NAEP Technical DocumentationDevelopment of the Civics Cognitive Items and Instruments

			Student test forms: 2018 Student booklets: 2014 Student booklets: 2010 Student booklets: 2006 Number of items: 2018 Number of items: 2014 Number of items: 2010 Number of items: 2006 Common blocks: 2018 Common blocks: 2014 Common blocks: 2010 Common blocks: 2006

The instruments used in the NAEP civics assessment are composed of blocks of cognitive items from the previous NAEP assessments, as well as blocks that are newly developed for the current assessment. Administering the same blocks of items across years allows for the reporting of trends in civics performance. At the same time, developing new items makes it possible to release some items for public use. In some assessment years, one or more blocks at each grade are released to the public and can be accessed via the NAEP Questions Tool.

The NAEP civics framework and specifications documents guide the item development efforts. The 2018 framework is the same framework that was first developed for the 1998 NAEP civics assessment, as this continuity enables the reporting of student achievement trends over time.

Assessment items are written by NAEP item development staff and teachers from across the country. All assessment materials are reviewed by members of the Civics Standing Committee, as well as other specialists in education and assessment development. The cognitive items are assembled into blocks containing a range of questions covering five civics content areas:

• civic life, politics, and government;
• foundations of the American political system;
• purposes, values, and principles of American democracy;
• relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs; and
• roles of citizens in American democracy. 

See what the NAEP civics assessment measures for more information.

Following approval from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the blocks are packaged as test booklets for paper-based delivery or digital test forms for computer-based delivery of the assessment.

NAEP transitioned from a paper-based assessment (PBA) to a digitally based assessment (DBA) in civics at grade 8 in 2018 in order to keep pace with the new generation of classroom environments in which digital technology has become an increasing part of students' learning. To investigate potential differences in performance that might be due to the digital transition, randomly equivalent groups of students were administered the NAEP civics assessment in either the paper or the digital format.

The 2014 operational NAEP civics assessment was re-administered in 2018 as a PBA. The PBA was identical to the 2014 operational assessment in terms of the instruments, including all of the items, with the same design of the test booklets which divided cognitive testing time into two 25-minute blocks.

In addition to the 2018 PBA, a digitally based civics assessment which divided cognitive testing time into two 30-minute blocks was also administered. Most of the content administered in the 2018 DBA was also used in the 2014 PBA. The previously used questions were adapted to fit a tablet screen, but the civics content itself did not change. Of the seven DBA blocks administered at grade 8, two blocks were newly developed for the 2018 digital administration.

After the administration of the assessment, NCES conducted rigorous analyses of the data and aligned the 2018 results to previous assessment years. These evaluations supported making trend comparisons between the DBA and previous PBAs, enabling NCES to maintain the civics trend line while transitioning to a DBA. The 2018 civics assessment results are based on the combined performance of students who took the assessment on paper and students who took the assessment on tablets.

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