'11072013 - NAEP School Visit and Press Conference' photo (c) 2013, US Department of Education - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

There has been a lot of reporting on this year’s NAEP test score results, and it’s been all over the map. As John Merrow tweeted:

 

And what is the NAEP, you might ask?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what American students know and can do in core subjects. NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. The National Assessment Governing Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education but independent of the Department, sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the framework and test specifications. The Governing Board is a bipartisan group whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988.

Here’s a beginning list of what I think are the posts analyzing this year’s scores:

When policymakers don’t understand basic statistics is by Aaron Pallas at The Hechinger Report.

NAEP and “Getting Tough on Teachers” is by John Merrow.

Achievement Gaps Have Closed More Than You Think is by Paul Bruno at This Week In Education.

All that bad information about the new NAEP scores is by Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post.

Interpreting Achievement Gaps In New Jersey And Beyond is from The Shanker Blog (written about last year’s scores, but still relevant).

And, even though Jeff Bryant incorrectly refers to me as a “retired schoolteachers” (perhaps in fifteen years, but certainly not now 🙂 ), I’m still adding his article, Sorry Nicholas Kristof, Still No Proof School Reform Helps, to this list.

How Should We Read NAEP Test Score Results in Washington D.C.? is by John Thompson.

Be Wary of Ranking NAEP Gains is by Tom Loveless.

What Richard Rothstein Told NAGB About the History of NAEP is from Diane Ravitch.

Feel free to suggests articles I’ve missed.

You might also be interested in my 1,200 other “The Best” lists.