THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS - NAEP: THE NATION'S REPORT CARD The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is mandated by Congress to survey the educational accomplishments of U.S. students and to monitor changes in those accomplishments. For over 27 years, NAEP has been collecting data with the aim of providing accurate and useful information to educators and policy makers. NAEP assesses student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12 in various subject areas, including mathematics, science, reading, writing, history/geography, and other fields and provides results for 40 or more states. NAEP has been tracking U.S. progress in academic achievement since 1969 and began providing state-level as well as national mathematics achievement results in 1990. Mathematics assessments were conducted in 1992 and 1996 and are next scheduled for the year 2000. For more information, visit the NAEP website at http://nces.ed.gov/ or contact National Center for Education Statistics, 555 New Jersey Ave., NW. Washington, DC 20208-5653 (202) 219-1690.   The NAEP Guide: A Description of the Content and Methods of the 1994 and 1996 Assessments The purpose of this NAEP Guide is to provide an overview of the scope of the project and to increase the understanding of the philosophical approach, procedures, analysis, and psychometric underpinnings of the NAEP design. This Guide also acquaints readers with NAEP's informational resources, demonstrates the appropriateness of NAEP's design to its role as indicator of national educational achievement, and describes some of the methods used in the 1994 and 1996 assessments. Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/97586.html   NAEP Released Mathematics Items Actual test questions from the assessment, both multiple-choice and constructed-response questions, are available on the Web at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/sampleq/mathrel.shtml   NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS (NCTM) The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for mathematics educators. The mission of NCTM is to provide vision and leadership in improving the teaching and learning of mathematics so that every student is ensured an equitable standards-based mathematics education and every teacher of mathematics is ensured the opportunity to grow professionally. For more information, visit the NCTM website at http://www.nctm.org or contact: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1593. (703) 620-9840 fax (703) 476-2970   NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. 1989. The 54 standards describe the curriculum in terms of content priority and emphasis in four groups: one set each for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12, and one set for evaluating math programs and student achievement. Package price and quantity discount apply. Now also available in Spanish. 1989. 258 pp. ISBN 0-87353&endash;273-2 #396E1 $25.00   Principles and Standards for School Mathematics This document will be finalized in 2000. An electronically enhanced version of the print draft including hyperlinks and multimedia examples is available at http://www.nctm.org. For a hard copy of the draft, contact NCTM at the address above.  Back Next