The table below shows the percentage of twelfth-graders within each achievement level whose responses were rated as "Uneven" or higher. For example, 93 percent of students performing at the Basic level were able to, at least, write essays that took a clear position, even if support for that position was inconsistently developed, repetitive, or sometimes exhibited sentence, word choice, or other errors that could interfere with reader understanding.

See additional student responses and the scoring criteria used for this writing prompt in the NAEP Questions Tool. See an illustration of each rating level plotted on the NAEP scale in the writing item maps.

Percentage rated as "Uneven" or higher for twelfth-graders at each achievement level
in 2007

‡ Reporting standards not met. Sample size is insufficient to permit a reliable estimate.

The response shown below was rated "Uneven" because, while it takes a clear position, its attempt to support that position is uneven in terms of development and organization. The response offers only minimal support for the idea that the small inventions are more important ("I write everyday and listen to music."), moves immediately into a tangentially related argument about how bigger inventions make people lazy, and concludes with a new and undeveloped idea about computer use. Further, grammatical errors, such as misused prepositions ("on my personal daily life") and lack of subject-verb agreement, sometimes interfere with comprehension.