Today’s students are digital natives. K-12 education classrooms are usually equipped with computers, and digital tools are an integral part of the learning environment. To address the increased role of technology in classrooms, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is transitioning the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) from paper and pencil to digital assessments. NCES is utilizing established best practices for NAEP to remain at the forefront of innovation and a leader in large-scale assessments. NCES is also exploring new testing methods and question types to reflect the growing use of technology in education.
NAEP digital assessments, which are administered on tablets or laptop computers, use dynamic and innovative technologies to provide an engaging assessment experience for students and more meaningful data about students’ skills and knowledge for educators. With digitally based assessments, students are asked to receive, gather, and report information just as they do in their everyday lives. These new assessments include universal design principles, making it possible for more students to participate without special accommodation sessions. The goal is for all students to have a seamless assessment administration, regardless of their ability. These goals and more are highlighted in the video below.
Experience a digitally based assessment by watching the tutorials that are given to students before taking an assessment. In addition, view the sample questions and student responses from previous assessments, explore interactive tasks, and download the survey questionnaires that are given to participants of NAEP assessments.
Learn MoreNAEP 2021 student data collection has been postponed until 2022. Please see 2021 NAEP: COVID-19 Planning and Resources for further updates.
Since 2001, NAEP has been exploring new testing methods and question types that reflect the growing use of technology in education. NAEP has introduced a variety of new question and task types in the assessments to capture student achievement (what students know and are able to do) in more authentic or direct ways, including scenario-based tasks from the technology and engineering literacy (TEL) assessment, interactive computer tasks, and hybrid hands-on tasks.
In 2016, NAEP mathematics and reading assessments were piloted on tablets with an attached keyboard, a stylus, and earbuds and used new testing methods and question types. Some questions included multimedia, such as audio and video. Other questions allowed the use of digital tools (such as an onscreen calculator) to form a response, or engaged students in solving problems within realistic scenarios.
Research in the use of new technologies is ongoing throughout the introduction of digitally based assessments.
New technologies are improving NAEP’s ability to offer accommodations to increase participation and provide universal access to students of all learning backgrounds, including students with disabilities and English learners. In a digital environment, what used to be an accommodation for paper-based testing becomes a seamless part of universal design, available to all students. That means that things like adjusting font size, having test questions read aloud in English (text-to-speech), use of higher contrast to improve readability, and using a highlighter tool are available to all students during the transition
Maintaining trend lines (the ability to compare performance results from one year to another) is a priority. To do this, NAEP is using a multistep process to move from paper to digital technology to protect trend reporting. The process involves two stages of piloting before administering an operational digitally based NAEP assessment:
The transition of NAEP assessments from pencil and paper to touch-screen tablets incorporates cutting-edge learning technologies. At the beginning of each assessment, students take a brief, interactive tutorial designed to teach them about the system and the tools they will use to take the assessment.
The 2019 assessment tutorials are designed for a particular NAEP-provided tablet with a specific screen size. You may need to make one or more of the following adjustments in order to ensure an optimal viewing experience:
View the 2018 tutorials for civics, geography, and U.S. history at grade 8.
Learn about NAEP's innovation in assessments.
Explore frequently asked questions about the digitally based assessments. Download a PDFClick to open pdf. for printing.