National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has served American educators as an information resource for more than 40 years, providing reliable profiles of what our students know and can do in key subject areas. The Nation’s Report Card, as it has come to be known, is the only ongoing project to monitor trends in our students’ achievement at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Starting in 1990, NAEP assessments have been conducted to give results to participating states. North Carolina has participated in the State NAEP assessments since 1990. The State NAEP assessments are conducted in mathematics, reading, science, and writing for grades 4 and 8.

NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools; instead, it offers results regarding subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students (e.g., fourth-graders) and subgroups of those populations (e.g., female students, Hispanic students). NAEP results are based on a representative sample of students.