NAEP

Lauren Hood

Fundamentals of Curriculum

Dr. Dugan

11/15/11

                                                            NAEP

The NAEP is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). By testing in various subjects, it is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of American students’ knowledge (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). The assessments that are periodically conducted are math, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and US history (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). The same set of test booklets are used across the nation for the NAEP assessments and are given uniformly. For all states and selected urban districts, the NAEP results serve as a common metric for all.

NAEP provides results on subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students and groups within those populations (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). It reports the long-term trend, and once it is reported, they become part of the “Nation’s Report Card.” The long-term trend is NAEP assessments that are designed to give information on the changes in the basic achievement of America's youth. They are administered nationally and report student performance at ages 9, 13, and 17 in mathematics and reading (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). The Nations Report Card informs the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011).

The assessments that are given for the NAEP are the national assessments, the state assessments, the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA), and the long-term trend (LTT) assessments (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). The national assessments include many subjects such as math, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and US history. They follow the frameworks that were developed by the National Assessment Governing Board, and use the latest advance in assessment methodology (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). Each subtest is assessed at grades 4, 8, and 12, although not all grades are assessed each time. Four subjects, math, reading, science, and writing are reported also at the state level, usually for grades 4 and 8. For national assessments, students in public and private schools are assessed but at the state level, assessment is in public schools only (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011).

The state assessments results for each participating state may be found using the State Profile tool (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). This presents key data about each states performance in main 4 subjects for grades 4 and 8. This can be retrieved at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/.  The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) is a multiyear study of the feasibility of a trial district-level NAEP in selected urban districts that is supported by federal appropriations authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011). The long-term trend (LTT) assessments are given at the national level only and are administered in a manner that is very different from that used for main NAEP assessments. The LTT reports results in math and reading that present trend since the 1970’s, and are given every four years(Institute of Educational Sciences, 2011).

Reference:

Institute of Educational Sciences.(2011). National Assessment of Educational Process.      Retrieved: http://nces.ed.gov