What Does the NAEP Long-Term Trend Mathematics Assessment Measure?

The existence of two national assessment programs—long-term trend NAEP and main NAEP—makes it possible to meet two important objectives: 1) measure student progress over time, and 2) as educational priorities change, develop new assessment instruments that reflect current educational content and assessment methodology.

The NAEP long-term trend mathematics assessment was designed to measure students'

• knowledge of basic facts,
• ability to carry out numerical algorithms using paper and pencil,
• knowledge of basic measurement formulas as they are applied in geometric settings, and
• ability to apply mathematics to daily-living skills (such as those related to time and money).

The assessment had a computational focus and contained a range of multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. It covered the following topics:

• numbers and numeration;
• measurement;
• shape, size, and position;
• probability and statistics; and
• variables and relationships.

NAEP long-term trend has assessed the mathematics achievement of  9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds 11 times: in the school years ending in 1973, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004, and 2008. The mathematics long-term trend trend assessments contained questions designed to measure performance on sets of objectives developed by nationally representative panels of mathematics specialists, educators, and other interested parties.

Explore the demonstration booklet (574K PDF) for the long-term trend assessment. The booklet is given to participating schools so that teachers and the parents of participating students will be able to examine the types of questions the students will be answering.

Explore long-term trend questions in the NAEP Questions Tool.

Read about the long-term trend mathematics and reading scales.

Find out what the long-term trend assessment in reading measures.