Fairness and Equity in Measuring the Educational Progress of the Diverse U.S. Population

• In Event: Vice Presidential Invited Centennial Session: Issues and Challenges in the Fair and Valid Assessment of Diverse Populations in the 21st Century

Abstract

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts the National Assessment of Educational Progress to report the educational progress of elementary, secondary, and high school students. This assessment survey, a congressionally mandated program has been conducted every two to four years since 1990. NCES administers another set of assessment surveys in which students from other nations also participate. NCES attempts to infuse fairness and equity in every aspect of its assessments, including the conceptualization of assessment frameworks, development and selection of items for the final assessment instrument, sampling and weighting of schools and students, the scoring of responses crafted by students, analyses of student responses, and finally, reporting the performance of the nation’s diverse student population. Peggy Carr, NCES Acting Commissioner, additionally will describe NCES plans to continue to improve fairness and equity in assessing all students, as classrooms and assessment transition to the use of 21st century technology. Finally, she will share a set of indicators—achievement gap, retention rate, school discipline rate, rigorous coursework enrollment—on equity in the nation’s diverse student population in learning and in educational opportunities. Her presentation will also indicate how U.S. students compare to students educated by other nations in terms of educational attainment and opportunity.

Author

• Peggy G. Carr, National Center for Education Statistics/IES, U.S. Department of Education