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State Assessment

New York State Testing Program (NYSTP)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress 2022-23

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has frequently been called The Nation’s Report Card. It is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subjects. NAEP began in 1964 with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to set up the Exploratory Committee for the Assessment of Progress in Education. The first national assessments were conducted in 1969. Voluntary assessments for states began in 1990 on a trial basis and, in 2002 and 2003, selected urban districts participated in the assessment on a trial basis. In 2003, the first No Child Left Behind-mandated NAEP assessments in reading and mathematics were administered. Since its inception in 1969, assessments have been conducted in numerous academic subjects, including the arts, civics, economics, geography, mathematics, reading, science, United States history, and writing.

Since 1988, the National Assessment Governing Board has been responsible for selecting the subject areas to be assessed. Furthermore, the Governing Board oversees creation of the frameworks that underlie the assessments and the specifications that guide the development of the assessment instruments. The framework for each subject area is determined through a collaborative development process that involves teachers, curriculum specialists, subject-matter specialists, school administrators, parents, and members of the public.

Because NAEP is a large-group assessment, each student takes only a small part of the overall assessment. In most schools, only a small portion of the total grade enrollment is selected to take the assessment, and these students may not reliably or validly represent the total school population. Only when the student scores are aggregated at the state or national level are the data considered reliable and valid estimates of what students know and can do in a given content area. Consequently, school- or student-level results are never reported. NAEP reports results either nationally or by state, in addition to results for some districts that meet certain reporting criteria.

State NAEP

Since 1990, NAEP assessments have been conducted on the state level. Beginning with the 2003 NAEP cycle, assessments are conducted every two years in mathematics and reading in Grades 4 and 8 and results are reported by state. The cycle changed in 2021 with the cancellation of the 2021 NAEP due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The biennial cycle continued in 2022 with the administration of mathematics and reading assessments in Grades 4 and 8, with the next administration of these assessments to be conducted in 2024.

A sample of schools and students in each state are carefully selected to participate in NAEP according to demographic characteristics that make the samples collectively representative of each state. Using this representative sample of schools and students, participating states receive assessment results that report on the performance of their Grades 4 and 8 students in mathematics and reading. Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly to all participating students, using the same test booklets and identical administration procedures across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for states/jurisdictions and the large, urban districts that participate in the assessment. Results from the state assessments are typically released six months after administration, in the fall of the same year that they are administered.

In addition, in the years when state assessments are reported at Grades 4 and 8, Grade 12 assessments may also be administered, along with pilot assessments and special studies, such as the High School Transcript Study. Results from the Grade 12 assessments are released as national results about one year after administration, usually in the spring of the year following administration, while the results from the pilots and special studies are used to inform future NAEP assessments.

National NAEP

In the years when state results are not reported, NAEP reports information for the nation for subjects such as United States history, civics, and technology and engineering literacy. National NAEP years include students drawn from both public and nonpublic schools and report national results for student achievement at Grades 4, 8, and 12. Pilot tests and special studies may also be conducted in national years. As in state years, no individual student, school, or district scores are reported.

Trial Urban District Assessments

In addition to reporting on student achievement on national and state levels, NAEP also reports on test results in selected urban districts. The decision to report student achievement at the district level came in 2001 after discussion between the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS), and the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). According to the National Assessment Governing Board, the primary goal of the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) is to promote education reform in the schools of the nation’s largest urban school districts and to focus attention on the challenges faced by urban districts.

The TUDA program began in 2002 on a trial basis, similar to the trial for state assessments in 1990. Six urban districts participated that year in NAEP reading and writing assessments. In 2003, TUDA continued with reading and mathematics assessments and, in 2005, with reading, mathematics, and science assessments. The assessments administered in TUDA are the same as those administered in states and jurisdictions, using identical administration procedures. Like the state and national assessments, TUDA does not provide individual scores for the students or schools assessed.

Districts invited to participate in NAEP assessments must meet certain criteria. They must have populations over 250,000 and one-half of the population must be minority students or eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs.

From its inception in 2002, the TUDA program has grown significantly. In 2009, eighteen districts participated in mathematics, reading, and science assessments. By 2015, the number had grown to twenty-two, and today, in 2022, twenty-seven TUDAs participate in the NAEP assessment. New York City was one of the original six districts chosen for the first trial assessment in 2002 and has participated in all subsequent TUDAs.

Archives

The assessments planned for 2021 were postponed to NAEP 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York NAEP News - NAEP 2022-2023

Who will take NAEP?

In New York State, 25 schools were selected by the National Center for Educational Statistics, part of the United States Department of Education (USDOE), to participate in the 2022 Long-Term Trend assessments. Of these, 12 are in New York City. For the Field Tests, 26 schools were selected, 8 of which are in New York City. The New York State Education Department notified selected schools around the state in early September 2022, informing them what grades and subjects would be assessed. New York City public schools were notified of their selection for NAEP by the New York City Department of Education. A sample of students from each selected school will then be chosen by the United States Department of Education to participate in the designated NAEP assessment. Each student will be assessed in only one subject.

What subjects will NAEP assess?

In 2022-2023, NAEP will administer two main assessment programs:

  • Long-Term Trend (LTT) assessments in Mathematics and Reading to Age 13 students.
  • Field Tests in Grades 4, 8, and 12 in Mathematics, Reading, and Science

For the LTT assessments, which are based upon age rather than grade, Age 13 students will take the assessments via paper and pencil instead of digitally. The data collected from these LTT assessments can be linked to NAEP assessments conducted as far back as the early 1970s to measure progress over time. National-level results will be released as The Nation’s Report Card.

For the field tests, NAEP will administer mathematics, reading, and science assessments to students in Grades 4, 8, and 12. Students will take the assessments on sanitized tablets with keyboards provided by NAEP representatives. The NAEP 2023 Field Tests will explore a new online assessment platform and possible transition to different devices, such as Chromebooks, that may be more familiar to students. As part of the field test program three administration modes will be implemented. Based on the school’s internet bandwidth, each selected school will be assigned one of the following modes:

  • Mode 1. All NAEP-provided devices for students and the NAEP administrator device connect to the school’s internet.
  • Mode 2. Only the NAEP administrator’s device connects to the school’s internet and that device then communicates directly with individual NAEP-provided student devices.
  • Mode 3. All devices are provided by NAEP and use NAEP-provided internet.

Results from the field tests will not be publicly released but will be used to inform future NAEP assessments. In accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), all districts that receive Title I funds have committed that school(s) within the district selected for NAEP will participate in the biennial Grades 4 and 8 NAEP Reading and Mathematics assessments and in any field tests related to these assessments.

When will NAEP be administered?

The LTT assessments will be administered in selected schools, countrywide, between October 10th and December 16th, 2022. The field tests will be administered in selected schools, countrywide, between March 20th and April 14th, 2023.

Where can you find additional information?

Information on NAEP is available at the NAEP website. Additional questions may be addressed to Carolyn Trombe, New York State NAEP Coordinator, at: carolyn.trombe@nysed.gov.