The results of the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in science were released this morning. The TUDA is a branch of the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing program. Charlotte is one of ten cities in the program.
The news was mixed but generally positive. For both fourth and eighth grade students, Charlotte’s overall score was higher than it was in large central cities, but lower than it was in the nation. The percentages of students at or above Basic and at or above Proficient were higher in Charlotte than they were in other large central cities.
For Charlotte, the score gap between white and black, white and Hispanic, and high and low-income students was large, but the gaps were generally not significantly different from those in other large cities. There was an average gap (across all three comparisons, former over latter) of 31 points for the fourth grade test and 39 points for the eighth grade test.
Of the ten cities tested, Austin, Charlotte, and San Diego had the highest scoring students. Boston, Houston, and New York City fell in the middle. Atlanta, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Chicago had the lowest scoring students.
