Miami-Dade Students Continue to Shine on National Assessment

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) students continue to display remarkable achievement. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2022 results released today, M-DCPS 4th-grade students are ranking first in reading and mathematics and 8th graders are ranking first in reading and second in mathematics.

More than 5,300 students in 125 M-DCPS schools participated in this year’s grades 4 and 8 NAEP administration. Despite nationwide across-the-board declines on NAEP in Reading and Mathematics from 2019 to 2022, M-DCPS remained stable in three of the four areas tested, and continued to excel in comparison to their counterparts in national public schools and large city schools, as shown in the following highlights:

•    Miami-Dade retained high levels of performance, with no significant decline in Reading, grades 4 and 8, or Mathematics, grade 8.

•    M-DCPS fourth grade students ranked first among all TUDA districts in the percentage scoring in Basic or above in both Reading and Mathematics in 2022.
o    M-DCPS 4th-grade students also scored higher than their public school counterparts nationwide and those in large city schools in terms of the average scale score and in the percent scoring in both Basic and above, and proficient and above.
 
•    M-DCPS 8th-grade students ranked first in Reading and second in Mathematics among all TUDA districts in the percentage of students scoring in Basic or above.
o    M-DCPS 8th-grade students also scored higher than their counterparts in large city schools and on par with all public school students nationwide in terms of the average scale score and in the percent scoring in both Basic and above, and proficient and above.
 
•    Subgroup analyses also revealed that M-DCPS students fared well in comparison to their counterparts, with 45 of 56 (or 80%) of the subgroup comparisons demonstrating higher performance than public schools nationwide and large city schools.
o    Black students in M-DCPS achieved higher mean scores than national public schools and large city samples in both grade 4 and grade 8 in Reading and Mathematics.
o    Hispanic students in M-DCPS continued their outstanding performance on NAEP, again achieving higher Reading and Mathematics scores in grades 4 and 8 than both the national public school and large city samples.
o    Economically disadvantaged students in M-DCPS, who made up approximately 75% of participating students, also received higher mean scores than their counterparts in public schools nationwide and large city schools across both grades and content areas.
o    Students with Disabilities achieved higher mean scale scores than their counterparts in large city schools in both grade levels and content areas, than the national public school sample in all comparisons except Grade 4 Mathematics.

•    While the three Florida districts that participate in the TUDA program scored among the top districts nationwide, M-DCPS met or exceeded both Hillsborough and Duval counties in the percent of students scoring in Basic or above across all grade levels and content areas.
This is Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ (M-DCPS) seventh year of participation in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) program, which compares the achievement of students in 26 large urban districts that face similar challenges regarding poverty and high-risk populations.

It should be noted that the NAEP data, collected at the peak of the COVID-19 Omicron variant wave, reflects the significant impact that the pandemic had in all cities. Sustaining achievement in any grade or subject in the face of a global crisis is no easy feat and is a testament to M-DCPS’s academic continuity planning during the crisis, as well as our proactive recovery efforts when schools reopened.