Getting information about the National Assessment Governing Board just got easier. The board, which sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, has created a site on the Internet’s World Wide Web.
The Web page, which went on-line late last month, offers a variety of facts on the board and NAEP, the congressionally mandated assessment of student learning known as “the nation’s report card.” Information is also provided on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, which manages the national assessment.
Readers can review a list of the governing board’s members, see a calendar of upcoming events and board meetings, or peruse a list of board publications. These include the frameworks that describe the test design and content for the NAEP subject-area assessments. Viewers can download the frameworks using a free copy of Adobe Acrobat software. They can also order a printed copy using an electronic order form.
The site offers links to other related Web sites. One provides access to copies of reports detailing results from the NAEP tests in various subjects. Others provide access to the statistics center’s home page, the Education Department’s Web site, and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation.
With the rapid growth in the use of the Internet, said Mary Crovo, the governing board’s assistant director for test development, “we just felt we needed to get our foot in the door and have an attractive site that was user-friendly and provided good information, current information, to a wide audience.”
The board’s Web site also allows readers to express their views on the draft plan for redesigning and improving the assessment. The plan calls for the test to be given more often and on a predictable schedule and for it to release its reports in a more timely way, among other changes. (See Education Week, May 22, 1996.)
Comments may be submitted by e-mail to ray_fields@ed.gov or by postal mail to Ray Fields, National Assessment Governing Board, 800 North Capitol St. N.W., Suite 825, Washington, D.C. 20002. The comments must be received by June 28. Board members are expected to take a final vote on the overhaul plan at their next meeting, Aug. 2-3.
Members of the public also have one more chance to make their feelings about the redesign known in person. The third and last in a series of public meetings on the plan is to take place June 22 in Phoenix. Other meetings were held this month in Washington and Chicago.
The governing board’s Web site is at http://www.nagb.org.
--Millicent Lawton
e-mail: mlawton@epe.org
