This paper describes a statistical linking between the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Grade 4 reading and the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in Grade 4 reading. The primary purpose of the linking study is to obtain a statistical comparison between NAEP (a national assessment) and PIRLS (an…

In early 2001, to support an internal evaluation of the impact of changing exclusion rates on reports of statistically significant gains across states, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sponsored research on imputation procedures of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for the excluded students and provided…

Since its first assessment in 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has made a unique contribution to our understanding of American education. It is the only national source of information on the educational achievement of U.S. students, and it is the only vehicle by which states can compare the progress of their students…

Ninth grade often is considered a make-or-break year in determining whether students will be successful in high school and beyond. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) created the Texas Ninth Grade Transition and Intervention Program to ease the transition of at-risk students into high school and increase the likelihood that they graduate on time and…

The objectives of this research are to (a) compare the trend lines after some adjustments for level and scale only and determine if and how they differ; (b) describe the methodology of each assessment and identify similarities and differences; and (c) attempt to explain any observed differences based on comparable subsets or on special analysis.…

As the number of schools changing from part- to full-day kindergarten programs increases, state and local education agencies need empirically-based evidence on ways that schools and teachers can best structure the additional instructional time of full-day programs to improve children's early reading skills. This brief uses nationally…

Fundamental to statistical analyses is the comparison of means of one variable from two or more populations. Population samples may be constructed (i.e., experimental and control groups), or they may be natural groupings (i.e., students at a particular grade in different years). If the populations are similar, the mean comparisons are…

This report outlines several critical issues that should be addressed in order to allow states to explore and understand relationships between the performance of ELL students on NAEP and on state assessments in this policy context. The results of this study can be useful to a variety of education stakeholders who are interested in improving the…

A simulation study was conducted to explore the potential of state assessment scores to improve adjustments for nonparticipation (McLaughlin, Gallagher, and Stancavage, 2004). That study found that state assessment scores could potentially be more effective than demographic information in removing the bias related to absences. The present study…

Because NAEP estimates of state-level achievement play an important role in the evaluation of strategies for improving the nation's educational system, it is important that these estimates have as small a standard error as possible. NAEP estimates for state-level achievement are based on measurement of the performance of a random sample of…

Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), school districts are required to meet the educational needs of all students with disabilities. However, school districts struggle to provide adequate services to students with disabilities who have extraordinary needs and require unusually high expenditures to meet those…