NAEP Data Shed Light on Achievement and Context for Learning Among American Indian and Alaska Native Students

The Nation’s Report Card provides a wealth of data on American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. As anyone who dives into the resources available from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) understands, the story is more than the headlines if you dig a little deeper.

We know there is tremendous diversity within the Native American community in terms of geography, culture, educational achievement, opportunities, and more. The most recent NAEP results, for example, provide extensive data and insights.

Here, we will take a closer look at information drawn from results for 4th- and 8th-graders on the 2022 NAEP assessments for reading and mathematics, along with some of the companion survey data.

But first, let’s start with a few of the basics.

Who, exactly, are AI/AN students? There is no simple answer. We see incredible diversity by culture, geography, tribal language, socioeconomic circumstances, parent education level, access to learning resources at home (such as books), and other factors. To better understand AI/AN students, NCES works with a technical review panel to design and produce the National Indian Education Study (NIES) Report.

Where do AI/AN students live? Every state. Those with the highest concentrations of AI/AN individuals are Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. The largest share attend rural schools (46% at grade 4, 43% at grade 8), the NIES report shows, but more than half attend schools in either small towns, suburbs, or urban areas.

How many are enrolled in public schools? AI/AN students make up about 1 percent of the 50.1 million students in public elementary and secondary schools nationally, for a total of approximately 489,000 K-12 students, according to the 2019 NIES study.

What types of schools do they attend? AI/AN students attend public, private, Bureau of Indian Education, and Department of Defense schools. But the vast majority are in traditional public schools. They typically learn alongside students from other racial/ethnic groups. In fact, nearly two-thirds of AI/AN students attend public schools in which they represent 25 percent or fewer of students (which the NIES refers to as “low density” schools).

Statistical Limitations

The relatively small size of the AI/AN student population (compared to other racial/ethnic groups reported by NAEP) limits the ability to produce certain findings and analyses with statistical confidence. This is especially the case when drilling down below the national averages for 4th- or 8th-graders to look at particular student groups. Put simply, the fewer students in a sample, the more difficult it is to demonstrate that changes or differences for student groups can be considered statistically significant.

With that said, we can still provide important insights and show clear differences with statistical confidence.

The Big Picture on Achievement

NAEP provides a host of data to gauge educational achievement, both with snapshots in particular years and to observe changes over time. At the national level, average scores for 4th- and 8th-grade students declined in 2022 in reading and mathematics when compared with 2019. (The 2019 data is pre-pandemic). AI/AN students saw declines in both subjects at grade 4 on the 2022 NAEP assessments, but at grade 8 changes in AI/AN scores were not statistically different in either reading or mathematics.

To help put the academic performance of Native American students in perspective, the chart below shows the percentages in 2022 scoring at or above the NAEP Basic level, a key benchmark that denotes partial mastery of the knowledge and skills needed for solid academic performance.

Getting Underneath the High-Level Results

The survey data collected in the 2022 NAEP assessments paint a more complex and nuanced picture, whether broken down by gender, school location (suburban, town, urban, rural), or other factors.

Gender: As with the nation’s students as a whole, AI/AN females outscore males in reading, and males score higher than females in mathematics. This is the case at both 4th- and 8th-grades.

School location: Some differences are observable when comparing AI/AN students by school location, but they are limited to 4th-grade reading and 8th-grade math. Students in urban schools scored higher than those in rural schools for 4th-grade reading, with no differences for the other location categories.

Meanwhile, students in suburban schools scored higher than those in town schools for 8th-grade math, but there were no differences for the other location categories.

State-level comparisons: Comparisons at the state level are not always possible, given limits on sample size, but AI/AN students contribute to national, state, and TUDA results even when their scores are not reported separately. Even though NIES was not administered in 2022, AI/AN results were still available for seven states in 4th-grade math: Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. All of these states—except for Oklahoma and North Dakota—had AI/AN scores that were lower than the 4th-grade math score for AI/AN students nationally. When comparing the results among the states, we see

• AI/AN students in Oklahoma scored higher than those in other states except North Dakota.
• North Dakota’s AI/AN students scored higher than those in Alaska, Arizona, and Montana.
• South Dakota and New Mexico AI/AN students scored higher than those in Alaska.

When considering variations in achievement for AI/AN students across states, it’s important to keep in mind that there may be demographic differences from one state to the next that help to explain the variation. So certain states may have, for example, a higher or lower share of economically disadvantaged students.

Books in the Home

Access to books at home is one valuable barometer of students’ access to educational resources, given that the development of reading skills happens at both home and school. The data show wide variation among students at grade 8. NAEP reading scores were higher for students with 26-100 books and those with more than 100 books, in comparison with 8th-graders reporting 0-10 books or 11-25 books.

Technology Access at Home:

NAEP 2022 survey data show technology access is widespread among Native students, though it’s troubling to see even a relatively small share lacking full access. Below is data showing that most AI/AN 8th-graders have access to a computer and/or tablet and the internet. The results are similar at grade 4.

When broken down by school location, full access to technology at home, including computer, tablet, and Internet, was higher for students who attend suburban schools (95 percent) and city schools (92 percent) than for 8th-graders in town (78 percent) and rural settings (86 percent).

Parent Education Level:

We also looked at the connection between parent education level and achievement, with the focus on 8th-graders. (The survey asked students to indicate the highest level of education attained by both their mother and father.) Here are two key findings:

• Mathematics: Native students with at least one parent who graduated college scored higher than students whose parents did not finish high school, graduated high school, and whose education level is unknown.

• Reading: Students with at least one parent who had some education after high school or graduated college scored higher than students whose parents did not finish high school, graduated high school, and those whose education is unknown.

Conclusion:

Despite some of the limitations posed by the sample size, data NCES collected for American Indian and Alaska Native students as part of the 2022 NAEP assessments are vital to better understand their educational achievement, context for learning, and more. This information provides a valuable snapshot and look at trends over time. When combined with insights from NCES’s periodic and more in-depth National Indian Education Study, the story becomes far richer.