Futenma Daini Elementary School teacher Kotono Arasaki works with a fourth grader at Bob Hope Elementary School on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, in October 2024. Defense Department students in the fourth and eighth grades ranked best in the nation again in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
Defense Department schools’ fourth and eighth graders ranked best in the nation again in the federal government’s biannual math and reading tests, far outpacing their stateside peers amid a continuing slump by U.S. public schools.
The Department of Defense Education Activity once again bucked the performance trend on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report of the results released Wednesday.
The assessment, referred to as “the nation’s report card,” is considered the gold standard for measuring what U.S. students know and can do in math, reading, writing, science, U.S. history and civics. Math and reading were the only subjects tested last year.
On the 2024 assessment, DODEA fourth graders had an average math score of 251, which was 14 points above the national average, and one point higher than in 2022 and 2019, according to the report.
Scores are presented as averages from 0 to 500 on the NAEP subject scale and as percentages of students attaining NAEP achievement levels.
Also, 54% achieved “at or above proficient,” meaning they demonstrated “solid academic performance and competency” over the subject matter, the report said. That compares to 39% nationally on average.
Meanwhile, DODEA eighth graders’ average math score of 291 was almost identical to the 2022 and 2019 figures, while 41% of them achieved at or above proficient, compared with 27% in the nation’s public schools.
DODEA’s reading scores stayed about the same, while results nationwide showed a slide in reading, compounding a decline that started prior to the pandemic, according to the report.
In reading, 48% of fourth graders and 53% of eighth graders in DODEA schools scored at or above proficient.
“Our relentless pursuit of continuous improvement has empowered our mission to deliver excellence in education to every student, every day, everywhere,” DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez said in a statement Wednesday.
About 8,600 DODEA fourth and eighth graders took the assessment, which is about 95% of the student population in those grades, according to DODEA.
Female DODEA students performed better on average in reading than their male counterparts in both the fourth and eighth grades, while boys outperformed the girls in math for both grade levels.
Results for 2024 show that students across the country for the most part have made little to no progress in reading and math since 2022, the last time fourth and eighth graders took the assessment in those subjects.
Two years ago, stateside metrics in math saw their steepest decline since the first assessments in 1990, while average reading scores decreased or remained flat in the District of Columbia and all 50 states.
DODEA avoided that drop, largely attributed to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which began shutting schools in the spring of 2020.
The 2024 results also show that fewer than a third of students nationwide are working at the proficient level in reading at both grades, meaning they can consistently understand written text and interpret meaning.
One bright note nationwide was that more fourth graders reported having confidence in doing math than the number who did in 2022, the report said.
Fourth graders on average scored two points higher in math, and a greater percentage said they could answer questions like how to estimate the weight of four apples using pounds.
The tests are administered by the National Assessment Governing Board, an independent, nonpartisan body appointed by the secretary of education to oversee the congressionally mandated assessment program.
