10 Jan 2016
Spotlight

NAEP Data in Focus: Examining the Research

The NAEP Data in Focus working papers combine AIR’s expertise and experience not only with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), but with other large-scale assessments and survey-based longitudinal studies. The papers are made available to researchers and the public.

NAEP is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Data from NAEP—the “Nation’s Report Card”—can provide insights into a wide range of topics, such as understanding the relationship between students' familiarity with computers and their performance, how NAEP mathematics assessments compare with international assessments, and comparisons of NAEP variables to those used in longitudinal studies.

AIR-NAEP researchers are experts in educational research, psychometrics, and statistics, and have been commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees all NAEP work, to provide expert advice and technical assistance on specific issues related to NAEP. This resource will be updated regularly with the latest AIR papers and work examining NAEP data.

AIR-NAEP Working Papers

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21 Jul 2020
Report

Reading Motivation, Reading Achievement, and Reading Achievement Gaps: Evidence from the NAEP 2015 Reading Assessment

This study aims to understand the role that reading motivation plays in middle school reading achievement (including achievement gaps) by analyzing the 2015 grade 8 NAEP reading data. The study focuses on identifying the unique effects of student-level reading motivation and aggregated school-level mean reading motivation on reading achievement.
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12 Apr 2018
Report

Weighted and Unweighted Correlation Methods for Large-Scale Educational Assessment: wCorr Formulas

This report introduces the methodology used by the wCorr R package for computing the Pearson, Spearman, polyserial, polyserial, polychoric and tetrachoric correlations, with and without weights applied. Simulation evidence is presented to show correctness of the methods, including an examination of the bias and consistency.
NAEP Analysis paper report cover
24 Apr 2017
Report

Analyses Using Achievement Levels Based on Plausible Values

Achievement levels are important yardsticks in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program. In this document, we provide a detailed description of the plausible value method and demonstrate the method by replicating the analyses using SAS and comparing the replicated analysis results with those produced with NAEP Data Explorer. It is intended to provide a complete document for NAEP data users to easily adapt the methodologies with other statistical software packages such as SAS, Stata, R, and so on.
NAEP PISA Report cover
6 May 2016
Report

A Comparison Study of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2013 Mathematics Assessments

This study compares the mathematics frameworks and item pools used in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) with the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and vice versa. In addition to that, differences in item features between the two assessments are described.
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29 Jan 2016
Report

Computer Familiarity and Its Relationship to Performance in Three NAEP Digital-Based Assessments

Because NAEP is transitioning its paper-and-pencil assessments to a digital format, it is important to understand the relationship between students' familiarity with computers and their performance. This study, which analyzed three of NAEP's early digital-based assessments, found that home computer access was positively related to student performance.