Excellence Gaps Among Native American Youth: Analysis of NAEP Data for Proportions and Trends

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Discussing the Landscape of Native Education Today

Abstract

This quantitative study examines whether Native American youth represent a smaller proportion of students scoring at highest levels of achievement on NAEP from 2000 to 2011. It extends prior research on excellence gaps that omitted Native Americans. The percentages of Native American students scoring at the advanced level were lower than those of White, Asian, and multiracial students across subjects; but were higher than those of Black and Hispanic students. Similar trends were found for mean scores of students achieving at top 10% within their subgroup. Excellence gaps between Native Americans and White and Asian students widened in reading and mathematics across years but closed in science, as over time achievement of students from all racial groups declined.

Authors

• Jiaxi Wu, Bucknell University

• Marcia L. Gentry, Purdue University