National Assessment Governing Board Approves New Schedule for Future Voluntary Assessments Under NAEP Program

Contact: Elizabeth Schneider, Elizabeth.Schneider@ed.gov, 703-969-4141

National Assessment Governing Board Approves New Schedule for Future Voluntary Assessments Under NAEP Program

(April 21, 2025 — Washington, D.C.) The National Assessment Governing Board (Governing Board) voted today on a new assessment schedule for The Nation's Report Card.

The Governing Board adjusted the schedule for voluntary assessments, those which are not legislatively mandated, for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as The Nation's Report Card or NAEP.

“Only NAEP provides us with a nationally representative, long-term measure of student achievement, and the assessment schedule enables policymakers and educators to plan for, and act on, critical data about U.S. students,” said Beverly Perdue, Governing Board chair and former North Carolina governor. “Today’s actions reflect what assessments the Governing Board believes are most valuable to stakeholders and can be best assessed by NAEP at this time, given the imperative for cost efficiencies.”

The Governing Board revised the assessment schedule due to the U.S. Department of Education's stated need to find efficiencies in all Departmental activities, including NAEP. The changes streamline future voluntary assessments (which will be administered between 2028 and 2032). They do not impact legislatively-mandated assessments, including the 2026 NAEP in math and reading.

“When the Board adopted the previous assessment schedule in 2023, we anticipated eventually needing to right-size the schedule based on budgetary realities, which is what we’ve done today,” said Martin West, Governing Board vice chair, academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. “We also acted with the clear goal to protect NAEP’s overall quality and validity.” 

The Governing Board is responsible for setting the NAEP assessment schedule, which impacts the NAEP budget.

The new assessment schedule approved by the Governing Board can be found below:

Download the PDF version of the release here.

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The National Assessment Governing Board (Governing Board) sets policy for The Nation’s Report Card, also called the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP. Created by Congress in 1988, the Governing Board is an independent, nonpartisan board whose 26 members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. For more information about the Governing Board, visit www.nagb.gov.