1

Results From The

NAEP 1994 U.S. History Assessment

— At A Glance

Knowledge of United States history is an important

component of effective citizenship. A thorough grasp of

our country’s struggles, successes, and failures, and the

skills to interpret them, better enables young people to

make informed and intelligent decisions about

contemporary issues. Nourishing the curiosity children

exhibit about major events, customs, and institutions,

and the families and individuals that comprise United

States history, creates a valuable resource for our

nation’s future.

To assess the current level of United States

history knowledge, the 1994 National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP) assessed United States

history at grades 4, 8, and 12. The assessment probed

students’ abilities to recall, understand, analyze, and

interpret the broad field of United States history. As the

nation’s foremost ongoing educational survey, NAEP

results track trends in students’ performance, and allow

concerned readers to evaluate whether our nation’s

children are developing the history skills and knowledge

essential for effective participation in the economy and

the polity. The highlights of this extensive, innovative

assessment are presented in the following pages. (More

detailed results can be found in other NAEP reports about

the U.S. history assessment. Information on how to obtain

these reports is found on the last page of this brochure.)

The structure and content of the U.S. history

assessment were guided by a comprehensive framework

or blueprint developed under the direction of the

National Assessment Governing Board. Four historical

themes served as the core organizing structure of the

assessment. The themes, listed below, were intended to

ensure that all major branches of historical study were

covered and that emphasis on various areas was balanced.

© Changes and Continuity in American Democracy:

Ideas, Institutions, Practices, and Controversies

© The Gathering and Interaction of Peoples, Cultures,

and Ideas

© Economic and Technological Changes and Their

Relation to Society, Ideas, and the Environment

© The Changing Role of America in the World
2

Student performance is summarized on the

NAEP U.S. history scale, which ranges from 0 to 500. In

addition, results for each grade are reported according

to three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and

Advanced. These achievement levels are based on

judgments about what students should know and be

able to do in United States history. The Basic level

denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and

skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each

grade. The Proficient level represents solid academic

performance and demonstrated competence over

challenging subject matter. The Advanced level signifies

superior performance.

It should be noted that the setting of

achievement levels on NAEP is relatively new and in

transition. However, those responsible for NAEP also

believe that the achievement levels are useful and

valuable in reporting on the educational achievement of

the nation’s students.

Major Findings for the Nation

© The average score of students in grade 4 was 205.

The bottom 10 percent of the population scored at

or below 147, and the top 10 percent scored at or

above 253.

© At grade 8, the average score was 259. The bottom

10 percent of the population scored at or below 217,

and the top 10 percent scored at or above 299.

© The average score of students in grade 12 was 286.

The bottom 10 percent scored at or below 243, and

the top 10 percent scored at or above 326.

© The Proficient achievement level was reached by only

17 percent of fourth graders, 14 percent of eighth

graders, and 11 percent of twelfth graders.

© Fewer than half the grade 12 students in the

assessment were able to reach the Basic level. At

grades 4 and 8, over 60 percent of assessed students

demonstrated this level of performance.

What is the purpose of the Bill of Rights?

A To say how much Americans should pay in taxes

B To protect freedoms like freedom of speech

C To describe the jobs of the President and

Congress

D To make Washington, D.C., the capital of the

United States

Answer: B

Figure 1 Percentage of Students At or Above the

Basic Achievement Level in U.S. History

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational

Progress (NAEP), 1994 U.S. History Assessment.

At or Above Basic

Below Basic

Grade 12

Grade 8

Grade 4

36%

64%

39%

61%

43% 57%

CARD

REPORT

THE NA ION’S T

1994


U.S. History Assessment

© On individual assessment tasks, students

demonstrated a range of competencies. For example:

• At grade 4, 87 percent of assessed students correctly

identified Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream”

speech; 45 percent identified the primary purpose

of the Bill of Rights (see below); 32 percent knew

that New York was one of the colonies that took

part in the American Revolution; and 11 percent

described some ways in which women’s roles in the

workforce have changed over the past 100 years.
3

O Freedom!

O Freedom!

O Freedom over me!

And before I’d be a slave,

I’d be buried in my grave,

And go home to my Lord and be free!

The song was associated with

A the temperance movement

B the civil rights movement

C pioneers on the Oregon Trail

D farmers in the Dust Bowl during the

Great Depression

Answer: B

The Monroe Doctrine was intended to

A promote United States trade with China

B help keep the peace in Europe

C discourage European involvement in the

Americas

D protect United States business in Japan

and Korea

Answer: C

The assessment included both multiple-choice

questions, such as those shown above, and constructedresponse questions. Constructed-response questions

required students to write responses of as little as a few

sentences, or as much as a few paragraphs. For example,

the question shown below was given to students at

grades 8 and 12. Some credit was awarded for student

responses that were only partially correct. Sixteen

percent of eighth graders and 35 percent of twelfth

graders received full credit for their responses.

Bruce Shanks in the Buffalo News

Circle the decade in which you believe this cartoon

was drawn.

1920’s 1940’s 1960’s 1980’s

Citing specific historical evidence, explain why you

chose the decade you did.

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

• At grade 8, 80 percent of the students knew that

the song “O Freedom” was used by people in the

Civil Rights movement (see below); 71 percent

identified Thomas Jefferson as the author of the

Declaration of Independence; 41 percent associated

the Lend-Lease Act, the Yalta Conference, and the

dropping of the atomic bomb with the Second

World War; and 10 percent wrote a description of

the debate at the Constitutional Convention that

led to the Connecticut Compromise.

• At grade 12, 74 percent of the students determined

the effect of the launch of the Soviet Sputnik

satellite on United States politics; 41 percent

identified the purpose of the Monroe Doctrine (see

below); 29 percent explained the effect of an

economic or technological change on the nature of

farming in America; and 22 percent successfully

compared Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 and 1937

inauguration speeches.
4

Major Findings for

Student Subgroups

© As has been the case in other NAEP assessments,

there were statistically significant differences in the

performance of major subgroups of the population.

For example, at all grades White and Asian students

had higher scores than did their Black and Hispanic

counterparts.

© Consistent with findings in other NAEP assessments,

there was a strong relationship between differing

levels of parental education and performance on the

NAEP U.S. history assessment. As a general rule, the

more education students reported that their parents

had received, the better the students performed on

the assessment.

© On the NAEP U.S. history scale, there were no

statistically significant performance differences

between male and female students at grades 4 and 8.

At grade 12, male students performed at a higher level

than females.

© At all three grades, students attending nonpublic

schools performed at a higher level than did students

attending public schools.

Contextual Factors Related to

United States History Performance

A diverse range of home and school factors influence

the ways and extent to which students learn history.

Students who participated in the NAEP assessment were

asked to complete questionnaires about their home and

school experiences related to history learning. Also,

teachers completed questionnaires about their students’

instructional experiences. The results of these surveys

help provide a context for interpreting the assessment

scores, and provide policymakers with information about

variables that are positively and negatively related to

history achievement.

© Over 40 percent of the students at grades 4 and 8,

and 25 percent of the students at grade 12, reported

watching four or more hours of television each day.

In most cases, the more television students reported

watching the worse they performed on the U.S.

history assessment.

© Fifty-four percent of the fourth graders, 38 percent of

the eighth graders, and 31 percent of the twelfth

graders reported discussing their studies at home

daily. By contrast, 18, 22, and 25 percent of the

students at each grade, respectively, reported never or

hardly ever discussing their studies. Students who

reported no regular discussions had lower average

scale scores than all other students.

© United States history instruction was limited for

grade 4 students. Only 7 percent of the fourth graders

assessed had teachers who reported that United States

history was the focus of their social studies teaching.

Conversely, most students in grade 8 were taking a

course in United States history, and most twelfth

graders had taken such a course in grade 11.

© History homework was limited at grade 8. Forty-eight

percent of students who were taking U.S. history

reported that they did one-half hour or less of history

homework each week. These students had lower

scores on the assessment than did students who did

one or two hours of homework each week.

© Almost half the students had teachers who reported

using textbooks on a daily basis. Also, 62 percent of the

students at grade 4 and 23 percent of the students at

grade 8 had teachers who reported that they never or

hardly ever use primary historical documents in their

teaching.

For More Information . . .

More complete results of the NAEP 1994 U.S. history

assessment are available in two National Center of

Education Statistics publications:

NAEP 1994 U.S. History: A First Look

NAEP 1994 U.S. History Report Card

The First Look highlights the overall and demographic

results, while the Report Card is a more extensive

treatment of the findings and includes discussions of

contextual factors that are related to history

performance.

For ordering information on these reports, write:

National Library of Education

Office of Educational Research and Improvement

U.S. Department of Education

555 New Jersey Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20208-5641

or call 1-800-424-1616 (in Washington, DC

metropolitan area call 202-219-1651).