The Winston Group is out with a new policy paper, “A New Direction for the National Assessment of Educational Progress,” published by the American Enterprise Institute.
The paper outlines a new direction for NAEP as well as education reform. In addition to asserting the importance of NAEP, we make two key arguments. First, we should establish a first grade NAEP in math and reading on the same alternate-year timeline as the fourth and eighth grade tests. As we argue in the paper,
Third-grade reading is often cited as the key turning point in a student’s academic career, marking the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Yet we know that by the time students are in fourth grade, many are not meeting the threshold to be considered proficient (or basic) according to the NAEP standards. … Allowing these students to reach fourth grade in such a poor academic state is a structural problem that must be resolved if we are to have a well-educated citizenry and workforce. But at this point, we do not have an effective tool to help states understand the patterns of this poor performance before fourth grade.
Second, we should bring twelfth-grade NAEP onto the same alternate-year schedule as fourth and eighth grade, and we should ensure that the types of content included in the NAEP 12th-grade assessments reflect what we believe successful graduates of the American K–12 system should know and be able to do, focusing on math and reading.
Taken together, we believe these reforms offer the opportunity for real improvement in our K-12 system. By tightening NAEP’s focus to math and reading while at the same time expanding it to first grade, and twelfth grade on a more consistent basis, we have the opportunity to provide a fuller picture of a student’s trajectory in our school system, informing future policy and reform efforts in our states.
Read the full piece here.
More from The Winston Group on NAEP:
NAEP Data Shows Black Charter Students In Large Cities Do Better
The Honesty Gap And The Importance of NAEP
Roll Call: We Must Protect NAEP, The Gold Standard Of Accountability
NAEP Was A Wakeup Call For Accountability. What’s Next?
