Science Cognitive ItemsThe NAEP science framework guides the item development efforts. Items are written by NAEP item development staff, members of the Science Assessment Standing Committee, and elementary, secondary, and postsecondary teachers around the country. All assessment materials are reviewed by specialists in science education, measurement, assessment development, and bias. The cognitive items are then assembled into 20-minute blocks at grade 4 and 30-minute blocks at grades 8 and 12. The science assessment also includes "hands-on tasks." These tasks probe students’ abilities to use materials to make observations, perform investigations, evaluate experimental results, and apply problem-solving skills. Approximately 30 percent of the science assessment at each grade is devoted to hands-on tasks. These performance tasks require students to conduct actual experiments using materials provided to them, and to record their observations and conclusions in their test booklets by responding to both multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The hands-on tasks in NAEP require an additional 20 minutes at fourth grade or 30 minutes at eighth and twelfth grade. All science blocks contain a range of questions covering three fields of science:
Following approval from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the blocks are spiraled into booklets and distributed to schools for the administration of the assessment. View a table that provides the total number of science items in the 2000 assessment for each scale and grade. View a table that lists the blocks common to the previous science assessment. Explore sample items and related student performance data from all science assessment years. Last updated 05 June 2008 (TS) |
