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National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

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NAEP Overview

Long considered the gold standard in assessment development, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only assessment that measures what Grades 4, 8, and 12 students know and can do in several content areas. NAEP is a congressionally-mandated assessment and serves as an integral part of our nation's evaluation of the condition and progress of education. NAEP is conducted in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Department of Defense schools.

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NAEP is governed by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) and is conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. The names of the students remain confidential and results for individual students are not reported.

NAEP assessments are used for the following:

  • measuring student achievement
  • gauging educational progress
  • tracking and reporting changes in achievement over time
  • making comparisons across states
  • making subgroup comparisons within a state, across states and regions, and within the Nation
  • generating important discussions about education
  • evaluating the condition and progress of education
  • providing a “second opinion” of achievement on state assessments
  • analyzing data, such as determining if the gaps in achievement among various subgroups are narrowing, growing, or remaining the same

Since NAEP began in 1969, it has conducted assessments in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the arts. NAEP has reported national results for students in Grades 4, 8, and 12—except for occasional assessments for which students are sampled by age rather than grade, such as the Long-term Trend Assessment.

Starting in 1990, NAEP began offering states an opportunity to receive state-level scores every two years at Grades 4 and 8. States could volunteer for NAEP to select a large enough sample of schools and students within their state to achieve reliable and valid state scores. In return, each state’s department of education recruited sample schools. Prior to 2002, NAEP was administered by school personnel under the oversight of NAEP administrators. In 2002, NAEP staff began administering the assessment with training and supervision by Westat, the contractor hired by NCES to administer the assessment. NAEP became mandatory for all states, Washington, D.C., and the Department of Defense schools with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Florida has participated every year in state NAEP since 1990 except for 2000 (the year the FCAT was expanded to include Grades 3–10). NAEP 2009 is the first year in which 11 states (including Florida) will report NAEP Grade 12 state-level results.

In 2002, NAEP administered the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in selected large urban school districts on a trial basis. Five large urban districts participated that year. The group was expanded to nine in 2003, ten in 2005, and 18 in 2009. Miami-Dade County was one of the large urban districts added in 2009. TUDA assessments occur in the same years as the state assessments (odd-numbered years). Results for the District of Columbia are reported as state- and district-level results.

In order to report NAEP data, NAEP requires a participation rate of at least 85 percent of the sampled public schools in each state and at least 90 percent of all sampled students in each of the sampled public schools. NAEP strives for high participation rates because low percentages of participation and response rates greatly reduce the amount of potentially useful information that can be reported.

The administration of NAEP is made possible through a collaborative effort between the federal government, the state, individual school districts, and schools. Each state has a designated NAEP coordinator (NSC) who assists the federal government in the identification of schools and facilitates communication between the federal government and the schools.

The process of developing an assessment has many steps. For NAEP, the steps are:

  1. NAGB is responsible for developing the frameworks that describe the theoretical basis and objectives for the assessment of student performance in a particular academic subject.
  2. NAEP assessments are based on the frameworks. The frameworks are revised or replaced on a 10-year basis to keep them in line with current instructional practices.
  3. The frameworks are designed with input from all states and jurisdictions that give assessments.
  4. Test specifications based on the frameworks provide guidelines for developing the actual items used on NAEP assessments.
  5. Subject-area specialists are invited to attend and participate in the item review of the items developed by the contractor.
  6. Assessment items undergo a bias and sensitivity review and are included in pilot and field tests.

NAEP is a criterion-referenced assessment that is designed to show how well students know a body of information and can perform skills according to specified criteria. NAEP scores are reported as average scale scores and achievement levels. Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced are the four achievement levels developed by NAGB. In addition to assessing achievement, NAEP collects background information pertaining to student, teacher, and school characteristics; instructional practices; and curricula.

Results from NAEP are publicly available through NCES using the NAEP Data Explorer (NDE). The public can use the NDE to analyze results at the national level (Grades 4, 8, and 12) and state levels (Grades 4 and 8) with disaggregated achievement level estimates by subgroup (gender, race/ethnicity, eligibility for Free/Reduced-Price lunch, English language learner, and students with disabilities). This level of reporting is made possible through sophisticated school/student sampling techniques used by NCES/NAGB to represent the nation and individual states.

NAEP Accommodations

Beginning in 1998, all NAEP assessments permitted some accommodations for students with disabilities (SD) and English language learners (ELL). Accommodations that would alter the knowledge and skills being assessed were not allowed by NAEP. An example of an accommodation not allowed by NAEP is the reading aloud of the reading assessment.

Decisions about accommodations and inclusion/exclusion of students in NAEP are based on:

  • the individual student’s individual education plan (IEP) or 504 Plan.
  • the responses by school staff on student questionnaires associated with each student with disabilities and/or each student classified as an English language learner.

Because states differ in the accommodations they allow on their state assessments, NSCs need to understand their state’s guidelines for assessing SD and ELL students. It is the NSCs responsibility to monitor exclusion rates.

State NAEP

State NAEP allows states to have a uniform measure to chart progress over time and compare their student’s achievement with other states with similar characteristics (e.g., population, geography, demographics). NAEP introduced state-level assessments in part because states’ individual assessments made comparisons difficult and states indicated an interest in receiving state-level NAEP results. Beginning in 2003, under NCLB, states were required to participate in NAEP reading and mathematics assessments in Grades 4 and 8 every two years in order to receive federal Title I funding.

Only a sample of schools is chosen to participate in NAEP. Participants are selected through a scientific sampling method (systematic sampling with probability proportional to size). First, a representative sample of Florida public and nonpublic schools is selected. Secondly, individual students from the selected schools are randomly selected to be included in the NAEP sample. Approximately 10 percent of the nation’s Grade 4 and 8 students are selected to participate in NAEP in the odd-numbered years. The sample selected for the even-numbered years, when NAEP is only a national assessment, is considerably smaller. No Florida officials or educators participate in the selection process.

In 2009, Florida’s sample included 201 Grade 4 schools (including 96 in Miami-Dade County), 174 Grade 8 schools (including 59 in Miami-Dade County), and 88 Grade 12 schools (including 9 in Miami-Dade County). Because Miami-Dade County is a Trial Urban District, its the sample size was large in 2009 to provide district-level results. The number of schools and students in Florida selected to participate in NAEP varies from year-to-year, depending upon the number of subjects to be assessed. A national sample of nonpublic (private) schools is also selected for Grades 4, 8, and 12. NAEP requires administrative assistance from a designated NAEP coordinator in each participating school. The NAEP assessments are designed to reduce classroom intrusion, requiring approximately 90 minutes of total administration time.

Florida’s State Profile can be found on the Nation’s Report Card Web site. The profiles present key data about each state’s student and school population and its NAEP testing history and results. The profiles also provide easy access to all NAEP data for participating states and links to the most recent state report cards for available subjects.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

With the passage of the NCLB legislation in 2001 (and additional NAEP legislation shortly thereafter), NAEP changed in a number of ways beginning in 2003:
  • To receive Title I funding, states are required to participate in NAEP assessments in reading and mathematics in Grades 4 and 8 every two years.
  • School districts receiving Title I funding must participate in the state NAEP years, and the sampled schools in those districts must participate. (Schools in districts not receiving Title I funds participate voluntarily if sampled.)
  • NAEP has established specific requirements and procedures for parental notification, for providing access to secure NAEP items, and for handling questions and complaints.
  • NCES provides funding to states to support the employment of a NAEP State Coordinator (NSC) to assist them in their participation in NAEP and to report the results.
  • NAEP continues to prepare and distribute reports of national and state performance, but NAEP no longer prepares a full report for each state. NSCs have the responsibility of preparing their state’s reports, tailored to specific state needs.

Two Types of “NAEP Years”

There are two types of NAEP years: (1) State and TUDA NAEP years and (2) Other NAEP years. Some activities change depending on the type of year.

Type 1: State and TUDA NAEP Years

Starting in 2001, the odd-numbered calendar years include state-level and district-level NAEP reading and mathematics assessments as well as national NAEP assessments. Starting in 2005, NAEP included a third, non-mandated subject. In 2005 and 2009 the third subject was Science, and in 2007 it was Grade 8 Writing. The current schedule calls for alternating writing and science in odd-numbered years.

Prior to 2009, assessments at Grade 12 were national-only assessments and usually included some or all of the same subjects as those included for Grades 4 and 8. In 2009, 11 states (including Florida) agreed to enlarge their Grade 12 sample of schools to provide Grade 12 state-level results in reading and mathematics.

Type 2: Other NAEP Years

The even-numbered calendar years since 2004 have been the years in which NAEP conducts national assessments (e.g., long-term-trend assessments in reading and mathematics and/or assessments in subjects other than reading, mathematics, science, or writing). For example, the NAEP 2008 national assessment included the arts in Grade 8. That assessment also included the Long-term Trend Assessment for students age 9, 13, and 17 and field tests in reading, mathematics, and science. The Long-term Trend Assessment samples are selected by age rather than grade, and the assessments occur in the fall, winter, and spring, depending upon the age group being assessed. The arts assessment and field tests were administered during the regular NAEP assessment window, from the last week in January to the first week in March.

NAEP Audiences

NSCs must communicate with a variety of stakeholders to promote understanding of NAEP. These stakeholders are seeking NAEP data to:
  • further the quality of their organization
  • demand accountability for performance results
  • better represent the diverse interests of a group of people
  • further professional or business interests.

These groups include:

  • Governors
  • Commissioners of Education
  • Legislators
  • School Boards, both local and state
  • State Chambers of Commerce
  • Teacher Education Programs
  • Policymakers
  • The media
  • Principals and Superintendents
  • The business community
  • Parents
  • Researchers
  • Educators
  • Students
  • State Departments of Education
  • School Districts
  • Curricular committees at the school, district, and state level
  • The general public

The NAEP contact for the state of Florida is Michele Sonnenfeld. She can be contacted by e-mail at or by telephone at (850) 245-0513.