Assessment Questions-Free of Charge

We are all certainly familiar with the Dakota STEP test, but what do you know about the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP? The NAEP assesses what the average 4th, 8th, or 12th grader in the United States should be able to know and do. The NAEP is given across the nation to compare achievement in states and to track changes over time in grades 4, 8, and 12 in math, reading, writing, science, history, etc. If you teach grades 4, 8, or 12, you may have had some or all of your students included in a test sample. NAEP hires its own assessment teams to plan, administer, and ship the tests at no cost to the state or school districts. How do the NAEP and the DSTEP compare? The NAEP has higher cut scores, meaning it is more difficult to score proficient on the NAEP than it is on the DSTEP. Even though, SD students generally continue to do well on the NAEP. Our DSTEP and NAEP reading scores are fairly similar, but there is a larger gap between our NAEP and DSTEP math scores. Want to see some sample test questions? http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/

The questions tool allows you to select grade, content area, and the year from which the question was used. (Reading questions also have the reading passages, and the writing prompts have samples of student writing)

Want to play your own version of "Are you Smarter Than a 4th, 8th, or 12th Grader?" Click the test yourself icon to take a short sample test and have it immediately scored and compare your results with how kids across the nation responded to the questions. Try using the questions to assist with teaching test-taking skills or project the site for whole class involvement.