National Assessment of Educational Progress

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest ongoing assessment of students in the United States and measures their knowledge and performance across varied subject areas. Assessments are conducted regularly in Grades 4, 8, and 12 and are essentially the same from year to year, so the results allow comparisons of, for instance, how eighth graders performed on reading in 2013 compared to eighth graders in 2015. This entry gives an overview of the history and governance of the NAEP and concludes with a discussion of the assessment design and how the results are reported.

Planning for the NAEP began in the 1960s with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation and the establishment of the Exploratory Committee for the Assessment of Progress in Education. ...