The Wall Street Journal article said, “NAEP reported this week that 79% of twelfth graders passed this first-ever national economics test.” I do not think that the word “passed” is appropriate here because the four NAEP achievement levels are not necessarily designed to demarcate passing or failing scores.
To put the test performance in perspective, 58 percent of the test-takers performed at or below the “basic” level, earning a score that was below 159. (The average score was 150.) What does a student with the “basic” classification know?
“Students performing at the Basic level of achievement should be able to identify and recognize a limited set of economic concepts and relationships that are important for partial understanding of the market economy, national economy, and international economy.”
It is hardly encouraging that nearly 60 percent of the test-takers had, at best, a “limited” and “partial” understanding of economic concepts.
Otherwise, I suspect that the private and Department of Defense schools included in the sample may have something to do with the relatively high (compared to other NAEP tests) percentage of students performing at or above the “proficient” achievement level.
Of course, the article’s conclusion offers an appropriate warning, “Now, if this wisdom can only survive four years of instruction by your average college faculty.” Boo-ya.
