Survey Questionnaires

NAEP survey questionnaires are given to students, teachers, and school administrators who participate in a NAEP assessment. Survey questionnaires collect additional information about students’ demographics and educational experiences. Responses to the questionnaires provide important information for educators, policymakers, and researchers to better understand the context in which students learn, and, in turn, can help improve education in our nation's classrooms.

NAEP survey questionnaires include questions about students’ opportunities to learn both in and out of the classroom as well as questions about students’ educational experiences, such as their study habits. NAEP ensures that the questions are grounded in educational research and that the responses can provide information relevant to the subject being assessed.

NAEP survey questions are developed and reviewed by survey experts, education researchers, teachers, and statisticians to ensure that the information collected is relevant and valid in helping policymakers, researchers, educators, and the public understand student achievement results. Draft questions are tested first among small groups of student, teacher, and school administrator participants and then piloted in larger samples of participants before final selection. Questions are also carefully reviewed to avoid inclusion of unfair content.

Students are given 15 minutes to complete NAEP survey questionnaires.

Students do not have to complete NAEP survey questionnaires.

Yes, students can skip questions they do not want to answer.

NAEP is not designed to report on individual student or school responses. After survey questionnaires have been completed, individual student responses are combined with other student responses by grade level (4, 8, and 12) and subject. Results are reported for the nation, states, and districts that participate in the Trial Urban District Assessment. Whenever feasible, NAEP reports also provide survey questionnaire results for specific student groups (e.g., by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, and English learner status).

All participants in the NAEP assessment are assigned a unique identification number to ensure that they cannot be linked to any personally identifiable information such as name or address.

Knowing how students perform on NAEP assessments and exploring patterns, such as how different student groups perform over time, are important steps in measuring educational equity. NAEP survey questionnaires provide information to help better understand the context in which students learn, which aids in improving the educational system.

NAEP asks students to provide information about race and ethnicity to better determine how well education is meeting the needs of all students and to fulfill reporting requirements of federal legislation.

NAEP asks students to provide information about a variety of topics to better determine how well education is meeting the needs of all students. NAEP also asks students to provide information about socioeconomic status (SES) to fulfill reporting requirements of federal legislation. SES is made up of three main components: income/wealth, education, and occupation. NAEP does not directly ask about income but instead asks questions about possessions. These questions, when considered together, provide insight into a family’s wealth, which enables a better understanding of the relationship between economic advantage/disadvantage and student achievement.