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A new study of the math alignment between the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted by most states, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the longtime barometer of academic achievement among the nation’s students, found “reasonable agreement” overall but also some areas of 4th and 8th grade math where there was less of a match.
The study, the second in a series of three examining the relationship between NAEP and the Common Core State Standards in math, was conducted by 18 math educators, supervisors and mathematicians convened by the NAEP Validity Studies Panel (NVS), an independent panel charged with examining issues related to the validity of the NAEP assessments.
The panel found that 79 percent of NAEP items in 4th grade math assessed content included in the CCSS at grade 4 or below. However, the match rate was lower in some areas: 47 percent for data analysis, statistics, and probability, 62 percent for algebra and 68 percent for geometry.
In the 8th grade, 87 percent of NAEP items assessed math included in the CCSS at grade 8 or below—a degree of alignment the report described as “strong.” At the same time, the authors found that 42 percent of the Common Core State Standards for grades 6, 7, and 8 were not being tested by any items in the 2015 NAEP item pool.
The report’s authors suggest that the National Assessment Governing Board, the bipartisan body that sets policy for the testing program, consider adding content from these areas to NAEP’s mathematics framework when it is next revised.
The panel found that most of the differences reflect the CCSS’s intention to shift instruction in certain topics to later grades. The extent to which instruction has actually been aligned with the CCSS is beyond the scope of the study, which examines only the relationship between test items and standards. The authors note that changing standards is far simpler and faster than the arduous process of changing curriculum and instruction.
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New Study Examines Alignment Between NAEP and Common Core State Standards in 4th, 8th Grade Mathematics.
Source: eSchool News
