What process is used to develop the assessments?
To meet the nation’s growing need for information about what students know and can do, the NAEP assessment instruments must meet the highest standards of measurement reliability and validity. They must measure change over time and must reflect changes in curricula and instruction in diverse subject areas. Developing the assessment instruments—from writing questions to analyzing pilot test results to constructing the final instruments—is a complex process that consumes most of the time during the interval between assessments. In addition to conducting national pilot tests, developers oversee numerous reviews of the assessment instruments by internal NAEP measurement experts, by the National Assessment Governing Board, and by external groups that include representatives from each of the states and jurisdictions that participate in the NAEP program. To find out how a typical assessment is developed, see “How Was the NAEP Reading Assessment Developed?
