NAEP (Our Nation's Report Card) and NCEA Data Highlights

Special thank you to the selected Catholic schools that participated in the NAEP testing window. Your schools have represented us well and we are beginning to see the data summary information. Thank you!

Catholic Schools Achieve Well on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2014 - 2015

On April 29, 2015, the National Center for Educational Statistics released the results of the Grade 8 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) tests in U.S. History, Geography and Civics. Complete results for public and Catholic school results were published; other private school levels of participation did not reach levels required for reporting more than scale scores. Catholic schools performed exceptionally well.

2014 Grade 8 NAEP U.S. History Assessments
Scale Scores
Public 266
Catholic 283
Other Private 280

Below Basic
Public 30
Catholic 13
Other Private —

Basic
Public 53
Catholic 56
Other Private —

Proficient
Public 16
Catholic 29
Other Private —

Advanced
Public 1
Catholic 2
Other Private —

2014 Grade 8 NAEP Geography Assessments
Scale Scores
Public 260
Catholic 276
Other Private 276

Below Basic
Public 27
Catholic 10
Other Private -

Basic
Public 48
Catholic 48
Other Private -

Proficient
Public 23
Catholic 38
Other Private -

Advanced
Public 3
Catholic 4
Other Private -

2014 Grade 8 NAEP Civics Assessments
Scale Scores
Public 152
Catholic 171
Other Private 168

Below Basic
Public 27
Catholic 8
Other Private —

Basic
Public 51
Catholic 51
Other Private —

Proficient
Public 20
Catholic 36
Other Private —

Advanced
Public2
Catholic 4
Other Private —

NCEA Data Highlights: Enrollment
Total Catholic school student enrollment for the current academic year is 1,939,574.
1,359,969 in elementary/middle schools; 579,605 in secondary schools
Student diversity: 20.4% are racial minorities
15.3% are Hispanic/Latino and 6.3% were reported as unknown in the racial data collection.
Non-Catholic enrollment is 328,690 which is 16.9% of the total enrollment.

Schools
There are 6,568 Catholic schools: 5,368 elementary; 1,200 secondary.
27 new schools opened; 88 consolidated or closed.
2,044 schools have a waiting list for admission.
The student/teacher ratio is 13:1.

Professional Staff
Full-time equivalent professional staff numbered 150,709
97.2%: Laity (Lay women: 75.2% Lay men: 22.0%)
2.8%: Religious/Clergy (Sisters: 1.9%; Brothers: 0.4%; Clergy: 0.5%)

Catholic School Trend Data
U. S. Catholic school enrollment reached its peak during the early 1960s when there were more than 5.2 million students in almost thirteen thousand schools across the nation. The 1970s and 1980s saw a steep decline in both the number of schools and students. By 1990, there were approximately 2.5 million students in 8,719 schools. From the mid 1990s though 2000, there was a steady enrollment increase (1.3%) despite continued closings of schools.

In the 10 years since the 2005 school year, 1,648 schools were reported closed or consolidated (21.1%), while 336 school openings were reported. The number of students declined by 481,016 (19.9%). The most seriously impacted have been elementary schools.

School Closures: The actual decrease in number of elementary schools in the twelve large urban areas of the country since 2005 is 430 schools (23.3%).

The national and elementary enrollment trend data: Since 2005, elementary school enrollment has declined by 30.0% in the 12 urban dioceses and 20.4% in the rest of the U.S.

For more additional NCEA national information, please visit: https://www.ncea.org/data-informatio...ic-school-data