Clear standards of achievement are essential to help instill the skills, American values, and encouragement for hard work that our children need to succeed in school and in life. Toward that end, meaningful standards for what students should be expected to learn and achieve in the basic subjects of reading and mathematics are critical. Reading well by grade 4 and mastering mathematics -- including the foundations of algebra and geometry -- by grade 8 are the gateways for further learning and achievement.
Parents need to know that students have mastered the basics no matter where they live or move in this country. And they have the right to know how well their children are doing compared with students in other schools, states, and countries. To help give parents this information, the U.S. Department of Education is offering every state and school district the opportunity to use voluntary national tests of 4th grade reading and 8th grade mathematics, beginning in 2001.
These rigorous tests will provide parents, for the first time, scores for individual students, measured against widely accepted national and international standards of excellence. Each year, all test items will be released so that parents, teachers, and students can review all aspects of performance, giving states, local communities, teachers and parents the kind of accurate information they need to help students master basic and advanced skills and strengthen academic performance. Most importantly, the tests can galvanize a national effort to improve the odds for students and help ensure that all students master reading and mathematics.
The tests will be modeled on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 4th grade reading and 8th grade mathematics, and in the case of mathematics will be linked to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. The NAEP standards reflect a national consensus of what students should know and be able to do when they reach these crucial stages of learning.
The current NAEP is designed to assess how well a sample of students across the entire nation and individual states perform in reading and mathematics. A very small percentage of students participate in NAEP, and no parents know how their own children do on this test. In contrast, the voluntary national tests will provide students, parents, and teachers with meaningful scores to compare individual student performance to widely accepted national and international standards and to identify students and schools that need extra help. These standard measures of excellence will help parents hold schools accountable for improved performance, help teachers and principals improve curriculum and instruction, and give students a guide for charting their own progress.
The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) is responsible for the development of the tests. NAGB is a bipartisan, independent board created by Congress to oversee the NAEP. NAGB will seek guidance in test development from a wide range of sources, including the most successful mathematics and reading teachers, parents, governors, and local and state education, civic and business leaders. Individual test scores will not be collected by the federal government; state and local school districts will decide how to use the data. Each test will require approximately 90 minutes of total testing time. States and school districts can administer the tests as part of their local testing programs.