• First NAEP computer-based assessment in writing
• About 27 percent of students perform at or above the Proficient level at both grades
• About 80 percent of students perform at or above the Basic level at both grades

• Female students score higher than male students at both grades

Results from the new writing assessment provided information on eighth- and twelfth-graders’ ability to write on the computer for specific purposes and audiences, and on the extent to which they engaged in certain word processing actions when composing their writing.

The most common action a writer engages in is key presses. On the NAEP assessment, the number of key presses is the average number of key strokes that students made while completing their responses to the two writing prompts (including backspace and delete). It is not the number of words students wrote or the length of their responses. It is reasonable, however, to assume some relationship between the number of key presses and the length of the response. Number of key presses and length of response were not criteria used in evaluating students’ responses.

Female students outscored their male counterparts in writing across a variety of factors: explore the gender gap in the slides that follow.

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