Results show that Catholic schools continue to provide academic excellence and faith-filled education for students nationwide
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, released its findings for high school seniors in April. NAEP is considered the most consistent measure of U.S. student achievement over time. While most of the nation is digesting the sobering numbers for public school students, Catholic school scores continue to trend higher than both public and private schools.
Results of the Nation’s Report Card reinforce the academic excellence and faith-filled education that Catholic schools provide to the 2 million Catholic school students nationwide, said Thomas Burnford, interim president of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA).
According to the NAEP results of 12th-grade students performing at or above proficiency in reading, Catholic school seniors scored 63 percent whereas public school seniors at 37 percent. In reading, Catholic school seniors posted an average scale score of 311 on a 500-point scale, while public school seniors averaged 285. In math, the Catholic school seniors scored 48 percent compared to 25 percent of their public school counterparts. Among seniors in Catholic schools, the average math performance is 284 on a 300-point scale versus 264 for public school seniors.
Our steady high performance on assessment testing, such as NAEP, supports our mission to educate the whole person. Catholic schools continue to reflect academic excellence without ever losing sight of our mission – to provide an exceptional education while nourishing and strengthening our Catholic faith, said Burnford.
NAEP is part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Since 1990, it has been the primary federal entity collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.
VIew the details of the full report go here.
