Governing Board Explores Linking NAEP
To PIRLS and TIMSS in 2011

WASHINGTON—The National Assessment Governing Board unanimously adopted a resolution at its last quarterly meeting that starts the planning for linking the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and international assessments in 2011.

Many countries around the world in 2011 will participate in international assessments in reading (at grade 4 for the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, or PIRLS), and mathematics and science (at grades 4 and 8 for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS). NAEP, for which the Governing Board sets policy, will also be administered in 2011. This presents a unique opportunity to have U.S. students take both NAEP and one of the international assessments in the same grade and subject, enabling statistical linking of the two sets of results.

Through this linking in 2011, NAEP would provide the public reports comparing achievement among states and at the same time indicate how states would measure up on the international assessments in reading, math and science. This will also apply to the 21 urban school districts that will participate in NAEP’s Trial Urban District Assessment in 2011. Participating urban districts would include New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami.

For example, state NAEP results would show how well the respective 4th and 8th-graders performed, how the states compare with each other, and also how the states would have done on the international assessments. Thus, the states and urban districts—and the public—will be able to gauge local performance in relation to nations, including but not limited to Taiwan, Japan, Germany, and England.

This opportunity for linking NAEP and international assessments will not occur again until 2015 for mathematics and science, and 2016 for reading. The Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics are at the beginning stages of planning and assessing feasibility and costs.

Please download the Governing Board’s resolution (PDF).

The Nation's Report Card is the only nationally representative, continuing evaluation of the condition of education in the United States and has served as a national yardstick of student achievement since 1969. Through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), The Nation's Report Card informs the public about what America's students know and can do in various subject areas, and compares achievement data between states and various student demographic groups.

The National Assessment Governing Board is an independent, bipartisan board whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988.