NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced that Tennessee students are the fastest improving in the nation in science, according to the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card.
The last time fourth and eighth grade students both took NAEP science was 2009, and the 2015 NAEP results show Tennessee is the only state to grow faster than the nation in both grades with Tennessee students doubling the average national growth.
Tennessee also narrowed or eliminated several achievement gaps. The gap between the science performance of male and female students was completely eliminated in both grades. In both fourth and eighth grade science the gap in achievement scores between white and African-American students narrowed, and the gap tightened between white and Latino students in fourth grade.
With these scores, Tennessee now ranks 19th and 21st in the country on fourth and eighth grade science, respectively – the highest rankings the state has ever had on the Nation’s Report Card.
Since 2007, Tennessee has been working to raise academic expectations and strengthen teaching across subjects, building all students’ critical thinking and problem solving abilities. In addition, the state has invested in innovation and technology, encouraging more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for students in every grade and strengthening college and career pathways for all students.
In 2013, Tennessee became the fastest improving state in the country on the Nation’s Report Card for math and reading. The state’s 2015 results maintained the unprecedented growth with a new class of students, proving the gains were real. Those results also gave the state its highest ranking until today — 25th in fourth grade math. Tennessee has a goal to rank in the top half of all states on the Nation’s Report Card by 2019, and these results put the state in the top 25 on three of those assessments.
The Nation’s Report Card, also known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in various subject areas. It is known as the gold standard of large-scale student assessments. Between January and March 2015, the NAEP science assessment was given to approximately 115,400 fourth graders, 110,900 eighth graders, and 11,000 12th graders across 46 states and the Department of Defense system, representing the nation’s public and private schools.