National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP):
What Is It and Why Should We Care?
What Is It?
The National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is
the only nationally representative and continuing assessment
of what America's students know and can do in various subject
areas. As such, NAEP data provide reliable comparisons of
performance among states, urban districts, public and private
schools, and student demographic groups. Assessments are
conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science,
writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S.
history. A congressionally mandated project, the NAEP is
overseen by the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education.
Findings
are released in the form of the “Nation’s
Report Card” and provide a wealth of information for
educators, parents, policymakers, and the media. Results
are provided regarding subject matter achievement for populations
of students (e.g., 4th graders) and groups within those populations
(e.g., Black students, Hispanic students,
low-income students, students with disabilities). Not all
students participate in the NAEP.
Results are based on a sample of students from every state.
Students are selected on a random basis then school staff
makes final decisions on who should participate.
The privacy of individual students is protected, and the
identities of participating schools are not released. The
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 required all states to participate
in the NAEP, which provides comparable information across
all states and within many student groups.
Prior
to 1996, NAEP did not allow accommodations for students
with disabilities, resulting in a significant under-representation
of this important student group. However, following the passage
of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as amended
in 1997, states and school districts began to identify increasing
numbers of students as requiring accommodations in assessments
in order to fairly and accurately show their abilities. NAEP responded by beginning to allow most accommodations that
students received in their usual classroom testing (see below).
This policy change allowed higher levels of participation
of students with disabilities—providing a rich source
of information on the performance of this group of students
in key academic areas, the change in their performance over
time, and a comparison of their performance across states
and across student groups. Still, the exclusion rate for
students with disabilities remains unacceptably high -
28% of those selected to participate in the 2009 Reading
sample were excluded for various reasons - and the National
Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) has been reviewing ways
to improve the participation rate of students with disabilities.
| Examples
of some of the most frequently used accommodations
on the NAEP include: |
Examples
of testing accommodations not allowed in NAEP are: |
- directions
read aloud
- extended
time
- test
administered in small group or one-on-one
|
- reading
the reading passages aloud to the student
- extending
testing over several days (because NAEP administrators
are in each school only one day)
|
Why
Should We Care?
Since
NAEP is the only measure of student performance
in key academic areas that is comparable across
states,
it is important for parents and advocates to be
aware of this important information. The results of the 2009
administration for 4th and 8th grade Reading were released
in March 2010. While there was no improvement between 2007
and 2009 for overall students, students with disabilities
at the eighth grade level showed significant improvement
- an increase of 3 percentage points for those reading
at or above basic (35% to 38%). While significant achievement
gaps remain, students with disabilities
are
improving in
basic reading
performance according to NAEP.
National
results for student groups in 2009 Reading appears below
with 2007 results in parentheses.
NAEP
2009 - READING - GRADE 4 |
| STUDENT GROUP |
PERCENT BELOW BASIC |
PERCENT AT OR ABOVE BASIC |
| White |
22 [22] |
78
[78] |
| Black |
52
[54] |
48
[46] |
| Hispanics |
51 [50] |
49
[50] |
| Low Income |
49
[50] |
51
[50] |
| Students with Disabilities |
65 [64] |
35
[36] |
NAEP
2009 - READING
- GRADE 8
|
| STUDENT
GROUP |
PERCENT
BELOW BASIC |
PERCENT
AT OR ABOVE BASIC |
White |
16
[16] |
84 [84] |
Black |
43
[45] |
57 [55] |
Hispanics |
39
[42] |
61
[58] |
Low Income |
40
[42] |
60
[58] |
Students with Disabilities |
62
[65] |
38 [35] |
Performance
on NAEP Reading
vary significantly across states. For example, for fourth-grade
reading, the worst performing state was Hawaii where just
11% of students with disabilities are reading at or above
basic and only 3% were at or above proficient while in
Maryland and Massachusetts 54% of students with disabilities
were at or above basic and 21% were at or above proficient.
In eighth grade reading, the District of Columbia had the
worst performance with 85% of students with disabilities
reading below basic and just 2% reading at or above proficient,
while Massachusetts 39% of students with disabilities were
below basic and 18% were at or above proficient.
Since NAEP performance
is comparable across states (unlike student
achievement
on
state
assessments
required
by No Child
Left Behind), parents and advocates should look carefully
at the NAEP performance in their state
compared to the national results above.
Grades
4 and 8 Percentage of Students with Disabilities Identified,
Excluded and Assessed 2009
State-by-state
performance ::
2009 vs. 2007 :: Reading Grade 4
State-by-state
performance ::
2009 vs. 2007 :: Reading Grade 8
More information is available at www.nationsreportcard.gov.
|
