NAEP aims to measure the academic standing of students

Who in the world would want us to take another test on top of our finals? Well the United States government does, and so does the Commissioner of Education Statistics. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test covers lots of subjects, and basically serves as a national report card. It doesn’t affect a student’s grade and the test takers will not be able to see what they scored. About 50 CVHS students took the test in February.

The assessment tests on mathematics, reading, science, writing, arts, civics, economics, geography, U.S. history, technology, and engineering. The test lets the country know how high school students are doing as a whole with comprehension and education. The tests are the same for everyone and only a few questions are changed each year. The results are recorded so the administrators know exactly what students get wrong and right as a nation. This is meant to help shape what students have to learn more in school and what they excel at.

“The NAEP is a test meant to compare the success of educational policies between states. Lawmakers in Washington use the result of the assessments to help make future laws, budget decisions, and policies about education,”  said Assistant Principal Jesse Hansen.

The test has been making the move towards becoming an online test students can take with Chromebooks in school. In the national only test, about 20,000 students participate, and this year CVHS was selected to be part of the sample.

The NAEP test provides a national system for the nation to see how students progress and check how they do in school. Students might blame administrators of our school for making them take this test, but in reality, they have no choice.

“Any school that takes federal money agrees that if chosen, they will administer the test,” said Hansen.