NAEP Technical DocumentationPackaging and Distribution
The packaging and distribution effort for the NAEP assessment by the materials, distribution, processing, and scoring (MDPS) contractor focuses on packaging and shipping student log‑in cards, subject ancillaries, accommodation ancillaries, and miscellaneous materials for the digitally based assessment (DBA) to the sampling and data collection (SDC) administrators. Materials required for paper‑based assessment (PBA) administrations, include student booklets, ancillary, and miscellaneous materials. Paper school and teacher questionnaires are packaged and shipped as applicable.
The SDC contractor provides files to the MDPS development staff to support the shipment of materials for DBA administrations, and for PBA administrations. These files are loaded into the MDPS materials distribution system software, which stores information such as student names, schools, shipping addresses, student booklets, and the ancillary and miscellaneous materials available for participant use.
For DBA, the MDPS staff ship student log-in cards and provide any required subject ancillaries, accommodation ancillaries, and miscellaneous materials to the administrators to conduct the assessment session. The MDPS development staff create bar codes used to identify the digital booklet assigned to each student within a school. Assignment of these bar codes to students is based on the bundle maps and session types provided by the design, analysis, and reporting (DAR) contractor. This information is transmitted to the SDC staff, who upload the assigned booklets into their Assessment Management System (AMS) for use by data collection administrators during the assessment. The same bar codes are also printed on the student log-in cards to allow students to access the eNAEP system.
The NAEP devices used for DBA are shipped separately by the SDC contractor directly to their administrators.
For PBA, bar-code technology is used to support document control of paper assessment booklets. Each booklet is identified with a unique identification (ID) number or bar code, and each form type (for example, Test Book 1 and Test Book 2) is assigned a specific range of ID numbers. Bar codes reflecting these ID numbers are applied to the front covers of the booklets. Unique bar codes are also applied to the paper teacher and school questionnaires.
Spiraling and bundling of the NAEP paper booklets are conducted according to the patterns specified by the DAR staff to achieve the required sample size for each subject and grade. The MDPS staff use the online bundle assignment and distribution system to complete the final packaging of paper booklets.
After the paper assessment booklets are bar coded and spiraled, MDPS staff use school- and student-level data to assign a bar-coded booklet to each student listed in the materials distribution system. This assignment information is sent to the SDC staff, who upload the assigned booklets into the AMS for use by data collection administrators during assessment administration.
All student names are securely destroyed from the materials distribution sytem after the test administration begins.
Last updated 18 March 2026 (SK)