The National Assessment for Educational Progress
NAEP Is Our Main Benchmark
Our congress has embraced the NAEP reading assessment to measure our students' reading proficiency. The National Assessment for Educational Progress is the largest continuing, nationally representative assessment of what American students have learned. It's often referred to as The Nation's Report Card. The tests began in 1992 and are scheduled, generally, on a two-year rotating schedule for students in the fourth and eighth grades. However, twelfth graders are only tested every four years. Each test is specific to a particular subject area. Because our focus is reading, we are focused on the reading assessment.
What Is the Reading Assessment
The reading assessment treats reading as a dynamic cognitive process. It evaluates three cognitive targets:
- locate and recall,
- integrate and interpret, and
- critique and evaluate.
The reading passages are primarily literary or information. Literary passages include fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction. Information passages focus on exposition, argument/persuasion, and procedures.
While the tests for all three grade levels have major similarities, the reading for fourth graders leans toward more literary writing. The assessment for twelfth graders features more informational passages.
How Does It Measure Reading Proficiency
The possible scores for the assessment range from 0 to 500. Every test taker's score will rank within one of four predetermined reading proficiency levels. These levels are:
- Below Basic
- NAEP Basic
- NAEP Proficient
- NAEP Advanced
Each level encompasses a specific list of skills and reading behavior that are measured by the assessment. Those standards vary by proficiency level and also by grade level. Each list is long and quite detailed.
We've also included pages with information about "turning point" events in the nation's approach to education: the 1957 Sputnik Crisis, the 1983 National Commission for Excellence in Education report, A Nation at Risk. , and the 2000 National Reading Panel report.
NAEP: The Nation's Report Card, 1992
The NAEP...
