September XX, 2026
MEMORANDUM
To: Bev M. Pratt, OMB
From: Gina Broxterman and Enis Dogan, NCES
Through: Matthew Soldner, NCES
Re: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2026 Amendment #1 (OMB# 1850-0928 v.38)
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is a federally authorized survey of student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12 in various subject areas, such as mathematics, reading, writing, science, U.S. history, and civics. The National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (Public Law 107-279 Title III, section 303) requires the assessment to collect data on specified student groups and characteristics, including information organized by race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, disability, and limited English proficiency. It requires fair and accurate presentation of achievement data and permits the collection of background, noncognitive, or descriptive information that is related to academic achievement and aids in fair reporting of results. The intent of the law is to provide representative sample data on student achievement for the nation, the states, and subpopulations of students and to monitor progress over time. The nature of NAEP is that burden alternates from a relatively low burden in national-level administration years to a substantial burden increase in state-level administration years when the sample has to allow for estimates for individual states and some of the large urban districts.
NAEP 2026 will include:
Main NAEP Operational assessments for grades 4 and 8 (first administration of the new frameworks for reading and mathematics), grade 8 (civics and U.S. history), grades 4 and 8 mathematics in Puerto Rico (which will include the new framework), and
Main NAEP Pilot assessments in grades 4, 8, and 12 (reading and mathematics) and in Puerto Rico for grades 4 and 8 mathematics.
Amendment #2 is a revision to the NAEP 2026 Clearance package (OMB#1850-0928 v.36). Since the 30-day Amendment #1 Package, there are no changes to the scope of the 2026 Assessment; therefore, there are no changes to burden hours or costs to the Federal Government. Since the OMB approval of the initial Clearance Package, the Confidentiality Assurances are unchanged.
Amendment #2 includes updates to: communication materials in Appendix D (eNAEP Download Center and preassessment guides), Assessment Management System (AMS) screens in Appendix I, and editorial updates to several Operational and Pilot survey questionnaire items (SQs) in J-1 (student), J-2 (teacher), J-3 (school administrator), J-S (Spanish student, teacher, and school administrator SQs), and the sampling memo in Appendix C. This package is the final submission for the 2026 NAEP assessment.
The following table and pages below provide a summary of the changes that are included in this submission.
Document |
Changes |
Part A |
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Part B |
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Appendix C |
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Appendix D |
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Appendix I |
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Appendix J-1 |
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Appendix J-2 |
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Appendix J-3 |
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Appendix J-S |
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A.1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
NAEP consists of two assessment programs: the NAEP Long-term trend (LTT) assessment and the main NAEP assessment. The LTT assessments are given at the national level only and are administered to students at ages 9, 13, and 17 in a manner that is very different from that used for the main NAEP assessments. LTT reports mathematics and reading results that present trend data since the 1970s. Main NAEP provides results on subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students e.g., all fourth-graders and groups within those populations e.g., by sex (male and female students), by race/ethnicity groups, etc. NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools. The main NAEP assessments report current achievement levels and trends in student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12 for the nation and, for certain assessments (e.g., reading and mathematics), states and select urban districts. The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) was a special project developed to determine the feasibility of reporting district-level results for large urban districts, which was successful and now continues to report some district scores. Currently, the following 26 districts participate in the TUDA program: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore City, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Clark County (NV), Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, District of Columbia (DCPS), Duval County (FL), Fort Worth, Guilford County (NC), Hillsborough County (FL), Houston, Jefferson County (KY), Orange County (FL), Los Angeles, Miami-Dade, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Diego.
This is the Amendment #2 submission, which provides updates to the previous Amendment #1 Package for 2026 NAEP. The Clearance Package included both 60-day and 30-day consecutive public comment period notices published in the Federal Register. The 60-day posting was completed in December 2024, and the 30-day posting was completed by July 2025. The Amendment #1 package was posted for public comment in August 2025 and was completed in September 2025. This package includes updates to previously submitted materials, and no new materials are included in this package. The updates include textual refinements of communication materials, the eNAEP Download Center and the preassessment guides in Appendix D. There are minor text updates to the survey questionnaires in Appendices J1, J2, J3, J-S. Lastly, Appendix C includes the sampling design memo and Appendix I contains all finalized AMS screens. This Amendment is the final submission for the 2026 NAEP OMB package.
To minimize burden on the respondents and maximize the constructs addressed via the questionnaires, NAEP may spiral items across respondents and/or rotate some non-required items across assessment administrations. The possible “library” of items for the NAEP 2026 questionnaires, for each subject and respondent, are included in appendix F. All Main NAEP Operational and Pilot questionnaires are provided in their final form in this submission in Appendices J1, J2, J3, and J-S (Spanish SQ items).
The Governing Board determines NAEP policy and the assessment schedule,1 and future Governing Board decisions may result in changes to the plans represented here.
The 2026 data collection will consist of the following:
Main NAEP Operational assessments will include for grades 4 and 8 (first administration of the new frameworks for reading and mathematics), grade 8 (civics and U.S. history),
Grades 4 and 8 mathematics will be the only subject assessed in Puerto Rico, and will include the new framework, and
Main NAEP Pilot assessments will include grades 4, 8, and 12 (reading and mathematics); and grades 4 and 8 mathematics will be the only subject assessed in Puerto Rico.
NAEP collects race and ethnicity data in two ways, as part of individual questionnaires and as part of the roster uploads from schools (as seen in Appendix I, “Provide Student Information”). All final materials for the 2026 assessments are included in this Amendment #2. Below is a description of the plan for race and ethnicity items to be used in NAEP 2026.
The roster data that NAEP receives from schools is proxy data, reported by institutions. Because of this, NAEP and NCES are reliant on the ability of those third-party recordkeepers to report their data in compliance with SPD 15. NCES and the Department of Education are currently working with the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), as well as other stakeholders, to establish timelines for compliance with the revised standard for all school systems across the country. ED does not anticipate that school systems will be ready to report data to NAEP that is consistent with 2024 SPD 15 by the time of data collection for NAEP 2026.
The total cost to the federal government for the administrations of the 2026 NAEP data collections (contract costs and NCES salaries and expenses) is estimated to be $121,337,495. The table below represents the 2026 assessment cost estimates as of September 2025.
This Amendment #2 has no new changes to burden or budget.
The operational schedule for the NAEP assessments generally follows the same schedule for each assessment cycle. The dates below show the likely timeframe for the 2026 state-level assessments.
1 The Governing Board assessment schedule can be found at https://www.nagb.gov/about-naep/assessment-schedule.html.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Broxterman, Gina |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-10-17 |