Parents' Frequently Asked Questions About NAEP (continued)

What are the benefits to my child for taking the assessment?

NAEP is an important measure of student achievement that can help ensure our children are receiving the best education possible. Parents or guardians, educators, and policymakers at the local, state, and national levels can learn a lot from the results of NAEP assessments. This information will help them to make decisions about education now and in the future. If your child has been selected to participate, he or she will help provide the most accurate picture of how students are performing in your state.

Participating in NAEP may also be personally helpful to your child. Students and teachers have reported that taking a NAEP assessment helps to sharpen test-taking skills. NAEP provides an opportunity to practice answering high-quality questions in a low-stress environment. NAEP does not count toward a student's grade, and does not provide individual results for students or schools. Children do not need to spend any time preparing for NAEP, and do not need to worry if they do not finish the assessment or do not know an answer to a question.

Read more about NAEP and about why your child's participation is important.

Where can I see the assessment that my child will take?

Booklets containing sample test questions and all background questions are available on the NAEP website. In addition, more than a thousand released NAEP questions are on the NAEP website in the easy-to-use NAEP Questions Tool.

These sources provide you with a very good picture of the assessment that your child may take. However, you may arrange to see the actual test questions on this year's assessment. To view assessment questions that have not yet been made public, please contact your NAEP State Coordinator, whose name can be found through your state's profile, or send a written request to the National Assessment Governing Board either by e-mailing NAGB@ed.gov or by mailing to:

National Assessment Governing Board
800 North Capitol Street, N.W., Suite 825
Washington, D.C. 20002-4233

Who gives NAEP to my child?

There are about 3,000 people nationwide who administer the assessment. Many of these individuals are retired teachers. All NAEP administrators undergo rigorous security clearances. They are also trained in confidentiality and security procedures. In all cases, teachers are encouraged to remain in the testing area with their students.

Your state also has a NAEP coordinator, who helps answer questions about NAEP and who communicates with NAEP administrators. To find your NAEP State Coordinator, select your state or other jurisdiction from the NAEP State Profiles.

May my child with disabilities participate in NAEP? His/her IEP does not specifically address NAEP.

The decision to include students with disabilities in NAEP assessments is made by school personnel, who decide whether students can meaningfully be assessed with or without accommodations based on information in a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP). Generally, children who are included in the state or local testing program are included in NAEP, if selected.

Special-needs students use the same accommodations in NAEP assessments that they use in their usual classroom testing unless the accommodation would make it impossible to measure the ability, skill, or proficiency being assessed (for instance, reading aloud to a student in a reading assessment) or the accommodation is not possible for the NAEP program to administer. For instance, extending testing over several days is not used for NAEP because NAEP administrators are in each school only one day. Some of the most common NAEP accommodations for students with disabilities are large-print books, extended time, small-group or one-on-one testing, oral reading of directions, and use of an aide for transcribing responses.

English is not my child's native language. Will he or she be able to take NAEP?

Probably. NAEP tries to be as inclusive as possible. If a child has received academic instruction in English for three years or more (including the present year), he or she is expected to participate in NAEP if selected. Students with fewer than three years of English instruction should also participate in NAEP if selected, unless their school decides they are incapable of participating in the assessment in English. Sometimes accommodations are allowed. One of the most common accommodations for students classified as English language learners (ELL) is extended time to answer assessment questions.