What Is the NAEP Reading Assessment?

As the “Nation’s Report Card,” the NAEP reading assessment reports how well students perform in reading various texts and responding to those texts in multiple-choice and constructed-response formats. The latter questions ask students to write their response and explain and support their ideas with information from the text. NAEP provides information about student achievement that is needed to help the public, decisionmakers, and education professionals understand strengths and weaknesses in student performance and make informed decisions about education.

Since 1992, the NAEP Reading Framework has provided guidelines for developing the reading assessments administered to random samples of students. The NAEP Reading Framework reflects the ideas of many individuals and organizations involved in reading education, including researchers, policymakers, teachers, business representatives, and other members of the public. NAEP is a project of the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and is overseen by the National Assessment Governing Board.

The NAEP Reading Framework reflects research that views reading comprehension as a dynamic, interactive process. The NAEP definition of reading literacy has been used internationally to reach an understanding of what students should know and be able to do in reading. This understanding plays a role in unifying the important reading dimensions for student achievement. Reading includes the ability to understand and use written texts for enjoyment and to learn, participate in society, and achieve one’s goals.

What Must Students Know and Be Able To Do?

The NAEP Reading Framework specifies three contexts for reading: reading for literary experience, reading for information, and reading to perform a task (see exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1. Contexts for Reading Specified in the NAEP Reading Framework

Context for Reading	Description
Reading for literary experience	Readers explore events, characters, themes, settings, plots, actions, and the language of literary works by reading novels, short stories, poems, plays, legends, biographies, myths, and folktales.
Reading for information	Readers gain information to understand the world by reading materials such as magazines, newspapers, textbooks, essays, and speeches.
Reading to perform a task	Readers apply what they learn from reading materials such as bus or train schedules, directions for repairs or games, classroom procedures, tax forms (grade 12), maps, and so on.

The framework also specifies four aspects of reading that characterize the way readers respond to text: Forming a General Understanding, Developing Interpretation, Making Reader/Text Connections, and Examining Content and Structure (see exhibit 2).

Exhibit 2. Aspects of Reading and Reader Responses

Aspects of Reading
Forming a General Understanding Developing Interpretation Making Reader/Text Connections Examining Content and Structure
Consider text in its entirety Understanding in a broad way   Focus on specific parts Linking information across parts of the text   Think beyond the text Applying the text to real-world situations   Consider why and how the text was developed Considering the content, organization, and form

Detailed information on sample questions and results can be found on the NAEP Web site at www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard.

How Is the NAEP Reading Assessment Designed?

The reading assessment includes a booklet with reading materials and comprehension questions. The questions are presented in both multiple-choice and constructed-response formats. At least half are constructed-response questions, which allow students to write their answers and explain and support their ideas. Materials used in the assessment are taken from sources that are typically available to students, such as collections of stories, children’s magazines, or informational books. By giving students different types of materials, NAEP is able to provide a measure of reading performance that reflects students’ typical reading experiences both in and out of school.

What Accommodations Are Made for Special Populations?

NAEP’s intent is to assess all students who are capable of participating in the reading assessment. Although some students may be excluded according to carefully defined criteria, English language learners and students with disabilities are accommodated as necessary through extra testing time, individual or small-group administrations, large-print booklets, and/or multiple sessions. However, because NAEP is a reading comprehension assessment, test administrators are not allowed to read the passages and questions aloud to students.

How Are the Results of the NAEP Reading Assessment Reported?

NAEP reading assessment results are reported in two ways: scale scores and achievement levels. Scale scores are average scores for groups of students ranging from 0 to 500. Achievement level scores are reported as percentages of students who attain each of three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. Achievement levels serve to identify percentages of students taking NAEP who have demonstrated certain reading proficiencies. Authorized by NAEP legislation and adopted by the National Assessment Governing Board, the achievement levels are performance standards based on the collective judgments of experts about what students should know and be able to do in terms of the NAEP reading framework.

What Are the Limitations of the NAEP Reading Assessment?

School-based tests provide curriculum-specific results so that teachers and administrators can alter classroom practice. As currently designed, the NAEP reading assessment cannot provide the kind of diagnostic information that pertains to individual students. Instead, it profiles the performance of groups of students at a given time—and across time—without promoting particular approaches in curriculum or prescribing actions for particular school districts. Yet, combined with other information, NAEP is an integral part of our nation’s evaluation of the condition and progress of education.