP state coordinator, presented the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress results and fielded committee questions about sampling, interpretation and subgroup trends.
Battaglia explained NAEP sampling: the assessment uses a stratified random sample so state-level demographic proportions (for example, percent Hispanic and percent white) are reflected in school selection; once a school is selected, student sampling is random (for example, starting at a chosen alphabetical position and selecting every Nth student). She said Utah typically tests about 4,000'5,000 students depending on subject and grade. Parents and students can opt out; districts cannot.
At the national level, presenters said fourth- and eighth-grade reading declined while fourth-grade mathematics increased modestly. Utah's NAEP results remained largely above the national averages: Utah ranked in the top 10 in several tested comparisons (for example, grade 4 math and grade 8 math rankings were described as strong). Nielsen and Battaglia emphasized that NAEP is a national common assessment that differs from state tests such as RISE.
When the presenters drilled into reading declines, they said the national pattern showed the largest drops among lower percentiles and that the distribution was lengthening at the lower end. In Utah, the presenters reported a statistically significant decline at eighth-grade reading. Battaglia said the decline for Utah was concentrated in the "gaining information" (informational-reading) portion of the assessment and that the decline was driven by lower scores for female students across percentiles; boys' scores remained approximately flat.
Committee members asked for clarity about what constitutes statistical significance; Battaglia said significance depends on sample size and the NAEP statistical procedures. Committee members also asked about sample sizes and the opt-out process; presenters explained make-ups and the need to reach a 90% participation threshold on test day for valid state-level samples.
Battaglia pointed committee members to the NAEP website for detailed public data and offered to provide staff assistance navigating NAEP's deeper datasets. Committee members suggested sharing NAEP data with ongoing state research projects examining gender differences in educational outcomes.
