HISD, which volunteers to take the test so that it can be compared to 11 other urban districts, has a history of beating most of America's other big city school districts in reading and math performance on the national test. The new report card issued this morning shows the district also beats most of the other districts in the percentage of students scoring at or above the "basic" level in writing, but essentially HISD falls in the middle of the pack and has work to do in writing performance.
% at or above basic, NAEP
- National Average -------------------- 88%
- Texas Average -------------------- 85%
- Large Central City Average -------------------- 81%
- Charlotte -------------------- 88%
- Boston -------------------- 83%
- Chicago -------------------- 83%
- Atlanta -------------------- 83%
- HISD -------------------- 81%
- New York City -------------------- 80%
- San Diego -------------------- 79%
- Austin -------------------- 78%
- Cleveland -------------------- 77%
- Los Angeles -------------------- 77%
Hispanic 8th graders
- Chicago ---------- 148
- Charlotte---------- 142
- Houston---------- 138
- Boston---------- 138
- New York City---------- 137
- Cleveland---------- 133
- Los Angeles ---------- 133
- Austin---------- 131
- San Diego---------- 129
Black 8th graders
- Charlotte ---------- 144
- San Diego ---------- 144
- Atlanta ---------- 142
- Boston ---------- 141
- Houston ---------- 140
- New York City ---------- 140
- Chicago ---------- 138
- Cleveland ---------- 132
- Austin ---------- 130
- Los Angeles ---------- 129
"There is an improvement here, and we're glad to see that," HISD spokesperson Terry Abbott told Eyewitness News. "But we think we need to do a lot better in writing. Even though 81% meeting this basic standard is good, we'd like to do better than that. We're like to have more kids at the higher level of proficiency. "
"We're proud that HISD students do so well in math and reading compared with students in other big cities," Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said. "We're also proud of our progress in writing. But all across the country, and here in HISD, school districts need to do a better job of teaching children how to be good writers. It's something we want to put a lot more emphasis on in the years ahead."
These tests are administered every year, focusing on different disciplines. The writing portion of this test won't be administered for another five years.
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