What is the basis for NAEP?
Each NAEP assessment is built around an organized framework that serves as a guide for the development of an assessment tool in a specific subject area and determines the content to be assessed. The frameworks are not meant to serve as a national curriculum, but rather as a broadly accepted outline of what the National Assessment should test. Frameworks are developed through a comprehensive, inclusive, and deliberative national consensus process involving hundreds of teachers, curriculum experts, policymakers, business representatives, and members of the general public. Educational practices, the results of educational research, and changes in curricula are also considered. Frameworks provide a basic conceptual structure or vision of how to capture data on what students should know and be able to do. After a framework is approved by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), the framework is used by the NAEP contractor to develop an assessment. This same procedure is followed for
