Are U.S. and, in particular, Hoosier students competitive and ready to succeed in an ever-changing and increasingly global economic landscape? This question is frequently considered by K-12 education stakeholders at all levels, including national, state, and local officials. One of the central ways in which education systems can compare themselves…

Despite a pending policy change aimed at including more students with disabilities and English-language learners (ELLs) in the "nation's report card," the federal agency that administers the national testing program appears to be softening the penalty for states that fail to improve inclusion rates. The disagreement underscores the…

This study examines the practical implications of using state tests to measure student achievement in impact evaluations that span multiple states and grades. In particular, the study examines the sensitivity of impact findings to (1) the type of assessment used to measured achievement (state tests or an external assessment administered by the…

In recent years, scores on the annual state reading and mathematics tests used for accountability have gone up in most states. These trends in state test scores do not always coincide, however, with trends on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federally sponsored assessment that is administered periodically to…

Many articles and reports have reviewed, researched, and commented on international assessments from the perspective of exploring what is relevant for the United States' education systems. Researchers make claims about whether the top-performing systems have transferable practices or policies that could be applied to the United States. However,…

This report compares state math and reading proficiency scores in grades 4 and 8 to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) basic scores for the period of 2005 to 2009. The study found that scores on state tests and NAEP have increased in most states with sufficient data. Also included with the report are profiles for the 23 states that…

The U.S. Department of Education has not yet published an official guidance document for using NAEP achievement level scores to confirm state testing results. A review of the literature, however, identified four principles that inform the valid use of NAEP scores in a confirming analysis. The principles address the appropriate NAEP statistics to…

Reanalysis of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress continues to support the position that high-stakes tests do not do much to improve academic achievement. Data indicate that the extent to which states with high-stakes tests outperform those without remains indeterminable. (SLD)

Maryland participated in the State National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1996 and 1998 when samples of approximately 2,500 fourth and eighth graders in 100 schools participated in the testing sessions for mathematics (1996) and reading (1998). This report is an initial attempt to return information to Maryland about the relations…

The North Carolina End-of-Grade (NCEOG) Test of Mathematics, Grade 8 was compared to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)--Grade 8 along three dimensions: technical, content, and cognitive. An expert panel of six judges (mathematics educators) examined the supporting documents, the content frameworks, the items, and actual test…

It has been proposed that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) increase its efforts to gather and analyze data on student background, teachers, households, and schools. Adoption of this proposal would result in the inclusion in NAEP of additional background variables and subpopulations, to be defined by states. NAEP specification…

This study considered two questions about the use of national and state assessment databases: (1) Do state and national assessments provide the same information on the performance of an educational system? and (2) What are the factors that might affect the discrepancies between national and state assessment results? Kentucky and Maine were chosen…

The adequacy of linking statewide standardized test results to the National Assessment of Educational Progress by using equipercentile equating procedures was investigated using statewide mathematics data from four states. Results suggest that the linkings are not sufficiently trustworthy to make comparisons based on the tails of the distribution.…

Recently, several states have expressed interest in linking their statewide assessments to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the hope that, through equating, they can be compared to national results. This study considers the degree to which existing statewide assessments may be linked to NAEP, without violating the basic…

This report on student achievement in Illinois describes and synthesizes the results of six different measures of the achievement of Illinois students. The six tests are: (1) Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress, (2) Decade Study Test, (3) High School and Beyond Test, (4) Scholastic Aptitude Test, (5) American College Test, and (6) National…