NAEP: COVID-19 Planning and Resources

We understand the difficulties schools are facing as they continue to recover from the ongoing pandemic. The data collected from the 2022 administration of NAEP will provide important information on what America’s students know and can do.

NAEP is a congressionally mandated program that is overseen and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. The 2021 NAEP assessment was delayed due to the pandemic and is being administered now in order to meet congressionally mandated requirements. NAEP provides the only assessment results that can be compared across the country, states, urban districts, and different student demographic groups. As The Nation’s Report Card, NAEP data collected during the 2022 administration period will help researchers understand how the challenges of the past two years may have impacted student achievement across subjects, and whether and how achievement has changed between 2019 and 2022.

NAEP data collected during the 2022 administration window will also provide insights on the experiences of students, teachers, and schools throughout the pandemic. This data will help policy makers, researchers, and educators better understand the range of the pandemic’s impact on American students.

In addition to standard assessment procedures, our teams have developed rigorous COVID-19 mitigation protocols based on state and local requirements and the input of health professionals to ensure the health and safety of students, educators, and field staff during the NAEP assessment. Our staff are up-to-date on vaccinations; participate in continuous testing to help ensure their healthy status while being present in schools; and are trained to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protocols and wear masks, along with additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Download a PDF of NCES’s COVID-19 protocols: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/participating/pdfs/naep_covid19.pdf Click to open pdf..

The NAEP program is in regular contact with local school and health officials to gather information, take steps necessary to ensure the health and safety of students, school staff, and assessment staff, and to monitor the situation in classrooms across America.

The 2022 NAEP administration is currently scheduled to take place from January through late March. More information about the assessment can be found on this page: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/participating/.

As in previous administrations, it takes approximately two hours for students to complete the main NAEP assessment. This includes transition time, directions and tutorials, and completion of survey questionnaires. It takes approximately 90 minutes for students to complete the long-term trend assessment, including transition time, directions, and completion of survey questionnaires.

Yes. Students who are selected to be in the representative sample and are temporarily learning remotely can participate in NAEP by attending school in person on the assessment day.

The NAEP assessment is currently only administered in person.

NAEP 2022 results will provide valuable insights into what students know and can do following the challenges of the last two years, along with important information on the experiences of students, teachers, and schools during this time. As always, our team pays special attention to the quality of the samples and the results.

NCES will be conducting special analyses using data collected in the 2022 administration and plans to release results from the student, teacher, and school surveys, along with the student assessments, on a rolling basis throughout the year. NCES will also disseminate technical documentation summarizing the analysis procedures used to produce the 2022 results at a later date. The timing of the release of results is determined by the National Assessment Governing Board, an independent, nonpartisan body established by Congress in 1988 to set policy for the NAEP program.

Stay up to date with report releases by visiting https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/.