For more than four decades the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has tracked the achievement of U.S. students in major academic subjects. This national resource is the only assessment that states and now many urban districts can look to as an objective yardstick of their performance over time, relative to national benchmarks, and…

This report uses NAEP background data to track time and learning since the mid-1990s in three areas: student absenteeism; classroom instructional time in mathematics, reading, music and the visual arts; and homework time expected by teachers. Key report findings are: (1) Students with higher rates of "monthly absenteeism" score disproportionately…

This paper addresses the possible content and organization of a National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) "Mega Report" based on the most populous five states and the largest metropolitan areas in each of them, namely California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas. It is not a "design" but is much more than an outline, since it discusses the…

The Technical Panel on 12th Grade Preparedness Research, convened by the Governing Board, consists of seven members with expertise in a variety of measurement and policy areas related to preparedness. The purpose of the Panel was to assist the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) in planning research and validity studies that will enable the…

An assessment framework is like a blueprint, laying out the basic design of the assessment by describing the mathematics content that should be tested and the types of assessment questions that should be included. It also describes how the various design factors should be balanced across the assessment. This is an assessment framework, not a…

To gauge the civic knowledge and skills of the nation's 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students, an assessment has been scheduled for 2006 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This assessment will enable NAEP to report on trends in civics achievement from 1998 to 2006. The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), NAEP's…

Early in 2003, the National Assessment Governing Board established the National Commission on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 12th Grade Assessment and Reporting, following the recommendation of retiring Governing Board Executive Director Roy Truby. The Governing Board's charge to the Commission was "To review the current…