NAEP 2024: Where it Fits into the Assessment Landscape
Every two years, the release of NAEP results prompts a flurry of headlines and urgent discussions about student performance. If you’re a school or district administrator, you already know that the recently released 2024 NAEP scores are not surprising—they confirm the challenges your teachers have been reporting for years. These results do not tell you what’s happening in an individual classroom, but they do provide a crucial national benchmark, offering insights into long-term trends that other assessments simply cannot.
What is NAEP and Why Does It Matter?
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation’s Report Card, is the only assessment that provides a stable, long-term measure of student performance across the U.S. Unlike state assessments, which change over time due to policy shifts, or local assessments, which are typically tailored to specific curricula, NAEP remains consistent. In fact, it is the only large-scale, nationally representative assessment with a rigorous psychometric design intended to ensure this consistency over time. This stability makes it an essential tool for identifying nationwide trends over long periods of time.
How NAEP Is Different from Other Assessments
NAEP does not impact individual students, teachers, or schools – Unlike state-mandated standardized tests, NAEP is not tied to funding, graduation, or school accountability. Its purpose is to measure long-term educational progress at a national level and comparable across states.
It uses rigorous sampling and psychometric design – NAEP ensures that results are representative of all U.S. students, providing reliable data that is not skewed by local policies, population distribution, or instructional differences.
NAEP does not reflect individual school curriculum – Unlike district and state tests, which align with state standards or local priorities, NAEP assesses broad educational trends and student preparedness over time.
For those calling for an end to large-scale testing of all kinds, consider this: Without NAEP, we lose the ability to see if any efforts to improve education are actually working. It is the ONLY national measure that allows us to assess the impact of policies, funding, and educational shifts over decades.
NAEP in the Context of the Broader Assessment Landscape
Administrators juggle multiple sources of student data—state assessments, interim benchmarks, formative classroom assessments, and more. So, where does NAEP fit in?
How Administrators Can Use NAEP Data Effectively
While NAEP won’t give you student-level data, it offers critical insights into national trends that can inform decision-making at the state and district level. Here’s how:
1. Contextualize Local Data with National Trends
If your local test scores show a concerning downward trend, comparing them with NAEP results provide some perspective on how much it is a local issue or part of the broader national challenges. The latest NAEP results show continued declines in reading scores, particularly among lower-performing students (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/). If your district is seeing similar patterns, you’re not alone.
2. Support Professional Learning on Assessment Interpretation
The Compassionate Assessment Framework emphasizes adult attitudes and beliefs around assessment—and that starts with understanding the data we have. Administrators can help teachers and school leaders develop assessment literacy, ensuring that large-scale data, like NAEP, is interpreted correctly and used to support—not punish—educators. No one wants to see lower scores, but understanding the scope is important, and you may be surprised how few school-level educators and teachers are aware of or understand the NAEP.
3. Inform Policy and Resource Allocation
NAEP highlights disparities in student performance, with the 2024 data showing widening gaps between higher- and lower-achieving students, particularly in math (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/). These insights contribute another data point for districts leaders to determine where to focus intervention efforts, professional development, and curriculum adjustments. Comparing local data to national trends reveal key areas that need further investigation or celebration. For example, if you are seeing small gains in math performance locally, in light of the recent release of NAEP results showing national declines should further reinforce the energy behind your local efforts and successes!
4. Communicate the Bigger Picture to Stakeholders
Parents, school boards, and community members often hear about declining scores but lack the context to understand what that means. Administrators can frame conversations around the fact that NAEP is a broad measure of progress over time, not a report on an individual student’s performance, nor necessarily reflective of what is happening locally. Use it as a tool to advocate for needed resources rather than a reason for alarm or drastic local changes.
Final Thoughts: Using NAEP as Another Tool, Not a Verdict
NAEP, just like any test, does not tell us everything. It’s real limitations are also a part of it’s strengths. The national and state-level trends are the larger educational context within which your local data exists. The rigorous design to ensure it’s consistency over time offers a perspective that is helpful for those longer periods of time. So, instead of reacting to each release with alarm, school and district leaders should view NAEP as a stability point that validates broader trends and informs policy discussions that are already happening locally. By integrating NAEP insights with state and local data, educators can foster a more constructive, solution-oriented approach to assessment—one that prioritizes student growth over sensationalized headlines. Come back over the next two weeks, because our next two posts will dive into the specific results from the 2024 NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments at Grades 4 and 8.
