Governing Board Awards Contract to StandardsWork, Inc.
to Improve School and Student Participation
in 12^th Grade NAEP

The National Assessment Governing Board has awarded a $187,000 contract to StandardsWork, Inc., of Washington, DC, to prepare recommendations for ways to improve participation of high schools and 12^th grade students selected to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

In recent years, fewer high schools have been agreeing to participate in the 12^th grade assessments. Also, concerns have been raised that the 12^th grade students selected for the NAEP sample may not be putting forth their best effort on the assessment, coming as it does in the early spring of their senior year. These two factors raise a crucial problem for NAEP—the possible underestimate of 12^th grade student achievement.

To address this problem, the Governing Board established a national commission to suggest ways to improve school participation and foster students to "try hard" on NAEP. The commission recommended that NAEP

"develop and implement bold and dramatically new incentives to increase the participation of high schools and 12^th grade students in NAEP and the motivation of 12^th grade students to do their best on NAEP."

The contract with StandardsWork, Inc. is designed to help the Governing Board find new and effective ways to improve school and student participation in NAEP at the high school level. Through focus groups and interviews with high school principals, 12^th grade students, teachers, and others, StandardsWork, Inc. will develop recommendations for a communications plan and possible incentives to use in gaining their full cooperation in the assessment.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the only assessment given to a nationally-representative sample of 12^th graders across the United States. In fourth and eighth grades NAEP is administered both to a national sample and to representative samples of public school students in each state.

StandardsWork, Inc., is a nonprofit education consultancy concerned with advancing standards-based education reform. Since 1992, StandardsWork, Inc. has worked with states and communities throughout the country to improve student performance through the development and implementation of grade-by-grade standards, results-based evaluation systems, and other quality tools and processes.

The 26-member National Assessment Governing Board, established by Congress in 1988, sets policy for the National Assessment. It is composed of state and local officials, educators, and business and public representatives. By statute, the Board is responsible for determining the content of NAEP assessments and for setting "appropriate student achievement levels" for each grade and subject tested.

The assessment is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, a division of the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.