Change Memo (REDLINED)

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.

Summary of All Changes
Document
Part A
Part B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix I
Appendix J-1
Appendix J-2
Appendix J-3
Appendix J-S

Changes











Editorial updates (e.g., references to Amendment #1)
Editorial updates (e.g., references to Amendment #1, edits to Appendix references, etc.)
The 2026 sampling memo is added.
Revisions to D-36 through D-41, D-62 through D-65
Revisions to log in screens and Appendices I115 – I18
Added screens marked as (New): Appendices I2 – I6, I8 – I10, I12
Editorial updates to 2026 Operational and Pilot student SQs
Editorial updates to 2026 Operational and Pilot teacher SQs
Editorial updates to 2026 Operational and Pilot school administrator SQs
Editorial updates to 2026 Operational and Pilot Spanish student, teacher, and school administrator SQs

Part A Changes
A.1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
A.1.a. Purpose of Submission
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 #1 2 submission, which provides updates to the previous Clearance 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, JS. Lastly, Appendix C includes the sampling design memo and Appendix I contains all finalized AMS
screens. refinements to the scope of 2026, as well as additional materials for the 2026 assessment that were
not available for the Clearance Package. These materials include additional field communications
(Appendix D), additional Assessment Management System (AMS) screens (Appendix I), survey
questionnaires (Appendices J1, J2, J3, J-S), and Feedback Forms (Appendix E), which are available for this
30-day public posting. An Amendment #2 to this Clearance package is planned to be submitted in the
coming months to update materials, which are detailed on the following page.This Amendment is the final
submission for the 2026 NAEP OMB package.
NAEP 2026 Amendment Schedule Table
Amendment #2
(August/September
2025)





Appendix C: 2026 Sampling Memo
Appendix D: Any necessary refinements to 2026 Communication
Materials
Appendix I: Final 2026 AMS System screenshots

A.1.c.3. Survey Items
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 The majority of the 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).

A.1.d. Overview of 2026 NAEP Assessments

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. Any changes will be presented in subsequent
clearance packages or amendments for the current package..
The 2026 data collection will consist of the following:




Main NAEP Ooperational 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.

A.7. Consistency with 5 CFR 1320.5
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”). As discussed in A.1.a,
not Aall final materials for the 2026 assessments are included available in this Amendment #21, and all final
instruments will be available in 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 for the purpose of student sampling 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.

A.14. Estimates of Cost to the Federal Government
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 June September 2025; if the scope changes, any resulting changes in
the costs will be reflected in Amendment #2..

A.15. Reasons for Changes in Burden and Budget (from last Clearance submittal)
This Amendment #1 reflects updates to the NAEP 2026 Clearance package burden and budget as a result of
removing the Field Trial and NCES’ decision not to administer Pilot teacher and school administrator
questionnaires for grade 8 mainland U.S. and grades 4 and 8 Puerto Rico. In addition, a discrepancy in the
number of schools in the school device model was corrected. These changes resulted in a slight increase in
burden hours from the initial Clearance package (449,560 hours) compared to Amendment #1 (456,764
hours).
1

The Governing Board assessment schedule can be found at https://www.nagb.gov/about-naep/assessment-schedule.html.

In addition, the costs to the Federal Government have been reduced by $8,197,412 from the initial
Clearance package. 2 has no new changes to burden or budget.

A.16. Time Schedule for Data Collection and Publications
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. Any
changes to this timeline will be provided in Amendment #2.