NAEP and NCLB Testing: Confirming State Test Results

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also called "The Nation's Report Card," is the only national and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various academic subjects. NAEP administers reading and mathematics tests every two years, and tests other subjects in alternate years. This widely respected testing program is used by national and state policymakers to evaluate the condition of education in the United States.

Under the federal "No Child Left Behind" law (NCLB), NAEP has a new role in efforts to improve student achievement. While state participation in NAEP testing previously had been voluntary, NCLB now requires all states to participate annually in NAEP 4th and 8th grade reading and math tests. However, the NAEP scores are not included in measuring whether schools make NCLB's "adequate yearly progress"  -- the annual improvement required in the percent of students who score at the proficient level on state tests. No consequences to states or schools occur based on NAEP scores

The law thus views NAEP as an independent measure of a state's success in meeting NCLB's goals. Because the NCLB requirement for "adequate yearly progress" allows each state to set its own standards and decide which tests to use, and because state tests and standards vary widely, NAEP will provide a national benchmark so the public can see how students in their state do on state tests compared to the NAEP. If there are wide differences (as there are in most states), then NCLB envisions this creating a dialogue within the state about why such differences exist.

Key Questions about NAEP and ESEA

Given the importance that will be placed upon NAEP test results under NCLB, here are some questions to consider:

• Has your state participated in either the long-term trend NAEP or the state NAEP? Contact your state department of education or visit its Web site to find out. 
• How has a sample of your state's students performed on previous NAEP test administrations in reading and mathematics? This information can be obtained in the reports from NAEP's Web site or from your state department of education. How does NAEP performance compare to your own state's tests?
• If your state does not perform as well on NAEP as it does on its own tests, obtain the NAEP frameworks for reading and mathematics from the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) Web site and review the skills and knowledge contained in your standards and tests in comparison to the NAEP frameworks.
• Do the NAEP content frameworks contain significantly different skills in reading and mathematics from your state's existing standards and curriculum? Are modifications necessary to your state content standards?

Because of its new role in NCLB, NAEP will likely begin to influence standards, curriculum and instruction in every state. This raises several policy questions:

• What is or what should be the overlap of content and knowledge between what's on the NAEP test and what's on the individual state tests and content standards? Currently the overlap varies among states. Thus, the NAEP and a particular state test may not be measuring the exact same skills. NAEP scores in a particular state may be higher or lower than the state test depending on how much the tests vary.
• Performance standards vary among the state tests as well in comparison with NAEP. NAEP results are reported by three achievement levels -- basic, proficient, and advanced. These achievement levels may or may not correspond to those used in a state assessment program. NAEP achievement levels or performance standards are widely acknowledged as high standards.
• NAEP is not a "high-stakes" test for students because there are no direct consequences associated with their performance. NAEP leadership has long been concerned about students' motivation to do their best on NAEP tests, particularly at the 12th grade level.
• NAEP is administered in the spring, while some states do their assessments in the fall. That means that NAEP results will reflect almost a year of student growth when compared to those states' assessments.

The Basics on 'The Nation's Report Card'

NAEP is a congressionally mandated project of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). NAEP is governed by an independent board called the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). This independent board administers the program through test contractors who develop and carry out the assessments.

Since 1969 NAEP has been regularly conducting assessments of samples of the nation's students attending public and private schools at the elementary, junior high and high school levels. NAEP assesses reading and mathematics every two years in grades 4 and 8. In the intervening years NAEP assesses additional subject areas such as science, writing, foreign languages, history, geography and the arts. Participation in these subject assessments remains voluntary under "No Child Left Behind."

Each state selects a representative sample of students to participate. An intact classroom of students is the sampling unit. Your state department of education staff along with a national cadre of testing staff distribute and administer the test. NAEP tests in reading and mathematics are approximately 30-60 questions long. Items on the test are usually spiraled; that is, no one student takes the complete test or even the same set of items that another student may take. Statewide, sufficient numbers of students take all forms of the test so that state profiles can be established. Sampling and test development techniques make individual results as well as individual district and school results impossible. Current law also forbids NAEP from producing individual student results.

Two NAEP programs exist: the long-term trend NAEP and the state NAEP. The long-term trend NAEP assesses the same content established in 1969 in order to provide a consistent picture of student achievement over the years. Long-term trend NAEP is administered periodically to a national random sample of students. State NAEP is administered on a state-sampling basis and assesses updated content to reflect current curriculum priorities.