A Preliminary Mapping of 2023-24 State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scale

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) State Mapping studies are among the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) most anticipated reports. While the official results for the 2023-24 school year (SY) are being prepared, NCES has released preliminary findings—which use an abbreviated methodology to provide an initial look at what readers might expect to see when NCES releases the more comprehensive study. Both studies include results for grades 4 and 8 in the 2023-24 SY for 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

This preliminary look and the forthcoming official report use similar methodologies. These preliminary results rely on publicly posted state-level percentages of students reaching proficiency on each state’s regular accountability assessment. In contrast, the forthcoming report uses data provided to EdFacts by schools which participated in NAEP that are aggregated to the state level using NAEP school weights. For each grade and subject, the preliminary approach takes the state-level proficiency rate from regular assessments and identifies the NAEP scale score at or above which that same percentage of students performed. This score is treated as the estimated NAEP equivalent score for the state's proficiency standard. Each state’s standard is then classified into a NAEP achievement level range based on where its NAEP equivalent score falls.

The results in the tables below show the NAEP achievement level to which each state's proficient standard maps, not estimated NAEP equivalent scores. The official report, however, will include those scores for states’ standards, as well as standard errors that can be used to estimate confidence intervals. The report will also include relative error, which provides information on the extent to which the NAEP assessment may be assessing content similar to the state assessment. Note: there could be some differences between these 2024 preliminary results and the ones forthcoming in the official report. (In the last report, results for 11 states across the 4 subject/grade combinations changed between the preliminary and the official version.)

Table 1 shows the number of states whose proficiency standards mapped to each NAEP achievement level in 2023-2024. Table 2 shows the NAEP achievement level mapping for each state in 2023-2024 by grade and subject.

The results in these tables show that most state standards for proficient performance continue to map at or above the NAEP Basic achievement level in 2023-2024.

Table 1. Preliminary number of states with proficiency standards that mapped to each NAEP achievement level, by grade and subject: 2024

Table 2. Preliminary estimated NAEP achievement levels of state proficiency standards based on publicly available data, by state, grade, and subject: 2024

Please note that these mapping results are estimates and do not suggest an evaluation of state assessments or of the quality of state achievement standards. State and NAEP assessments are developed for different purposes and can vary in content, format, and administration. The results of this study are not intended to suggest that NAEP achievement levels are more valid than state standards or that states should emulate NAEP standards.

The official report will be released later in 2026. Please check this site for the official report: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/statemapping/.