What Does the NAEP Reading Assessment Measure?

Overview
Literary and Informational Texts
Cognitive Targets
The 1992–2007 Framework
Comparison of the 1992–2007 and 2009 Frameworks

Overview

The NAEP reading assessment measures the reading and comprehension skills of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 by asking them to read selected grade-appropriate passages and answer questions based on what they have read.

The National Assessment Governing Board oversees the development of NAEP frameworks, which describe the specific knowledge and skills that should be assessed. Frameworks incorporate ideas and input from subject area experts, school administrators, policymakers, teachers, parents, and others. The 2011 NAEP Reading Framework (3.25KB PDF) guided the 2011 assessment at grades 4 and 8. The framework was updated in 2009 and replaced the framework first used for the 1992 reading assessment and reading assessments through 2007. Results from special analyses determined the 2009 and subsequent reading assessment results could be compared with those from earlier assessment years. These special analyses started in 2007 and included in-depth comparisons of the frameworks and the test questions, as well as a close examination of how the same students performed on the 2009 assessment and the earlier assessment. Read a summary of the analyses that were conducted to inform this decision.

The development of the NAEP reading framework was guided by scientifically-based reading research that defines reading as a dynamic cognitive process that allows students to

• understand written text,
• develop and interpret meaning, and
• use meaning as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation.

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Literary and Informational Texts

The NAEP reading framework specifies the use of both literary and informational texts. Literary texts include three types at each grade: fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. Informational texts include three broad categories: exposition; argumentation and persuasive text; and procedural text and documents. The inclusion of distinct text types recognizes that students read different texts for different purposes.

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Cognitive Targets

The framework recommends that assessment questions be aligned to cognitive targets—mental processes or kinds of thinking that underlie reading comprehension. The targets are described below.

• Locate and Recall: When locating or recalling information from what they have read, students may identify explicitly stated main ideas or may focus on specific elements of a story.
• Integrate and Interpret: When integrating and interpreting what they have read, students may make comparisons, explain character motivation, or examine relations of ideas across the text.
• Critique and Evaluate: When critiquing or evaluating what they have read, students view the text critically by examining it from numerous perspectives or may evaluate overall text quality or the effectiveness of particular aspects of the text.

The framework also calls for a systematic assessment of meaning vocabulary. Meaning vocabulary questions measure readers' knowledge of specific word meaning as used in the passage by the author and also measure passage comprehension.

The reading framework specifies the distribution of questions in the assessment. 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 (3.25KB PDF).

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The 1992–2007 Framework

The 1992–2007 framework specified that the NAEP assessment should measure 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 were developed to engage the different approaches that readers may take in the process of trying to understand what is being read. The table below outlines the major aspects of the framework.

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Comparison of the 1992–2007 and 2009 Frameworks

The framework for the 2009 NAEP reading assessment replaces a framework developed for the 1992 assessment. Compared to the previous framework, the 2009 reading framework includes more emphasis on literary and informational texts, a redefinition of reading cognitive processes, a new systematic assessment of vocabulary knowledge, and the addition of poetry to grade 4. The table that follows outlines the differences.

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