Table 1
National NAEP Writing Average Scale Scores, 1998 and 2002
	Fourth Grade		Eighth Grade		Twelfth Grade
	1998	2002	1998	2002	1998	2002
Total	150	154	150	153	150	148
Gender
Male	142	146	140	143	140	136
Female	158	163	160	164	159	160
Race/Ethnicity1
White	156	161	157	161	155	154
Black	130	140	131	135	134	130
Hispanic	134	141	131	137	136	136
Asian/Pacific Islander	159	167	154	161	150	151
American Indian	130	139	130	137	129	-
Free/Reduced-Price School Lunch Program Eligibility
Eligible	134	141	132	136	133	132
Not eligible	158	163	157	162	152	152
Parent's Education2
Did not finish high school	-	-	-	136	-	129
Graduated high school	-	-	-	144	-	139
Some education after high school	-	-	-	156	-	149
Graduated college	-	-	-	165	-	158
Unknown	-	-	-	132	-	114
Type of School
Public	148	153	148	152	148	146
Nonpublic	164	166	167	170	165	168
Type of Location2
Central city	-	150	-	147	-	148
Urban fringe/ large town	-	159	-	158	-	153
Rural/ small town	-	152	-	153	-	143
Percentile
10th	105	108	104	104	104	97
25th	126	130	127	128	126	121
50th	151	154	151	155	150	149
75th	174	179	175	180	174	176
90th	195	200	194	201	195	200
Note: Scores on a scale from 0-300.
1None of the race groups includes Hispanics of those races.
2Data for 1998 are available but cannot be used for comparison because the wording of the question changed, so they have been omitted.
Source: U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. National Center for Education Statistics. The Nation's Report Card: Writing 2002, NCES 2003-529, by H.R. Persky, M.C. Daane, and Y.Jin. Washington, DC:2003. Figures 2.1, 2.2, and 3.1.  Tables 3.2, 3.4, 3.9, 3.11, and 3.14.