Researchers Helping NAEP Board Find Value in Background Queries

By Erik W. Robelen

Washington

Researchers weighed in last week on ways to rethink the often-controversial background questions that accompany "the nation's report card," in an attempt to enhance the assessment's research and policymaking value.

They did so at the request of the National Assessment of Educational Progress' governing board, which has new authority to approve the background questions posed to students, teachers, and school administrators. Before the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001, the board simply advised the Department of Education.

The National Assessment Governing Board, which is aiming to devise a framework for approaching the background questions by next May, asked researchers to submit papers on a...