NAEP Background Questions: An Underused National Resource
NAEP Background Questions: An Underserved National Resource
A Report to the National Assessment Governing Board by the Expert Panel on Strengthening the NAEP Background Questions
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 compared with other jurisdictions. Less known, but complementing the NAEP assessments, is a rich collection of student, teacher and school responses to background questions that can help in understanding the context for NAEP achievement results and give insights into how to improve them.