NAEP Technical DocumentationDevelopment of the Mathematics Cognitive Items and Instruments

Student test forms: 2017 Student booklets: 2015 Student booklets: 2013 Student booklets: 2011 Student booklets: 2009 Student booklets: 2007 Student booklets: 2005 Student booklets: 2003 Student booklets: 2000  Number of items: 2017 Number of items: 2015 Number of items: 2013 Number of items: 2011 Number of items: 2009 Number of items: 2007 Number of items: 2005 Number of items: 2003 Number of items: 2000 New blocks: 2017 Common blocks: 2015 Common blocks: 2013 Common blocks: 2011 Common blocks: 2009 Common blocks: 2007 Common blocks: 2005 Common blocks: 2003 Common blocks: 2000

The instruments used in the NAEP mathematics 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 mathematics 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 mathematics specifications and framework documents guide the item development efforts. A new framework was introduced for 2009. Other than some minor reorganization, the 2009 framework for grades 4 and 8 remained largely unchanged from 2005. The framework for the 2017 assessments was the same as that used in 2009. Read more about the differences between the frameworks.

Assessment items are written by NAEP item development staff and teachers from across the country. All assessment materials are reviewed by members of the Mathematics 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 mathematics content areas:

• number properties and operations;
• measurement;
• geometry;
• data analysis, statistics, and probability; and
• algebra.

See what the NAEP mathematics assessment measures for more information.

Following approval from the National Center for Education Statistics, the blocks are packaged as test booklets or digital test forms for computer delivery of the administration of the assessment.

NAEP officially transitioned from a paper-based assessment to a digitally based assessment in mathematics in 2017 in order to keep pace with the new generation of classroom environments in which digital technology has become an increasing part of students' learning. The 2017 bridge study involved randomly equivalent samples receiving the NAEP mathematics assessment in either the paper or the digital format.

In accordance with the principles of bridge studies historically employed by NAEP, the 2015 operational NAEP mathematics assessment was re-administered in 2017 as a paper-based assessment. The paper-based assessment was identical to the 2015 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 2017 paper-based assessment, a digitally based mathematics assessment which divided cognitive testing time into two 30-minute blocks was also administered. At grades 4 and 8, approximately two-thirds of the questions from the 2015 paper-based assessment were adapted to the 2017 digitally based assessment. The previously used paper-based assessment questions were adapted to fit a tablet screen but the mathematical content was not changed. The goal of adapting questions was to retain the same measurement targets as the original version of the question. At each grade, six of the ten assessment blocks used only questions that had been adapted from the 2015 paper-based assessment and were assembled to be as similar as possible to corresponding paper-based blocks. Four of the ten blocks consisted of new questions developed for digital administration.

For more information, see the white paper on the 2017 NAEP transition to digitally based assessments.

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