The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation''s report card, has chronicled students'' academic achievement in America for over a quarter of a century. It has been a valued source of information about students'' performance, providing the best available trend data on the academic achievement of elementary, middle, and secondary school students in key subject areas. NAEP''s prominence and the important need for stable and accurate measures of academic achievement call for evaluation of the program and an analysis of the extent to which its results are reasonable, valid, and informative to the public.

This volume of papers considers the use and application of NAEP. It provides technical background to the recently published book, Grading the Nation''s Report Card: Evaluating NAEP and Transforming the Assessment of Educational Progress (NRC, 1999), with papers on four key topics: NAEP''s assessment development, content validity, design and use, and more broadly, the design of education indicator systems.

Since the late 1960s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the nation''s report card—has been the only continuing measure of student achievement in key subject areas. Increasingly, educators and policymakers have expected NAEP to serve as a lever for education reform and many other purposes beyond its original role.

Grading the Nation''s Report Card examines ways NAEP can be strengthened to provide more informative portrayals of student achievement and the school and system factors that influence it. The committee offers specific recommendations and strategies for improving NAEP''s effectiveness and utility, including:

The book explores how to improve NAEP framework documents—which identify knowledge and skills to be assessed—with a clearer eye toward the inferences that will be drawn from the results.

What should the nation expect from NAEP? What should NAEP do to meet these expectations? This book provides a blueprint for a new paradigm, important to education policymakers, professors, and students, as well as school administrators and teachers, and education advocates.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation''s report card, has chronicled students'' academic achievement in America for over a quarter of a century. It has been a valued source of information about students'' performance, providing the best available trend data on the academic achievement of elementary, middle, and secondary school students in key subject areas. NAEP''s prominence and the important need for stable and accurate measures of academic achievement call for evaluation of the program and an analysis of the extent to which its results are reasonable, valid, and informative to the public.

This volume of papers considers the use and application of NAEP. It provides technical background to the recently published book, Grading the Nation''s Report Card: Evaluating NAEP and Transforming the Assessment of Educational Progress (NRC, 1999), with papers on four key topics: NAEP''s assessment development, content validity, design and use, and more broadly, the design of education indicator systems.

Since the late 1960s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the nation''s report card—has been the only continuing measure of student achievement in key subject areas. Increasingly, educators and policymakers have expected NAEP to serve as a lever for education reform and many other purposes beyond its original role.

Grading the Nation''s Report Card examines ways NAEP can be strengthened to provide more informative portrayals of student achievement and the school and system factors that influence it. The committee offers specific recommendations and strategies for improving NAEP''s effectiveness and utility, including:

The book explores how to improve NAEP framework documents—which identify knowledge and skills to be assessed—with a clearer eye toward the inferences that will be drawn from the results.

What should the nation expect from NAEP? What should NAEP do to meet these expectations? This book provides a blueprint for a new paradigm, important to education policymakers, professors, and students, as well as school administrators and teachers, and education advocates.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation''s report card, has chronicled students'' academic achievement in America for over a quarter of a century. It has been a valued source of information about students'' performance, providing the best available trend data on the academic achievement of elementary, middle, and secondary school students in key subject areas. NAEP''s prominence and the important need for stable and accurate measures of academic achievement call for evaluation of the program and an analysis of the extent to which its results are reasonable, valid, and informative to the public.

This volume of papers considers the use and application of NAEP. It provides technical background to the recently published book, Grading the Nation''s Report Card: Evaluating NAEP and Transforming the Assessment of Educational Progress (NRC, 1999), with papers on four key topics: NAEP''s assessment development, content validity, design and use, and more broadly, the design of education indicator systems.

Since the late 1960s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the nation''s report card—has been the only continuing measure of student achievement in key subject areas. Increasingly, educators and policymakers have expected NAEP to serve as a lever for education reform and many other purposes beyond its original role.

Grading the Nation''s Report Card examines ways NAEP can be strengthened to provide more informative portrayals of student achievement and the school and system factors that influence it. The committee offers specific recommendations and strategies for improving NAEP''s effectiveness and utility, including:

The book explores how to improve NAEP framework documents—which identify knowledge and skills to be assessed—with a clearer eye toward the inferences that will be drawn from the results.

What should the nation expect from NAEP? What should NAEP do to meet these expectations? This book provides a blueprint for a new paradigm, important to education policymakers, professors, and students, as well as school administrators and teachers, and education advocates.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation''s report card, has chronicled students'' academic achievement in America for over a quarter of a century. It has been a valued source of information about students'' performance, providing the best available trend data on the academic achievement of elementary, middle, and secondary school students in key subject areas. NAEP''s prominence and the important need for stable and accurate measures of academic achievement call for evaluation of the program and an analysis of the extent to which its results are reasonable, valid, and informative to the public.

This volume of papers considers the use and application of NAEP. It provides technical background to the recently published book, Grading the Nation''s Report Card: Evaluating NAEP and Transforming the Assessment of Educational Progress (NRC, 1999), with papers on four key topics: NAEP''s assessment development, content validity, design and use, and more broadly, the design of education indicator systems.

Since the late 1960s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the nation''s report card—has been the only continuing measure of student achievement in key subject areas. Increasingly, educators and policymakers have expected NAEP to serve as a lever for education reform and many other purposes beyond its original role.

Grading the Nation''s Report Card examines ways NAEP can be strengthened to provide more informative portrayals of student achievement and the school and system factors that influence it. The committee offers specific recommendations and strategies for improving NAEP''s effectiveness and utility, including:

The book explores how to improve NAEP framework documents—which identify knowledge and skills to be assessed—with a clearer eye toward the inferences that will be drawn from the results.

What should the nation expect from NAEP? What should NAEP do to meet these expectations? This book provides a blueprint for a new paradigm, important to education policymakers, professors, and students, as well as school administrators and teachers, and education advocates.