To evaluate the writing abilities of American students, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) asked nationally representative samples of fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders--approximately 20,000 students in all--to perform a variety of informative, persuasive, and narrative writing tasks. In addition, students were asked about the amount and types of writing they did in and out of school, the nature of the instruction they received, and their writing strategies. To supplement this information, the English or language arts teachers of eighth graders participating in the assessment completed a questionnaire on these students and the instruction they had been provided. In the informative writing task, most fourth graders (81%) wrote at least minimally acceptable story summaries, while 74% to 84% of the eighth graders and 79% to 83% of the twelfth graders wrote minimal or better responses to two analysis tasks. In the persuasive writing task, most students (65-88%) at all three grades provided at least minimal responses. Similar to the informative writing results, elaborated responses to the persuasive tasks were rare. Students tended to perform better in the imaginative narrative tasks than on the persuasive tasks. Eighty-one percent of the fourth graders wrote minimal or better responses, while 80% to 87% of the eighth and twelfth graders generated minimal or better responses to the personal narrative task. Assessment highlights also include information on: (1) writing instruction; and (2) effects of response time on performance. (Extensive tables of data and figures are included; a procedural appendix and an appendix containing additional data are attached.) (NKA)