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A Pragmatic Future for NAEP Containing Costs and Updating Technologies (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 24-31

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From page 24...
... For an available cost comparison, we use the state of Colorado, which has an annual appropriation of $32 million for its state assessment.19 The state program includes the development of 23 assessments in four core subjects, each of which also has a separately developed alternate version, and then 6 grade span tests for English learners.20 The state program administers roughly 1.4 million tests each year for Colorado's 880,000 students. Across all 52 assessments developed by the state, the mean budgeted cost per assessment is $615,000.
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From page 25...
... NAEP OVERVIEW: STRUCTURE, GOALS, AND COSTS 25 data for the test sponsors' costs to administer these exams, but one can assume that the students' fees for them exceed the costs that sponsors pay to deliver them. Though these various comparisons are imperfect, they suggest that the costs of the NAEP program are much higher than those of other assessment programs.
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From page 27...
... CHANGING THE WAY TRENDS ARE MONITORED AND REPORTED NAEP assesses trend information for reading and mathematics through both main NAEP and long-term trend NAEP. Main NAEP uses test items 27
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From page 28...
... . Historically, the most fundamental challenges to reporting trends have been framework updates, but even without those updates, it has not been possible to maintain an unbroken trend line even for long-term trend NAEP.
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From page 29...
... The assessment adds 20 years to the trend data available from main NAEP, extending the trend line through the 1970s and 1980s, a period of substantial educational progress and achievement gap closure (NCES, 2013)
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From page 30...
... Congress, the National Assessment Governing Board, and the National Center for Education Statistics should then consider the value of a modernized and continued long-term trend NAEP in comparison with other program priorities. If continued, long-term trend NAEP should be renamed to better distinguish it from the trend data provided by main NAEP.
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From page 31...
... In addition to helping ensure the maintenance of trend lines for main NAEP, the use of standing framework committees to update NAEP's frameworks could also have some cost implications, both by lowering costs associated with protecting trends when proposed framework updates are drastic and by potentially using the existing subject-matter committees to update the frameworks rather than appointing standalone framework update committees. This change would require some institutional innovation -- and close collaboration between NAGB and NCES -- but the benefit for protecting NAEP trend data could be substantial.
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Key Terms

  • state assessment
  • item development
  • trend naep
  • main naep
  • national assessment

  • state assessments
  • state program
  • available cost
  • budgeted cost
  • program includes

  • mean budgeted
  • core subjects
  • trend data
  • language arts
  • education statistics

  • framework updates
  • assessment frameworks
  • framework development
  • trend lines
  • assessment programs

  • assessment governing
  • child left
  • reading framework
  • based assessment
  • admission test

  • item authors
  • educational achievement
  • naep program
  • educational progress
  • digitally based


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