Last week, the National Assessment Governing Board announced that it will start publishing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) state-level data on 12th-grade math and reading and eighth-grade science, and will add an eighth- and 12th-grade civics exam.
This thoughtful decision by the board can put to rest concerns that the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education would hurt the NAEP, also known as the Nation’s Report Card. The move should also allow the public to compare states’ approaches to public schools and help parents make better choices for their children’s education. Currently, only state-level NAEP data for fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math are available.
Finally, a reason to check your email.
Sign up for our free newsletter today.
The NAEP’s addition of state-level data for 12th-graders is especially encouraging, as several states have reduced or eliminated high school graduation requirements. Karen Vaites, founder of the Curriculum Insight Project, reports that at least seven states have weakened these requirements since 2020. Vaites also calls the addition of a civics test for eighth- and 12th-graders important because “schools have been spending less and less time on social studies and geography, especially in the elementary grades, and the Civics push can reinforce the critical role of content area study.”
Publicly available data are especially needed because states are increasingly diverging in their approaches to public education. At least 32 states and Washington, D.C., offer school-choice programs, while 21 states have enacted Education Savings Accounts. Conversely, states like New York and California are boosting public school funding despite significant enrollment declines. NAEP data can help assess the impact of these varied strategies and identify which approaches yield better outcomes for low-income students.
The NAEP data expansion may encourage more public discussion about education spending and student outcomes. Though education spending accounts for roughly one-third of local and state budgets, it does not rank among the top five topics in local news coverage. According to PBS, education received little attention during the last presidential campaign, despite significant policy differences between the candidates.
NAEP data have been valuable for evaluating the effects of charter schools on low-income students. Matthew Ladner reports that, in math, 43 percent of low-income eighth-grade charter school students score “Basic or Better,” compared with 36 percent in district schools. In reading, the figures are 54 percent for charters and 48 percent for district schools.
The Nation’s Report Card has highlighted the effects of school closures and lockdowns during Covid, revealing the largest recorded drop in fourth- and eighth-grade math scores and a disproportionate negative effect on low-performing students. It has also identified districts now performing above pre-pandemic levels in both reading and math.
One challenge to making NAEP data publicly accessible is that states must opt in for additional tests and recruit more students to participate in the assessment, though testing comes at no cost to the states. Much like federal tax credit scholarships, which also require states to opt in, participation in the NAEP allows state residents to see whether their governors want to learn more about student academic performance—and whether they trust families to choose how to educate their kids.