Why Participate in NAEP Assessments?

 

NAEP was established by Congress in 1969 to provide a common national yardstick for accurately evaluating the performance of American students.  NAEP is also:

  1. a national assessment that allows educational achievement to be compared across states;
  2. an assessment that identifies the percentage of students in the nation who meet standards for each performance level:  Basic, Proficient, and Advanced;
  3. a yardstick that state educators, legislators, and governors can use to gauge the effectiveness of state educational policies;
  4. a source of information that allows parents to assess the academic performance of students in their state and the nation as a whole.

The West Virginia Legislature in 1989 established the requirement of NAEP participation to provide national comparison (WV Code §18-2E-2).  This comparison is vital to the work of the West Virginia Department of Education and require a representative samples.  Therefore, West Virginia Department of Education requires sampled student participation (WVBE Policy 2340).

By participating in NAEP, students are doing their part to help improve education in our country, our state, and our schools!

Additional information is provided by NCES and can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/natimportant.asp.