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The Nation's Report Card


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National participation rates in writing

The national school participation rate for public and private schools combined were 97 percent for grade 8 and 89 percent for grade 12. Student participation rates were 92 percent for grade 8 and 80 percent for grade 12. Participation rates needed to be 70 percent or higher to report results separately for private schools. While the school participation rate for private schools met the standard for grade 8 in 2007, it fell below the standard for grade 8 in 2002 and for all three assessment years at grade 12. Therefore, the only comparison that could be made for private school students was between 1998 and 2007 at grade 8. Participation rates for Catholic schools, however, were sufficient for reporting in 2007 at both grades and in the two previous assessment years, with the exception of 2002 for grade 12.

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National school and student participation rates in NAEP writing at grade 8, by type of school: 2007
  School participation Student participation
  Student-weighted School-weighted Number of schools
participating after
substitution
Student-
weighted
percent
Number of
students
assessed
Type of school Percent before
substitution
Percent after substitution Percent before
substitution
Percent after substitution
   Nation 97 98 87 90 6,810 92 139,900
Public 100 100 100 100 6,310 92 135,100
Private 74 82 67 76 360 95 3,100
   Catholic 89 97 89 95 150 96 1,500
NOTE: The national totals for schools include Department of Defense Education Activity (overseas and domestic schools) and Bureau of Indian Education schools, which are not included in either the public or private totals. The national totals for students include students in these schools. Columns of percentages have different denominators; see accompanying text for definitions. The numbers of schools are rounded to the nearest ten, and the numbers of students are rounded to the nearest hundred. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2007 Writing Assessment.
National school and student participation rates in NAEP writing at grade 12, by type of school: 2007
  School participation Student participation
  Student-weighted School-weighted Number of schools
participating after
substitution
Student-
weighted
percent
Number of
students
assessed
Type of school Percent before
substitution
Percent after substitution Percent before
substitution
Percent after substitution
   Nation 89 92 83 86 660 80 27,900
Public 92 94 93 95 520 79 22,000
Private 63 70 55 62 140 86 5,800
   Catholic 82 88 86 89 60 87 3,700
NOTE: The national totals for schools include Department of Defense Education Activity (overseas and domestic schools) and Bureau of Indian Education schools, which are not included in either the public or private totals. The national totals for students include students in these schools. Columns of percentages have different denominators; see accompanying text for definitions. The numbers of schools are rounded to the nearest ten, and the numbers of students are rounded to the nearest hundred. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2007 Writing Assessment.

The student-weighted school participation rates are calculated based on the estimated number of students represented by either the initially selected schools that participated in the assessment (before substitution) or the participating schools, whether originally selected or selected as a substitute for a school that chose not to participate (after substitution). The school-weighted school participation rates are calculated based on the estimated number of schools either before or after substitutions.

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