NAEP – Embrace the Absurd

The Life Of A Show-and-Tell Girl

As Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), Lesley Muldoon has many responsibilities that most of us will never see nor understand. But the public-facing aspect of her job is to serve as front person and ringmaster for the release of NAEP results. This week, she was put in an unenviable position because of that enigma known as 12th grade NAEP. Let’s not make her go through that again.

Everything Looks Worse in Black and White

There’s a lot to reflect on as we reach the midpoint of 2025, but one story that’s stuck in my craw is the performance of Black and White students on the 2024 NAEP tests. Not the achievement gap per se, we are all too well aware of that, but rather the lack of overlap between the two groups. I’m not sure what to make of that.

misReading Our Mathematics Problem

All too often we consider test results separately by content area. We’ve started to think of English language arts and literacy skills as interdisciplinary, but until I started thinking about the 2024 NAEP results, I don’t think that I fully grasped the connection between student performance in reading and mathematics.

Are We Dumber Or Just Different?

In a preemptive shot ahead of the 2024 NAEP results we were told that Americans have been getting dumber. Perhaps, but I’m not sure that’s a conclusion we can reach based on an average scaled score – even on NAEP. And I’m fairly certain it’s not the best question to be asking tomorrow when those scores are released.

NAEP, Why Must You Vex Me So?

We are one week away from NAEP Day and the release of the 2024 NAEP Reading and Mathematics results! It’s a day portrayed as our Super Bowl, Christmas morning, and release of the Orange Crop report all rolled into one. So why, once again, am I not excited?

Call Off the Recovery Effort

When the results of NAEP testing underway now are released next year, at least as important as actual student performance will be the way that those results are framed. My initial plea for something other than the recovery of learning lost to the pandemic.

One of My Posts is Not Like the Others

In August 2019, Taylor Swift released the song Cruel Summer as the second track on her long-awaited seventh studio album, Lover. Despite initial commercial success, critical acclaim, and the sickest bridge you’ve ever heard, the song was never released as a single. Blame it on the pandemic. A few weeks earlier in the summer ofContinue reading “One of My Posts is Not Like the Others”

Track 13 – What’s The Plan?

As usual, in Mastermind, track 13, Taylor Swift said it better than I ever could. If you fail to plan, you plan to failStrategy sets the scene for the tale So, as Jessica Baghian asked on Twitter, “What’s the plan?” – “the specific plan chiefs and governors articulate to address kids’ needs.” Of course, beforeContinue reading “Track 13 – What’s The Plan?”

Midnights (NAEP edition)

It’s not very often that one weekend is framed by two such highly anticipated and consequential events. On Friday, Taylor Swift released her 10th studio album, Midnights. On Monday, we have the release of the 2022 State NAEP results, described by many as the most important/significant/consequential release in the history of NAEP. It’s almost tooContinue reading “Midnights (NAEP edition)”

NAEP – A Halftime Report

We are at halftime of the 2022 NAEP Reporting Bowl and, my friends, let’s just say we have some catching up to do. The NAEP Long Term Trend results are in the books, and they are not good. Others have chosen more colorful terms like “harrowing” and “shocking” to describe the results but, at leastContinue reading “NAEP – A Halftime Report”