NAEP Long-Term Trends: Student Experiences

Student Experiences

Students who took the long-term trend assessments in reading during the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 school years also responded to a survey questionnaire. NAEP survey questionnaires include questions about factors potentially related to learning and academic progress. For example, students were asked how many days they had been absent from school in the last month and how often they read for fun on their own time. Both 9- and 13-year-old students were also asked how many days they had been absent from school in the last month. Students' responses to these questions are compared below with those from previous assessment years.

Students’ responses to survey questions provide information with which to compare performance based on their self-reported characteristics and educational experiences. This information may be valuable in helping parents, educators, and policymakers understand what aspects of students’ experiences are related to achievement. Survey questionnaire results, however, do not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the characteristic or experience and student achievement. NAEP is not designed to identify the causes of performance differences. Numerous factors interact to influence student achievement, including local educational policies and practices, the quality of teachers, and available resources. Such factors may change over time and vary among student groups.

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Absenteeism

Higher percentages of students report missing more school monthly compared to previous years 

Students who took the long-term trend reading assessment were asked “How many days were you absent from school in the last month?” In 2004, the first year this question was asked, more than half of 9-year-olds (58 percent) indicated having missed no days in the last month. In 2022, the percentage of 9-year-olds who indicated missing no days of school was 44 percent, lower than all previous years this question has been asked. Conversely, there was an increase in the percentages of 9-year-old students who reported having missed 3 or 4 days, 5 to 10 days, or more than 10 days in the last month compared to all previous years. 

Figure Trend in percentage of 9-year-old students in NAEP long-term trend reading, by number of days student absent from school in a month

Year	None	1 or 2 days	3 or 4 days	5 to 10 days	More than 10 days
2022
2020
2012
2008
2004

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Reading For Fun

Lower percentage of 9-year-olds read for fun daily or weekly compared to 1984

Thirty-nine percent of 9-year-old students reported reading for fun on their own time almost every day in 2022, which was 3 percentage points lower compared to 2020 and 14 points lower compared to 1984. Twenty-five percent of students reported reading for fun once or twice a week in 2022, which was not a statistically significant difference from 2020, but was lower than 1984.

Sixteen percent of 9-year-olds reported that they never or hardly ever read for fun on their own time in 2022, which was approximately the same as in 2020 but higher than the 9 percent who reported never or rarely reading in 1984.

Figure Trend in percentages of 9-year-old students in NAEP long-term trend reading, by how often they read for fun on their own time

Year	Almost every day	Once or twice a week	Once or twice a month	A few times a year	Never or hardly ever
2022
2020
2012
2008
2004
2004¹
1999¹
1996¹
1994¹
1992¹
1990¹
1988¹
1984¹

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2022

Both male and female 9-year-olds read for fun less frequently compared to 1984

Forty-two percent of females reported reading for fun almost every day in 2022, which was higher than the 37 percent of male students who reported doing so. Of the 9-year-olds who reported reading for fun least often—never or hardly ever—the percentage of males was higher than females.

In comparison to 1984, lower percentages of both male and female students reported reading for fun almost every day, and higher percentages of 9-year-olds reported reading less frequently—once or twice a month, a few times a year, or never or hardly ever. Compared to 2020, there was no statistically significant difference in the percentage of 9-year-old students reporting the various frequencies of reading for fun with one exception: a lower percentage of female 9-year-old students in 2022 reported reading for fun almost every day.

Figure Percentages of 9-year-old students in NAEP long-term trend reading, by gender and how often they read for fun on their own time: Various years, 1984–2022

How often students read for fun on their own time	Male				Female
How often students read for fun on their own time	1984¹	2012	2020	2022	1984¹	2012	2020	2022
Almost every day	49*	47*	38	37	58*	58*	46*	42
Once or twice a week	28*	22	23	25	27	23*	26	26
Once or twice a month	8*	8*	9	11	6*	6*	8	10
A few times a year	4*	8	8	8	2*	6*	8	10
Never or hardly ever	11*	15*	21	20	7*	7*	11	12

Legend

*Significantly different (p < .05) from 2022.

Higher-performing 9-year-olds read for fun more often than their lower-performing peers

Larger percentages of 9-year-olds scoring at or above the 75th percentile reported reading for fun almost every day and once or twice a week compared to students performing below the 25th percentile in 2022. There was no statistically significant difference between the percentages of higher- and lower-performing 9-year-olds reporting reading for fun once or twice a month or a few times a year. The percentage of 9-year-olds who reported never or hardly ever reading for fun on their own time was larger for students performing below the 25th percentile.

Figure Percentage of 9-year-old students in NAEP long-term trend reading, by how often students read for fun on their own time and by percentiles: 2022

How often students read for fun on their own time	Students below 25th percentile	Students at or above 75th percentile
Almost every day
Once or twice a week
Once or twice a month
A few times a year
Never or hardly ever

*Significantly different (p < .05) from students performing at or above the 75th percentile.

See the detailed results for the survey questions in NAEP Data Explorer:

Next page: Mathematics: Average Scores and Percentiles

NOTE: Results for 1984–1999 are from the original assessment format (including an original assessment sample in the 2004 Bridge Study), and results for 2004–2023 are from the revised assessment format. See more information about the two assessment formats and the 2004 Bridge Study. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding or the omission of categories. Although the estimates (e.g., average scores or percentages) are shown as rounded numbers in the charts, the positions of the data points in the graphics are based on the unrounded numbers. Unrounded numbers were used for calculating the differences between the estimates, and for the statistical comparison test when the estimates were compared to each other. Not all apparent differences between estimates are statistically significant.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), various years, 1984–2023 Long-Term Trend Reading Assessments.