National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2027

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is a federally authorized survey of student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12 in various subject areas, such as mathematics, reading, writing, science, U.S. history, and civics. The National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (Pub. L. 107–279, title III, section 303) requires the assessment to collect data on specified student groups and characteristics, including information organized by race/ethnicity, sex, socio-economic status, disability, and limited English proficiency. It requires fair and accurate presentation of achievement data and permits the collection of background, noncognitive, or descriptive information that is related to academic achievement and aids in fair reporting of results. The intent of the law is to provide representative sample data on student achievement for the nation, the states, and subpopulations of students and to monitor progress over time. NAEP consists of two assessment programs: the NAEP long-term trend (LTT) assessment and the main NAEP assessment. The LTT assessments are given at the national level only and are administered to students at ages 9, 13, and 17 in a manner that is very different from that used for the main NAEP assessments. LTT reports mathematics and reading results that present trend data since the 1970s. In addition to the operational assessments, NAEP uses two other kinds of assessment activities: pilot assessments and special studies. Pilot assessments test items and procedures for future administrations of NAEP, while special studies (e.g., the Middle School Transcript Study (MSTS), and the High School Transcript Study (HSTS)) are opportunities for NAEP to investigate particular aspects of the assessment without impacting the reporting of the NAEP results. This request is a second Amendment to the initially approved NAEP 2026 Clearance Package (OMB# 1850-0928 v.36) to conduct NAEP in 2026, specifically: (1) Main NAEP operational assessments will include for grades 4 and 8 (first administration of the new frameworks for reading and mathematics), grade 8 (civics and U.S. history); in Puerto Rico, grades 4 and 8 mathematics will be the only subject assessed and will include the new framework; (2) Pilot testing in grades 4, 8, and 12 (reading and mathematics); in Puerto Rico, grades 4 and 8 mathematics will be the only subject assessed. All documents in this package are the finalized materials to be used for the data collection in early 2026. Specifically, this Amendment includes the following updates: 1. Appendix D: updates to the eNAEP Download Center and the preassessment guides, 2. Appendices J1, J2, J3, J-S: editorial updates to several survey questionnaire items, 3. Appendix C: the sampling memo, and 4. Appendix I: all finalized AMS screens that will be accessed and used by school staff for the NAEP assessment. As of April 2025, NCES’s assurances of confidentiality protections for NAEP 2026 have changed due to recent staffing changes at the Department of Education. NCES has removed the Foundations of Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Title III, Part B, Confidential Information Protection (‘‘CIPSEA’’) as a confidentiality assurance. However, confidentiality assurances under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) remain in effect.

The latest form for National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2027 expires 2028-11-30 and can be found here.