To know How many students performed at or above NAEP proficiency Read on this article….!
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assesses students’ achievements. It has introduced numerous assessment innovations and psychometrics designs to monitor the stats nationally. ETS works on these stats and develops reports for NAEP known as “The Nations Report Card”.

The NAEP reports compile results on three levels (NAEP basic, NAEP Proficient, and NAEP advanced). In 2019, NAEP reported that 35% of fourth-graders, 34% of eighth-grade students, and 37% of twelfth-grade students have performed at or above NAEP proficiency.
What does NAEP do?
NAEP was established in 1969 to measure students’ assessment performance nationally. It has been working in collaboration with ETS to devise new psychometric designs to improve assessment procedures.
ETS was developed in 1983, the organization is responsible to gather, analyze, and compile student data. It then sends reports to NAEP for evaluation.
NAEP achievement levels are three. They measure students on these levels. The three groups that were determined by NAEP to use for evaluation are the fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders. NAEP considers demographics, gender, race, and ethnicity measures when compiling results. The nation card is used to compare nations’ results based on states, grade levels, race, and years.
NAEP subjects and scalings:
NAEP assesses students for different subjects. The list of these subjects is:
- Technology & engineering literacy
- SCience
- Mathematics
- Writing
- Reading
- U.S History
- Geography
- Economics
- Arts
- Civics
NAEP assessment scaling:
The results for NAEP are produced by using Item Response (IRT) theory. For example, In Arts students are first scaled on a 0-500 scale, but the average score that will be mapped on The nations’ card will be between 0-100. The scores are not calculated individually, rather they are interpreted according to student groups. That helps to compare states, districts, races, etc.
How many students performed at or above NAEP proficiency according to, In subjects listed?
- Technology and Engineering literacy:
In 2018, eighth-graders were assessed by TEL for technology and engineering literacy.
In this test, they measured the proficiency of students to solve real-world technology and engineering problems. The results scores showed that 46% of eighth-graders have performed at or above NAEP proficient level.
It was 3 point increase when compared with 2014 stats.
- Science
In 2019, the NAEP assessed fourth, eighth, and twelfth-grade students for science subjects. They assessed students in the following content areas:
Physical science, Life science, Earth and Space Science
Results scores showed that 36% of fourth-grade students, 35% of eighth-grade students, and 22% of twelfth-grade students were NAEP proficient.
- Mathematics
In 2019, mathematics assessments were made. The students from fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders participated in these.
The results scores shaped that 41% of fourth-graders, 34% of eighth-graders, and 24% of eighth-graders performed at or above NAEP proficiency levels.
- Writing
The last writing assessment test that was taken by NAEP was in 2017. The primary analysis results showed potentially confounding factors in measuring performance. Then NCES decided to conduct additional analysis. They were concerned that changes in digital assessment procedures may have caused this disturbance. The results from the 2017 writing assessments are on hold.
- Reading
In 2019, NAEP administered an assessment test for fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders.
The result scores summarize that 35% of fourth-graders, 34% of eighth-graders, and 37% of twelfth graders have reached NEAP proficiency level.
- US History
In 2018, the NAEP assessment test for US history was conducted. Only 16,400 eighth-graders participated in this test.
The result report stated that only 15% of the eight-graders performed at or above NAEP proficiency level.
- Geography
In 2018, NAEP conducted a test for eight-grader Geography assessment.
The assessment results show that 25% of students have performed at or above NAEP proficiency level.
- Economics
The last NAEP proficiency assessment test for Economics was conducted in 2012.
- Civics
In 2018, the proficiency assessment test for civics was conducted in the US. Only eighth-grade students were asked to participate in this test.
The assessment results showed that 24% of eighth-graders have reached the NAEP proficiency level.
- Arts
In 2016, the NAEP arts assessment test was conducted. In this test, only eighth-graders participated.
The resulting score of the 2016 NAEP arts assessment showed that 35% of eighth-graders were able to perform at or above the NAEP proficiency level.
The overall ETS stats showed that the NAEP proficiency of students ranges between 20-35%, and varies according to grades, states, districts, and demography of students.
How do NAEP select students for the assessment?
NAEP is an organization that aims to attest assessment strategies and devise better evaluation procedures. NAEP conducts exams to examine students’ performance according to NAEP standard levels.
NAEP selects its target test population following these steps:
- Identify what type of framework should it use to assess students’ expertise in different subjects. The board consults with experts and devises an appropriate assessment framework.
- Create an assessment exam. These exams mainly consist of two sections: Cognitive items & Contextual questionnaires.
- Participant selection is the most important step to generating stats accurately. The nation report card compares states, races, cities, and different child groups with one another. NAEP follows its standardized seven-step sampling process to identify the right group of participants.
- Next, they schedule exams, prepare packers and distribute them among targeted schools.
- Exam administration.
- Mark the assessment exam
- Analyze results and create dashboards to compare
What is the purpose of NAEP?
At first, NAEP was developed to measure students’ achievements. The purpose shifted to assessing students for devising improved assessment procedures. Then they started conducting state-level and district-level exams to compare students’ cognitive abilities in comparison with different states, districts, age groups, and races.
The reports are used to analyze students’ cognitive behavior, the changes in their perspectives, and how they conceive different subjects.
NAEP has introduced three standardized levels to measure student abilities.
NAEP is an assessment program devised in 1969 to promote assessment evaluation in the united states. The exams conducted by NAEP were used to collect data about how students reason in different subject areas. There were frameworks designed by NAEP and standardized evaluation levels were set to measure students’ development. By the time, the NAEP started evaluating different groups, the groups were classified based on race, background, and state and districts. There was three level of evaluation: Basic level, Proficient level, and advanced level. A recent study conducted in 2019 shows stats ranging between 30 to 40s at NAEP proficiency level.