The
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is also known as "the Nation's Report Card". NAEP has been conducting assessments since 1969 and is the only national assessment of what "America's students know and can do" in various subject areas. NAEP assessments are given at the fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades.
NAEP assessments follow the subject area frameworks developed by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) and use the latest advances in assessment methodology. NAEP assessments include multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. NAEP does not report scores for individual students or schools. NAEP bases its results on a sample of students and provides data at the state and national level. NAEP is administered between late January and early March of each year. Through the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 states and districts receiving Title 1 funds are required to participate in state NAEP in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8 every two years. State participation in other state NAEP subjects (science and writing) remains voluntary.