NAEP and the Challenges Presented by a Move to Common Core State Standards

• In Event: NAEP and the Challenges Presented by a Move to Common Core State Standards

Abstract

Since its inception more than four decades ago, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has served as a key indicator of what the nation’s students know and can do in core academic subjects. NAEP’s role has evolved over time in response to the changing educational landscape. As the states became more invested in using assessments for educational accountability, NAEP responded by expanding its mandate to state estimates of student achievement. Eventually, under No Child Left Behind, state NAEP assessments became more frequent, and more comprehensive, with state-level participation in grade 4 and 8 reading and mathematics assessments required by law. With every state developing its own assessments for accountability, and setting its own benchmarks for proficiency, NAEP has provided a mechanism for putting the achievements of students in all states on a common scale. In addition, NAEP has served as an independent monitor because it has no high-stakes consequences for schools or students, and schools are therefore not teaching to the NAEP test. NAEP’s frameworks are also not aligned with any one curriculum, but are intended to capture the achievements of students schooled under different curricula.
Now the educational landscape is changing again. Under the leadership of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), a new set of common standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been developed and widely adopted by the states. These new standards, and the assessments being built to measure them, offer the possibility of far greater uniformity in curriculum and assessment across the nation than has characterized U.S. education in the past. In addition, the CCSS instantiate many emerging themes of educational reform, including a focus on college and career readiness for all students by grade 12, a more coherent set of learning expectations across grades that build on contemporary research into learning progressions, and an acknowledgment of the greatly expanded role of technology in teaching and learning.
Based on work being done by the NAEP Validity Studies Panel, this session will explore the alignment between NAEP and the CCSS and to considering how NAEP can work synergistically with the CCSS assessments to provide the nation with the most useful information about educational progress. This is a very early look at a changing landscape. States are just beginning to roll out their CCSS-based curricula, and the federally-funded consortia that are developing assessments for the CCSS will not begin operational testing until the 2014-2015 school year. Nevertheless, it is clear that the CCSS, and the larger educational trends that they embody, will be a major factor in shaping NAEP’s future.

Authors

• Frances Stancavage, American Institutes for Research

• George W. Bohrnstedt, American Institutes for Research