Maintaining the Validity of the National Assessment of Educational Progress in a Common Core Based Environment
The paper focuses on both policy and psychometric considerations in discussing the relationship of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and Common Core State Standards (CCSS) assessments. The paper examines how the traditional roles of NAEP are affected by the introduction of CCSS-based curricula and assessments. The paper identifies caveats or limitations to consider when interpreting NAEP results over the next several years.
The purposes of this white paper are nicely described and effectively met through high quality methodology. The overall topic of maintaining NAEP validity in the midst of the Common Core environment is of extremely high importance as are the specific questions within the paper. Communications quality is excellent. The paper, although covering fairly technical topics, is easy to read despite a rather Spartan design. Utility among policymakers and education researchers should be extremely high because NAEP plays such a key role in measuring national achievement. Evidence of effectiveness, although not directly addressed, suggests a possible effect on learning.