What Does the NAEP Reading Assessment Measure?NAEP measures the reading comprehension of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. In 2002, the reading framework was updated to provide more explicit details about the assessment design and content. During that process, some of the terms used to describe elements of the reading assessment were changed. The following description of the reading framework incorporates these changes. It should be noted, however, that the revision in the framework does not represent a change in the design or content of the NAEP reading assessment that was first administered in 1992. According to the framework, developed by the National Assessment Governing Board, NAEP assesses three contexts for reading: reading for literary experience, reading for information, and reading to perform a task (reading to perform a task at grades 8 and 12 only). In addition to reading within different contexts, NAEP reading comprehension questions are developed to engage the different approaches that readers may take in the process of trying to understand what is being read.
The reading framework specifies the distribution of questions for each context of reading and each aspect of reading. Sample Questions booklets for the reading assessment are available for download. For more detailed information about the objectives of the reading assessment, explore the NAEP reading framework (801K PDF).
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