Study Questions Fate of NAEP in Common-Test Era

Common Standards' Math Expectations Are Found to Be Far More Rigorous

An analysis released last week raises anew questions about what the advent of common standards—and the development of common assessments to complement them—means for the future of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called “the nation’s report card.”

The Brookings Institution report, which seeks to match up publicly released NAEP items in mathematics with the standards for that subject from the Common Core State Standards Initiative, suggests that the coming common exams signal that “a new era is dawning for NAEP,” though what that future will look like remains murky.

The analysis found that the NAEP items examined were, on average, two to three years below the 8th grade math recommended by the common standards, which have been fully or provisionally adopted by 43 states and...