Supporting Statement A

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National Center for Education Statistics
National Assessment of Educational Progress


National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2027 


Part A
Supporting Statement



OMB #1850-0928 v.40










July 2026

 
Table of Contents
A.1.	Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary	3
A.1.a. Purpose of Submission	3
A.1.b. Legislative Authorization	4
A.1.c. Overview of NAEP Assessments	5
A.1.c.1. NAEP Frameworks	5
A.1.c.2. Cognitive Item Development	5
A.1.c.3. Survey Items	6
A.1.c.4. Participation in NAEP	8
A.1.c.5. Digital Test Delivery	8
A.1.c.6. Assessment Activities	10
A.1.d. Overview of 2027 NAEP Assessment	11
A.2. How, by Whom, and for What Purpose the Data Will Be Used	11
A.3. Improved Use of Technology	12
A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication	13
A.5. Burden on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities	14
A.6. Consequences of Collecting Information Less Frequently	14
A.7. Consistency with 5 CFR 1320.5	14
A.8. Consultations Outside the Agency	15
A.9. Payments or Gifts to Respondents	16
A.10. Assurance of Confidentiality	16
A.11. Sensitive Questions	20
A.12. Estimation of Respondent Reporting Burden (2027)	21
A.13. Cost to Respondents	26
A.14. Estimates of Cost to the Federal Government	26
A.15. Reasons for Changes in Burden and Budget (from last Clearance submittal)	26
A.16. Time Schedule for Data Collection and Publications	27
A.17. Approval for Not Displaying OMB Approval Expiration Date	27
A.18. Exceptions to Certification Statement	27




A.1.	Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
A.1.a. Purpose of Submission
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 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.

NAEP is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. As such, NCES is responsible for designing and executing the assessment, including designing the assessment procedures and methodology, developing the assessment content, selecting the final assessment content, sampling schools and students, recruiting schools, administering the assessment, scoring student responses, determining the analysis procedures, analyzing the data, and reporting the results.1

The National Assessment Governing Board (henceforth referred to as the Governing Board or NAGB), appointed by the Secretary of Education but independent of the Department, is a bipartisan group whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. The Governing Board sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the frameworks and test specifications that serve as the blueprint for the assessments.

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. LTT 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 (i.e., Trends in Urban Districts Assessment, or TUDA)2. The main NAEP assessments provide results on subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for different student populations (e.g., all fourth-graders) and groups within those populations (e.g., sex [male and female students], race/ethnicity groups). NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools. 

The NAEP assessments contain two different types of items: “cognitive” assessment items, which measure what students know and can do in an academic subject, and “survey” or “non-cognitive” items, which gather information such as demographic variables, as well as construct-related information, such as courses taken. The survey portion includes a collection of data from students, teachers, and school administrators. Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of test forms across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for all states and select urban districts. The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time.

The possible universe of student respondents for NAEP 2027 is estimated to be 12,000 students at grade 8 attending the approximately 321 public and private schools in a variety of states and the District of Columbia and may include Bureau of Indian Education Schools. 

This request is to conduct NAEP in 2027, specifically for the Grade 8 Science Pilot.

NAEP will administer the assessment using school devices and internet. For schools that cannot meet the minimum specification for the use of school devices, NAEP will provide an alternate delivery model utilizing NAEP Chromebooks. NAEP has transitioned to administering on school devices with a staged approach so that trends can be measured across time. NAEP conducted a School-based Equipment study in 2024 (OMB #1850-0803 v.347) as well as a Field Test in 2025 (OMB #1850-0803 v.353) to provide more information about student and school interactions with the eNAEP system on school devices, as compared to NAEP Chromebooks and Surface Pros, to inform the use of school devices at a larger scale in NAEP assessments beginning in 2026. Also, results from a 2026 bridge study are being analyzed to compare NAEP devices and school devices to evaluate whether scores from the two different assessment models are comparable. Note: in this study, some schools that qualified to be assessed on school devices were assessed on NAEP devices, since the two different school types (i.e., those qualified to assess on school devices, and those not qualified to assess on school devices) may have different characteristics. This allows the study to establish a common linking population. 	

This submission is an Amendment to the 2027 NAEP Clearance package, which was approved in May 2026. All final materials needed for the 2027 Science Pilot administration, which includes communication materials, Assessment Management System (AMS) content, survey questionnaires, and supporting Appendices are available in this Amendment. 

A.1.b. Legislative Authorization
In the current legislation that reauthorized NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (20 U.S.C. §9622), Congress mandates the collection of national education survey data through a national assessment program:

    1. ESTABLISHMENT – The Commissioner for Education Statistics shall, with the advice of the Assessment Board established under section 302, carry out, through grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements with one or more qualified organizations, or consortia thereof, a National Assessment of Educational Progress, which collectively refers to a national assessment, state assessments, and a long-term trend assessment in reading and mathematics.

    2. PURPOSE; STATE ASSESSMENTS –
	(1) PURPOSE – The purpose of this section is to provide, in a timely manner, a fair and accurate measurement of student academic achievement and reporting of trends in such achievement in reading, mathematics, and other subject matter as specified in this section.

(5) REQUIREMENT – In carrying out any assessment authorized under this section, the Commissioner for Education Statistics, in a manner consistent with subsection (c)(3), shall-
(A) use widely accepted professional testing standards, objectively measure academic achievement, knowledge, and skills, and ensure that any academic assessment authorized under this section be tests that do not evaluate or assess personal or family beliefs and attitudes or publicly disclose personally identifiable information;
(B) only collect information that is directly related to the appraisal of academic achievement, and to the fair and accurate presentation of such information; and
(C) collect information on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, limited English proficiency, and gender.

Although the NAEP legislation uses the terminology “gender,” the Department sees no statutory intent that the reference to “gender” was ever intended to capture information beyond the binary “male” or “female” categorization. The NAEP 2027 data collection instruments have been updated to remove any references to “gender” and only use the terminology “sex” (i.e., male, female). The 2027 NAEP data collection instruments are in compliance with the White House’s Executive Orders: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (EO 14168),” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing (EO 14151)” (January 20, 2025). 

This allows for the fair and accurate presentation of achievement data and permits the collection of background, non-cognitive, or descriptive information that is related to academic achievement and that aids in the fair reporting of results. The intent of the law is to provide representative sample data on student achievement for the nation, the states, and a variety of populations of students, and to monitor progress over time.

The statute and regulation mandating or authorizing the collection of this information can be found at https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:20%20section:9622%20edition:prelim)%20OR%20(granuleid:USC-prelim-title20-section9622)&f=treesort&edition=prelim&num=0&jumpTo=true.

A.1.c. Overview of NAEP Assessments
This section provides a broad overview of main NAEP assessments, including information on the assessment frameworks, the cognitive and survey items, inclusion policies, the transition to digitally based assessments (DBA), and the assessment types.

A.1.c.1. NAEP Frameworks
NAEP assessments follow subject-area frameworks developed by the Governing Board and use the latest advances in assessment methodology. Frameworks capture a range of subject-specific content and thinking skills needed by students in order to deal with the complex issues they encounter inside and outside their classrooms. The NAEP frameworks are determined through a development process that ensures they are appropriate for current educational requirements. Developing a framework generally involves the following steps:
    • Widespread participation and reviews by educators and state education officials
    • Reviews by steering committees whose members represent policymakers, practitioners, and members of the general public
    • Involvement of subject supervisors from education agencies
    • Public hearings
    • Reviews by scholars in the field, by NCES staff, and by a policy advisory panel

NAEP frameworks are updated periodically to match current instructional practices and research findings. These frameworks serve as the “blueprint” for NAEP assessments; can provide information on skills appropriate to grades 4, 8, and 12; and can be models for measuring these skills in innovative ways. 

The frameworks can be found at https://www.nagb.gov/naep-frameworks/frameworks-overview.html.

A.1.c.2. Cognitive Item Development
As part of the item development process, NCES calls on many constituents to guide the process and review the assessment. Item development is guided by a multi-year design plan, which is based on the framework and establishes the design principles, priorities, schedules, and reporting goals for each subject. Based on this plan, the NAEP contractor creates a development plan outlining the item inventory and objectives for new items and then begins the development process by developing more items than are needed. This item pool is then typically subjected to
    • internal contractor review with content experts, teachers, and experts on fairness, sensitivity, and bias; and
    • refinement of items and scoring rubrics under NCES guidance.

Throughout the item development process, a standing committee of content experts, state and local education agency representatives, teachers, and representatives of professional associations reviews the items. The standing committee (see Appendix A for the membership of the committees) considers the following:
    • The appropriateness of the items for the particular grade
    • The representative nature of the item set
    • The compatibility of the items with the framework and test specifications
    • The quality of items and scoring rubrics

For items that will contribute to state-level reporting of results, this standing committee review may be followed by a state item review for further feedback. Items are then revised and submitted to NCES and the Governing Board Assessment Development Committee for approval prior to pilot testing. Note: items are assembled or spiraled across multiple forms for the pilot and operational assessments. This ensures that not all students are administered the same set of items.

A pilot test of the items is used to finalize the testing instrument. Items may be dropped from consideration or moved forward to the operational assessment. If needed, the item set is reviewed once more by the standing committee and NCES, and generally follows the same procedure described above. A final set of test items is then assembled for NCES and the Governing Board’s review and approval. After the operational assessment, items are once again examined. In rare cases where item statistics indicate problems, the item may be dropped from the assessment. The remaining items are secured for reuse in future assessments, with a subset of those items publicly released.

A.1.c.3. Survey Items
In addition to assessing subject-area achievement, NAEP collects information that serves to fulfill the reporting requirements of the federal legislation and to provide context for the reporting of student performance. The legislation requires that, whenever feasible, NAEP includes information on special groups (e.g., information reported by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sex, disability status, English learner [EL] status). As part of most NAEP assessments, three types of questionnaires are used to collect information: student, teacher, and school. An overview of the questionnaires is presented below.

Student Questionnaires
Each NAEP student assessment form includes non-cognitive items, also known as the student questionnaire. The questionnaires appear in separately timed blocks of items in the assessment forms. The items collect information on students’ demographic characteristics, classroom experiences, and educational support. Students’ responses provide data that give context to NAEP results and/or allow researchers to track factors associated with academic achievement. Students complete the questionnaires voluntarily (for confidentiality provisions, see section A.10 for more information). Student names are never reported with their responses or with the other information collected by NAEP.

Each student questionnaire includes three types of items, as follows:
    • General student information: Student responses to these items are used to collect information about factors such as race or ethnicity and parents’/guardians’ education level. Answers on the questionnaires also provide information about factors associated with academic performance, including household composition, academic self-discipline, and the number of books in the home.
    • Other contextual/policy information: These items focus on students’ educational settings and experiences and collect information about students’ attendance (e.g., days absent), family discourse (e.g., talking about school at home), reading load (e.g., pages read per day), and technology use at school. There are also items that ask about students’ effort on the assessment and their perceived difficulty of the assessment. Answers on the questionnaires provide information on how aspects of education and educational resources are distributed among different groups.
    • Subject-specific information: In most NAEP administrations, these items cover three categories of information: (1) time spent studying the subject; (2) instructional experiences in the subject; and (3) student factors (e.g., effort, confidence) related to the subject and the assessment.

Teacher Questionnaires
To provide supplemental information about the instructional experiences reported by students, teachers are asked to complete an online questionnaire about their instructional practices, classroom organization, and teaching background and training in the subject in which their students are being assessed. To correctly connect teacher responses to student data, school coordinators indicate the teacher of each student’s NAEP subject in the Assessment Management System (AMS) prior to surveys being distributed to respondents. While completion of the questionnaire is voluntary, NAEP encourages teachers’ participation since their responses provide a fuller picture of NAEP assessment results.

Teacher questionnaires are only given to teachers at grades 4 and 8. Note: NAEP does not collect teacher information for grade 12, as there is such variation in student course-taking experiences that students cannot be matched to individual teachers for each tested subject. For example, a student may not be taking a mathematics class in grade 12, and so they cannot be matched to a teacher. Conversely, a student could be taking two mathematics classes at grade 12 and have multiple teachers related to mathematics. 

Teacher questionnaires are organized into different parts. The first part of the teacher questionnaire covers background, general training, and additional information such as years of teaching experience, certifications, degrees, major and minor fields of study, coursework in education, coursework in specific subject areas, amount of pre- and in-service training, the extent of control over instructional issues, and availability of classroom resources. Subsequent parts of the teacher questionnaire tend to cover professional development in the subject area, information about classroom instructional practices, and teachers’ experiences with issues related to the subject and to teaching the subject. They also ask about the ability level of the students in the class, the nature of schoolwork and homework assignments, the use of particular resources, and how students are organized and assigned to particular classes.

School Questionnaires
The school questionnaire provides supplemental information about school factors that may influence students’ achievement. This online questionnaire is given to the principal or another official of each school that participates in the NAEP assessment. While schools’ completion of the questionnaire is voluntary, NAEP encourages schools’ participation since it makes the NAEP assessment more accurate and complete. The school questionnaire is organized into different parts. The first part tends to cover general characteristics of the school, including the length of the school day and year, school enrollment, absenteeism, dropout rates, and the size and composition of the teaching staff. Subsequent parts of the school questionnaire tend to cover policies, curricula, testing practices, special priorities, and schoolwide programs and problems. The questionnaire also collects information about the availability of resources, policies for parental involvement, special services, and community services. 

The supplemental charter school questionnaire is provided to administrators of charter schools who are sampled to participate in NAEP. It is designed to collect information on charter school policies and characteristics. The supplement covers organization and school governance, parental involvement, and curriculum and offerings.

Development of Survey Items
The Background Information Framework and the Governing Board’s Policy on the Collection and Reporting of Background Data (located at https://www.nagb.gov/content/nagb/assets/documents/policies/collection-report-backg-data.pdf) guides the collection and reporting of non-cognitive assessment information. In addition, subject-area frameworks provide guidance on the types of subject-specific, non-cognitive assessment questions to prioritize for inclusion in the questionnaires. The development process is very similar to that of the cognitive items and includes review of the existing item pool, development of more items than are intended for operational use, and review by experts, including the standing committee. When developing the questionnaires, all non-cognitive items undergo multiple rounds of review and analysis to ensure that the final questions are sensitive and minimally intrusive, are grounded in educational research, and will yield data that can provide information relevant to the subject being assessed. 

To minimize burden on the respondents and maximize the number of topics or constructs addressed via the questionnaires, NAEP may spiral items across student respondent forms in the pilot assessment and/or rotate some non-required items across assessment administrations. All NAEP Grade 8 Science Pilot questionnaires are provided in their final form in the Amendment in Appendices J1, J2, and J3. Survey questionnaires from previous administrations can be viewed on the NAEP website: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/experience/archive.aspx.

A.1.c.4. Participation in NAEP
It is important for NAEP to assess as many students sampled to participate as possible. Assessing a representative sample of students, including students with disabilities (SDs) and ELs, allows NAEP results to accurately reflect the educational performance of the target population—enabling NAEP to serve as a meaningful measure of all U.S. students’ academic achievement over time.

The Governing Board, who sets policy for NAEP, works to appropriately represent students in all assessed jurisdictions and report in a consistent manner. Since 2010 (updated August 2014), the Governing Board has followed the NAEP Testing and Reporting on Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners (located at https://www.nagb.gov/content/nagb/assets/documents/policies/naep_testandreport_studentswithdisabilities.pdf). The policy’s goal is to maximize participation of sampled students in NAEP to reduce variation in exclusion rates for SD and EL students across states and districts, develop uniform national guidelines for NAEP, and optimize representation of SD and EL students in the NAEP assessment.

The policy sets inclusion goals for the samples. At the national, state, and district levels, the goal is to include 95 percent of all students selected for the NAEP samples, and 85 percent of those in the NAEP sample who are identified as SD or EL.

States and jurisdictions vary in their proportions of students with disabilities and in their use of accommodations. Students are selected to participate in NAEP based on a sampling procedure3 designed to yield a sample of students that is representative of students in all schools nationwide and in public schools within each state. First, schools are selected, and then students are sampled from within those schools without regard to disability or English language proficiency. Once students are selected, those who are identified as SD or EL are offered accommodations or may be excluded.

Accommodations in the testing platform and/or accommodations outside of the testing platform are provided for students who are identified as SD and EL. Some examples of accommodations provided by NAEP are extended time, magnification, and high contrast for visually impaired students. Some examples of testing accommodations not approved for NAEP are giving the reading assessment in a language other than English or reading the passages in the reading assessment aloud to the student. 

A.1.c.5. Digital Test Delivery

In 2027, the NAEP assessment will be administered either on school devices or NAEP devices using the NAEP Assessment Application, also referred to as eNAEP. The NAEP Assessment Application will be installed and confirmed on school devices during the preassessment phase. As part of this Amendment, NAEP will be supporting additional device types, specifically macOS. The Download Center (Appendix D-7) has been updated accordingly, and additional communications to schools have also been included in this submission (Appendix D-28). Sampled schools that do not meet the technical requirements for school devices, outlined in the eNAEP Download Center (Appendix D-7), will be provided with NAEP Chromebooks. These devices will use the NAEP Network and will have the NAEP Assessment Application installed for students to complete the assessment. 

Digital Tools and Interactions
eNAEP is able to offer students a variety of tools and interactions that are mostly not available for students responding to paper assessments. The following are some examples of these tools and interactions:
    • Three different Zoom levels: 100%, 150%, and 200%
    • Theming of content (e.g., white, beige, black backgrounds)
    • Scratchwork tools which may include highlighter, pencil, and notepad
    • Text-to-speech
    • Video and audio recordings as stimuli
    • Closed captioning
    • Click-click and drag-and-drop functionality to respond to matching items
    • Eliminate answer choices
    • Number lines
    • Cartesian graphs
    • Protractors
    • Simulated experiments
    • Digital calculator

Digital assessment delivery also allows for additional data capture capabilities, as well as the delivery of assessments that are more tailored to student ability levels. This can include the following, for example:
    • Timing data regarding how much time students spend on a single screen or section
    • Process data regarding how the students interact with the content (e.g., what do they type or click) and navigate throughout the assessment
    • Multi-stage testing (MST), or adaptive testing, which administers groups of items tailored to the ability level of students as measured by the first group of items the students responded to
        ◦ Note: MST for NAEP has not been administered to students operationally. 

Development of the assessment delivery application, eNAEP, is informed by best practices in accessibility and user experience design. Decisions about the availability, appearance, and functionality of system features and tools are also made based on the results of usability testing with students.	

To help ensure that students know how to use the assessment system and tools, each NAEP DBA administration begins with a brief interactive tutorial that teaches students how to use the system features to take the assessment. Students actively engage with the tutorial, as they are prompted to use specific tools and features. Help screens are also available in eNAEP for students to access and receive help on finding buttons and tools at any time while taking the assessment. The tutorials are available at: https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/experience/.

Digital Item Types
Digital delivery also allows for a variety of different item types, including the following:
    • Immersive Scenario-based Tasks (SBTs) use features and tools to engage students in rich, authentic problem-solving contexts. NAEP’s first SBTs were administered in 2009, when students at grades 4, 8, and 12 were assessed with interactive computer tasks in science. The science tasks asked students to solve scientific problems and perform experiments, often by simulation. Such tasks provide students with more opportunities than a paper-based assessment (PBA) to demonstrate skills involved in doing science without many of the logistical constraints associated with a natural or laboratory setting. Mathematics and reading also have SBTs. Note, SBTs will not be available in the 2027 Science Pilot.

    • Interactive items and tools: Some questions may allow the use of embedded technological features to form a response. For example, students may use “drag and drop” or “click-click” functionality to place labels on a graphic, or they may tap an area or zone on the screen to make a selection. Other questions may involve the use of digital tools. In mathematics, an online calculator is available for students to use when responding to some items. NAEP interactive item components, such as the ruler, number line, bar graph, and various coordinate-grid-based line and point tools, expand measurement capabilities with tools comparable to how students learn about fundamental math concepts.

NAEP’s item and system development processes include several types of activities that help ensure DBAs measure the subject-area knowledge and skills outlined in the NAEP frameworks—not students’ ability to use the device or the particular interface elements and digital tools included in the DBA.

Accommodations and Digital Test Delivery
Digital delivery of NAEP assessments enhances NAEP’s ability to provide appropriate accommodations that allow greater participation and provide universal access for students, including SDs and ELs. As mentioned above, Universal Design Elements (UDEs) include zoom and read aloud/text-to-speech for test items. However, read aloud is not available for reading cognitive content. In addition, students taking the assessment can choose a color theme, utilize a scratchwork tool or text highlighter and notepad tools, or eliminate answer choices in multiple-choice items. 

In addition to these UDEs, NAEP also continues to provide accommodations to students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), Section 504 plans, or English learning plans, as described in section A.1.c.4. Some accommodations are available in the testing system (e.g., additional time, a magnification tool, a Spanish/English version of the test), while others are provided by the test administrator or the school (e.g., breaks during testing, sign language interpretation of the test, a bilingual dictionary). Section B.2.b. provides more information on the classification of students and the assignment of accommodations.

A.1.c.6. Assessment Activities
NAEP has three types of assessment activities, which may simultaneously be in the field during any given data collection effort: operational assessments, pilot assessments, and special studies. Each is described in more detail below. In 2027, only a pilot assessment will be administered.

Operational Assessments
Operational NAEP administrations, collect data to publicly report on the educational achievement of students as required by federal law. The NAEP results are reported in The Nation’s Report Card (http://nationsreportcard.gov/), which is used by policymakers, state and local educators, principals, teachers, and parents/guardians to inform educational policy decisions.

Pilot Assessments
The purpose of pilot testing is to obtain information regarding clarity, difficulty levels, timing, and feasibility of items and conditions. Pilot testing of cognitive and non-cognitive items is carried out in all subject areas. In addition to ensuring that items measure what is intended, the data collected from pilot tests serve as the basis for selecting the most effective items and data collection procedures for the subsequent operational assessments. Pilot testing serves as a means for revising and selecting items prior to operational data collection; this is because pilot items are administered to a small, nationally representative sample of students, and data are gathered about performance that crosses the spectrum of student achievement. Items shown to not work well during pilot administration can be removed or modified before the operational administration.

Special Studies
Special studies provide an opportunity for NAEP to investigate specific areas of interest without impacting the reporting of NAEP results. Some special studies have focused on comparing NAEP to other assessments or linking across NAEP same-subject frameworks, investigating the expansion of the item pool, evaluating specific accommodations, investigating administration modes, and providing targeted data on specific student populations.

In addition to the overarching goal of NAEP to provide data about student achievement at the national, state, and district levels, NAEP also provides targeted data on an as-needed basis. For example, NAEP may call for a special analysis of existing data or the addition of a brief questionnaire targeted at a specified group. Past examples of special studies include questionnaires that NCES developed and administered as part of the National Indian Education Study (NIES) on behalf of the Office of Indian Education. These targeted questionnaires provided important information about the achievement of a specific group with minimal additional burden. These types of special studies are intentionally designed to avoid jeopardizing the main purpose of the program.

A.1.d.	Overview of 2027 NAEP Assessment
The Governing Board determines NAEP policy and the assessment schedule,4 and future Governing Board decisions may result in changes to the plans represented here. 

The 2027 data collection will consist of a science pilot for grade 8. This pilot administration will provide information about the clarity, difficulty levels, timing, and viability of new grade 8 science items. The NAEP assessment will be primarily administered on school devices; however, for schools who cannot meet the minimum specifications for devices, NAEP devices will be provided. 

A.2. How, by Whom, and for What Purpose the Data Will Be Used
Results of this pilot administration will be scored and used by NCES for statistical purposes only; therefore, student performance results will not be publicly reported, but will be used to inform future decisions about operational use of the piloted items. Key areas of focus for the results of the administration will be to understand the following:
    • Item and task performance (e.g., how well items elicit targeted skills and knowledge; how long items take students to complete; item difficulty) for the purposes of selecting items and tasks for operational use and assembling them into operational blocks for use in 2028. 

NAEP operational results are reported in The Nation’s Report Card, which is used by policymakers, state and local educators, principals, teachers, and parents/guardians to help inform educational policy decisions. The main NAEP report cards provide national results, trends for different student groups, results on scale scores and achievement levels, and sample items. In reports with state or urban district results, there are sections that provide overview information on the performance of these jurisdictions. If NCES elects to release sample items, percentage correct and scale score statistics on those items will be provided in the report and in the NAEP Questions Tool at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/nqt/. NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools.

Results from each NAEP operational assessment are provided at the http://nationsreportcard.gov/, where the user can interact with the data, and data can be displayed in one-page summary reports, for each participating state or urban district. Additional data tools are available for those interested:
    • Analyzing NAEP data and creating tables and graphics (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/landing)
    • Viewing and comparing NAEP performance results overall and by various demographic groups across states and within each state (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile)
    • Viewing and comparing NAEP performance results overall and by various demographic groups across and within each of the participating large urban districts (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/districtprofile)
    • Searching, sorting, and providing data for sample NAEP items (https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nqt/)
    • Seeing the knowledge and skills demonstrated by students performing at different scale scores (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/itemmaps)

In addition to contributing to the reporting tools mentioned above, data from the survey questionnaires are used as part of the marginal estimation procedures that produce the student achievement results. In the web-based NAEP Data Explorer (located at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/landing), the results of the questionnaires are sorted into eight broad categories: Major Reporting Groups, Student Factors, Factors Beyond School, Instructional Content and Practice, Teacher Factors, School Factors, Community Factors, and Government Factors. Questionnaire data are also used to perform quality control checks on school-reported data.

Lastly, there are numerous opportunities for secondary data analysis due to NAEP’s large scale, the regularity of its administrations, and its stringent quality control processes for data collection and analysis. NAEP data are used by researchers and educators who have different interests and levels of analytical experience.

A.3. Improved Use of Technology
NAEP has progressively adopted administration methods that leverage technology. With the transition to using school devices for NAEP administrations, the role and significance of technology have become even more prominent and are described below. 

Preassessment Activities
Participating NAEP schools have designated staff members who serve as support for the NAEP assessment. Preassessment and assessment activities include functions like finalizing student samples, verifying student demographics, reviewing accommodations, responding to the School Technology Survey, installing the NAEP Assessment Application (i.e., eNAEP) on student devices as needed, and running device readiness checks on the prepared devices and planning logistics for the assessment. NAEP uses the AMS for school staff to easily provide necessary administration information through the system, which includes logistical information, updates of student and teacher information, and the completion of inclusion and accommodation information.

Online Teacher and School Administrator Questionnaires
The NAEP program delivers teacher and school administrator survey questionnaires online through an application. This survey application is compatible with major browsers (e.g., Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) and operating systems, including Windows, ChromeOS, macOS, and iPadOS. Participants receive a secure, personalized link and access code—generated by the AMS—to complete their survey. After submission, the survey data are transmitted in real time to NAEP analytic dashboard for monitoring completion status.

Digitally Based Content 
NAEP transitioned to DBA in 2017/2019 using NAEP-provided Windows devices. In 2024, NAEP expanded to include both Windows and Chromebook devices before fully transitioning to school-owned devices. Since these school devices are comparable to NAEP-provided devices, NAEP is moving forward with using school devices for future administrations. This allows NAEP to provide assessments consistent with other large-scale assessments. In 2027, it is expected that slightly more than 80% of schools will use school devices to participate in the Pilot administration. 

NAEP Assessment Application (eNAEP)
The current NAEP Assessment Application was first used in 2024 operational administration where NAEP devices were prepared by NAEP. The same NAEP Assessment Application was used for the School-based Equipment Proof of Concept to allow students to access the NAEP assessment using school devices. The application was expected to be installed by school staff on school devices (instead of by the NAEP team and on NAEP devices) following the installation and validation instructions found on the eNAEP Download Center. These instructions are updated with each NAEP administration cycle (see Appendix D). The application is available as a desktop shortcut on Windows devices or as a Kiosk app on the Chromebook login screen, which allows the student to launch the NAEP assessment. The application conducts various checks on the device to ensure that it meets the necessary specifications so that the user can consistently interact with the NAEP assessment. The NAEP Assessment Application enables real-time assessment data transfer to NAEP Cloud servers. The platform incorporates security measures to maintain content and data integrity, such as automatically exiting and closing the application when other applications are opened or when an assessment session remains idle for longer than permitted. Assessment sessions may also be locked by NAEP field staff administrators when required by security protocols. 
Automated Scoring
NAEP administers a combination of selected-response items and open-ended or constructed-response items. In recent years, NAEP has introduced algorithmic scoring for selected-responses items that have a definable and finite number of responses, and each response can be unambiguously coded to map to a level of the scoring rubric. Algorithmic scoring is fully automated, yielding process and cost efficiencies. The volume of algorithmically-scored items continues to increase as more items are developed for DBA. NAEP uses human scorers to score the constructed-response items, using detailed scoring rubrics and proven scoring methodologies. With the increased use of technologies, the methodology and reliability of automated scoring (i.e., the scoring of constructed-response items using computer software) have advanced. In 2026, the majority of operational reading items were scored using automated scoring methodologies. Note, the remaining operational reading items and mathematics items were human scored. However, automated scoring will not be utilized in scoring the 2027 science pilot administration.

A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
The proposed assessments, including the questionnaires, do not exist in the same format or combination in the U.S. Department of Education or elsewhere. The non-cognitive data gathered by NAEP comprise the only comprehensive cross-sectional survey performed regularly on a large-scale basis that can be related to extensive achievement data in the United States. NAEP has the only federally funded studies designed to collect data for the purpose of regularly assessing trends in educational progress and comparing these trends across states. Also, no other major non-federal studies of educational achievement were designed to measure changes in national achievement. There is no existing data source in the public or private sector that duplicates NAEP.

The survey items in NAEP are unique and the items are not developed in isolation. The items are informed by similar items in other assessments and survey programs. Also, in future rounds of development, NCES continues to align the NAEP survey questions with other surveys—particularly, but not limited to, those from other NCES and federal survey programs.

Historically, NAEP has served as a critical national audit function, offering a helpful reference in the interpretation of score trends on high-stakes tests used for school accountability. The main NAEP scales have served this function even though high-stake state assessments were not always closely aligned with the corresponding NAEP assessments.

NAEP has provided the best available information about the academic achievement of the nation’s students in relation to consensus assessment frameworks, maintaining long-term trend lines for decades. In addition to reporting at the national level, NAEP has offered achievement comparisons among participating states for more than three decades. Also, since 2003, all states have participated in the NAEP mathematics and reading assessments at grades 4 and 8. More recently, NAEP has also reported achievement for selected large urban school districts. Also, characterizing the achievement of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in a variety of subject areas, NAEP has served to document disparities in achievement across demographic groups, tracking both achievement and achievement gaps over time. NAEP has furthered deliberation as to the scope and meaning of achievement in mathematics, reading, and other subject areas. NAEP assessments are aligned to ambitious assessment frameworks developed by a thoughtful process to reflect the best thinking of educators and content specialists. States and other organizations have used these frameworks as models. Further, NAEP has served as a laboratory for innovation, developing and demonstrating new item formats, as well as statistical methods and models now emulated by large-scale assessments worldwide.

NAEP has functioned as a suite of complex survey modules conducted as assessments of student achievement in fixed testing windows. The complexity of NAEP evolved by necessity to address its legal and policy reporting requirements and the complex sampling of items and students needed to make reliable and valid inferences at the subgroup, district, state, and national level for stakeholders, ranging from policymakers to secondary analysts, and to do so without creating an undue burden on students and schools.

A.5. Burden on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities
The school samples for NAEP contain small-, medium-, and large-size schools, including private schools. Schools are included in the sample proportional to their representation in the population, or as necessary to meet reporting goals. It is necessary to include all types of schools, including small and private schools, so that students attending all schools are represented in the data collection and in the reports. Trained field staff work closely with all sampled schools to ensure that the preassessment and administration activities can be completed with minimal disruption.

A.6. Consequences of Collecting Information Less Frequently
Under the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act, Congress has mandated the ongoing collection of NAEP data. Failure to collect the 2027 assessment data on the current schedule would affect the quality and schedule of the NAEP assessments and would result in assessments that would not fulfill the mandate of the legislation.

A.7. Consistency with 5 CFR 1320.5
In light of OMB’s March 27, 2026 announcement of a one-year extension to submit an Action Plan for compliance with the updates to Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, the National Center for Education Statistics will use the 1997 standards in NAEP 2027, and will use the delayed deadline to continue to develop implementation plans for the 2024 standards.

A.8. Consultations Outside the Agency
The NAEP assessments are conducted by a Coalition of organizations, as well as organizations that support the NAEP program, under contract with the U.S. Department of Education. 

Currently, the NAEP program is supported by the following Coalition of organizations:

    • Management Strategies (PSM) is responsible for managing the integration of multiple NAEP project schedules and providing data on timeliness, deliverables, and cost performance.
    • Educational Testing Service (ETS) is responsible for coordinating Coalition contractor activities, developing assessment instruments, analyzing the data, preparing the reports, and platform development.
    • Sanametrix is responsible for NAEP web technology, development, operations, and maintenance including the Integrated Management System (IMS).
    • Pearson is responsible for scoring students’ constructed responses.
    • Westat is responsible for printing and distributing assessment materials, managing field operations and data collection, and coordinating with states and districts. Westat’s responsibilities include selecting the school and student samples and weighting the samples. Westat also provides ongoing support and training for full-time NAEP State and TUDA Coordinators in states across the nation through its NAEP Support and Service Center (NSSC).

In addition to the NAEP Coalition, other organizations support the NAEP program, all of which are under contract with the U.S. Department of Education. The current list of organizations includes the following:5
    • American Institutes for Research (AIR) is responsible for providing technical support and running the NAEP Validity Panel, among other support activities.
    • Manhattan Strategies Group (MSG) is responsible for supporting the planning, development, and dissemination of NAEP publications and outreach activities.
    • State Education Agencies (SEAs) are established liaisons for NAEP, serve as the state’s representative to review NAEP assessment items and processes, coordinate NAEP administration in the state, analyze and report NAEP data, and coordinate the use of NAEP results for policy and program planning.

In addition to the contractors responsible for the development and administration of the NAEP assessments, the program involves consultants and is also reviewed by specialists serving on various technical review panels. These consultants and special reviewers bring knowledge and expertise across several areas, including the following: 
    • Students of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, geographic regions, learning abilities, and socioeconomic levels
    • The specific subject areas being assessed
    • The analysis methodologies employed
    • Large-scale assessment design and practices
Contractor staff and consultants have reviewed all items for bias and sensitivity issues, grade appropriateness, and appropriateness of content across states.

In particular, subject-area standing committees play a central role in the development of NAEP assessment instruments and have been essential in creating assessment content that (1) is appropriate for the targeted populations and (2) meets the expectations outlined in the Governing Board frameworks. One of the most important functions of the committees is to contribute to the validation of the assessments. Through detailed reviews of items, scoring guides, tasks, and other materials, the committees help establish that the assessments are accurate, accessible, fair, relevant, and grade-level appropriate, and that each item measures the knowledge and skills it was designed to measure. When appropriate, members of subject-area standing committees will also review the questionnaires with regards to appropriateness with existing curricular and instructional practices.

Appendix A lists the current members of the following NAEP advisory committees:
    • NAEP Design and Analysis Committee
    • NAEP Mathematics Standing Committee
    • NAEP Reading Standing Committee
    • NAEP Survey Questionnaires Standing Committee
    • NAEP Science Standing Committee
    • NAEP Validity Panel

In addition to the contractors and the external committees, NCES works with the NAEP State and TUDA Coordinators, who serve as the liaisons between each state or district education agency and NAEP, coordinating NAEP activities in their state or district. NAEP State or TUDA Coordinators work directly with the NAEP-sampled schools.


A.9. Payments or Gifts to Respondents
In general, there will be no gifts or payments to respondents, although students do get to keep the NAEP‑provided earbuds used for the assessment if they request a pair. Some schools also offer recognition parties with pizza or other perks for students who participate; however, these are not reimbursed by NCES or NAEP contractors. If any incentives are proposed as part of a future special study, they would be justified as part of that future Clearance package. As appropriate, the amounts would be consistent with amounts approved in other studies with similar conditions.

A.10. Assurance of Confidentiality
Data security, confidentiality, and privacy protection procedures have been put in place for NAEP to ensure that all NAEP contractors and agents (see section A.8 in this document) comply with all security, confidentiality, and privacy requirements, including the following:

    1. The Statements of Work of NAEP contracts
    2. National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (20 U.S.C. §9622)
    3. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 (20 U.S.C. §1232(g))
    4. Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. §552a)
    5. Privacy Act Regulations (34 CFR Part 5b)
    6. Computer Security Act of 1987
    7. U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-56)
    8. Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9573)
    9. Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §151)
    10. The U.S. Department of Education General Handbook for Information Technology Security General Support Systems and Major Applications Inventory Procedures (March 2005)
    11. The U.S. Department of Education Incident Handling Procedures (February 2009)
    12. The U.S. Department of Education, ACS Directive OM: 5-101, Contractor Employee Personnel Security Screenings
    13. NCES Statistical Standards
    14. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA; 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506)

As of May 2025, NCES’s assurance of confidentiality protections for NAEP has changed due to staffing changes at the Department of Education. NCES has removed the confidentiality assurance under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2018 (44 U.S.C 3561-3583); confidentiality assurances under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) remain in effect.

Furthermore, all NAEP contractors and agents will comply with the Department’s IT security policy requirements as set forth in the Handbook for Information Assurance Security Policy and related procedures and guidance, as well as IT security requirements in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publications, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards and guidance. All data products and publications will also adhere to the revised NCES Statistical Standards, as described at the website: http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2012/. Security controls include secure data processing centers and sites, properly vetted and cleared staff, and data sharing agreements.

An important privacy and confidentiality issue is the protection of the identity of assessed students, their teachers, and their schools. To assure this protection, NAEP has established security procedures, described below, that closely control access to potentially identifying information.

All assessment and questionnaire data are protected. This means that NAEP applications that handle assessment and questionnaire data
    • enforce effective authentication password management policies;
    • limit authorization to individuals who truly need access to the data, only granting the minimum necessary access to individuals (i.e., least privilege user access);
    • keep data encrypted, both in storage and in transport, utilizing volume encryption and transport layer security protocols;
    • utilize SSL certificates and HTTPS protocols for web-based applications; and
    • limit access to data via software and firewall configurations.

The data collection process described below is based on the current handoff procedures for the current contractors. Quality checks are performed during the sampling process and throughout production.

First, the Sampling and Weighting (SW) contractor determines the student sampling requirements. Based on the sampling requirements, the student sample is uploaded in the AMS by the users. This list includes the month/year of birth, race/ethnicity, sex, and status codes for SDs, ELs, and those with an economic disadvantage. 

This data request for NAEP fully conforms to the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) [20 U.S.C. 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99]. FERPA is designed to protect the privacy rights of students and their families, by providing consistent standards for the release of personally identifiable student and family information. NCES and its agents are explicitly authorized under an exception to FERPA’s general consent rule to obtain student level data from institutions. For the purposes of this collection of data, FERPA permits educational agencies and institutions to disclose personally identifiable information (PII) from students’ education records, without consent, to authorized representatives of the Secretary of Education in connection with an evaluation of federally supported education programs (34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(3)(iii) and 99.35).

After the student sample is selected, the data for selected students are submitted to the Data Collection (DC) contractor, who includes the data in the packaging and distribution system for the production of student-specific materials (e.g., labels to attach to the student forms or log-in ID cards), which are then forwarded to field staff and used to manage and facilitate the assessment. These data are also uploaded to the AMS online system for review by schools. Field staff then use these data to print materials used by the schools. Student information is deleted from the packaging and distribution system before the assessment begins. Student information is securely deleted from the AMS typically two weeks after all quality control activities for the assessment are complete.

All paper-based student-specific materials linking PII to assessment materials are destroyed at the schools upon completion of the assessment. The field staff remove names from forms and place the student names in the school’s NAEP-provided storage envelope. The school’s NAEP-provided storage envelope contains all of the forms and materials with student names and is kept at the school to be destroyed by school personnel after the assessment date. 

In addition to student information, teacher and principal names are collected and recorded in the AMS online system, which is used to keep track of the distribution and collection of NAEP teacher and school questionnaires. The teacher and principal names are deleted from the AMS at the same time the student information is deleted.

NAEP data for DBAs are protected by strict federal security and privacy protocols to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information throughout the assessment lifecycle. Within the NAEP device model, all assessment content and data are securely stored on NAEP Classroom Servers. These servers require authenticated logins and are housed in protected hosting facilities that only authorized NAEP field staff can access. For student devices, whether NAEP issued or school-owned, no confidential assessment content or data is stored locally beyond temporary access in the browser during testing. Students use either Chromebooks in secure kiosk mode or Windows devices with NAEP’s secured locked-down browser, both of which limit access to other applications and system functions.
 
All assessment data are encrypted both during transmission and while at rest. Communications between devices, services, and backend systems are secured with TLS 1.2+, while data stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS) (e.g., RDS/PostgreSQL, S3) are encrypted using AES-256 via AWS Key Management Service (KMS) with customer-managed keys (CMKs). As a Progressive Web App (PWA), any data stored in browsers are encrypted using secure storage mechanisms. Authentication and authorization are managed through Okta, enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and secure token handling for session management and API access.
 
Security and compliance operations include continuous monitoring with AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, and Web Application Firewall (WAF). Routine vulnerability scans are conducted using Trivy, Prowler, and Nessus, and periodic third-party (3PAO) penetration testing is performed. The architecture and controls align with FedRAMP Moderate requirements, ensuring compliance with federal security standards. Once collected, assessment data are transferred to the NAEP Data Lake, where PII and student responses are maintained in logically separated instances. All encrypted backups are retained in AWS with access restricted under least-privilege principles, ensuring comprehensive protection of NAEP data before, during, and after assessment administration.

Furthermore, to protect collected data, NAEP staff will use the following precautions:
    • Assessment and questionnaire data files will not identify individual respondents.
    • No PII, either by schools or respondents, will be gathered or released by third parties. No permanent files of names or other direct identifiers of respondents will be maintained.
    • Student participation is voluntary.
    • NAEP data are perturbed. Data perturbation is a statistical data editing technique implemented to ensure privacy for student and school respondents to NAEP’s assessment questionnaires for assessments in which data are reported or attainable via restricted-use licensing arrangements with NCES. The process is coordinated in strict confidence with the IES Disclosure Review Board (DRB), with details of the process shared only with the DRB and a minimal number of contractor staff.

The following text appears on all student assessments, the AMS, and teacher and school questionnaires: 

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) Statement
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts the National Assessment of Educational Progress to evaluate federally supported education programs. All of the information you provide may only be used for the purposes of research, statistics, and evaluation under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (NAEP; 20 U.S.C. § 9543) and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law. Every NCES employee as well as every NCES agent, such as contractors and NAEP coordinators, has taken an oath and is subject to a jail term of up to 5 years, a fine of $250,000, or both if he or she willfully discloses ANY identifiable information about you in any unauthorized manner. Electronic submission of your information will be monitored for viruses, malware, and other threats by Federal employees and contractors in accordance with the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015.

NCES estimates the time required to complete this information collection to average [XX]6 minutes, including the time to review instructions and complete and review the information collection. This voluntary information collection was reviewed and approved by OMB (Control No. 1850-0928). If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate, suggestions for improving this collection, or any comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission, please write to: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building, 400 Maryland Ave., SW, 5th floor, Washington, DC 20202, or send an email to: [email protected].

OMB No. 1850-0928 APPROVAL EXPIRES XX/XX/XXXX
In addition, the following text appears on the log-in screen for the AMS and for NAEPq (i.e., the online system used for teacher and school administrator questionnaires). 
AMS
When you have finished your work or need to stop and return later to finish, please LOG OUT of the system to preserve the security of the information contained within the Assessment Management System.
NAEPq
When you have finished or if you need to stop before finishing, please LOG OUT of the survey system by clicking “Exit.”
The NAEP platform uses security features, such as session lock, automatic closing if other apps are opened, and session time-out, to protect content and maintain integrity of the platform and its data.
More specific information about how NAEP handles PII is provided in the table below.
Table NAEP PII Process
PII is created in the following ways  
    1. Public and non-public school samples are released to NAEP State Coordinators (public schools only), NAEP TUDA Coordinators (public schools only), and the DC contractor’s Gaining Cooperation Field Staff (non-public schools only) using the secure AMS. 

    2. State and TUDA Coordinators recruit public schools, and Gaining Cooperation Field Staff recruit private schools.

    3. Participating schools need to submit a current roster of students for the sampled grade for student sampling. 

    4. Rosters of students can be created by NAEP State Coordinators, NAEP TUDA Coordinators, or appropriate school staff. 

    5. Rosters are submitted through the secure AMS website. 

    6. Rosters must be in Excel format. 

    7. The following PII is contained in the roster files: state unique identifiers (optional), student names, month/year of birth, race/ethnicity, sex, zip codes, and status codes for SDs, ELs, and those with an economic disadvantage. 

    8. PII is stored using the contractor’s Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). 







PII is moved in the following ways 
    1. The NAEP Platform Development (NPD) contractor moves the student sampling encrypted results to the SFTP site for the SW contractor’s quality control/review. These names are used to print Student Login Cards. 

    2. Student Login Cards are only created for students taking DBAs. 

    3. Student PII data are available to the NAEP School Coordinators; the NSSC, DC, and SW contractors; and DC contractor Field Staff through the AMS. 

    4. NAEP School Coordinators can view and update PII for their own schools. 

    5. NAEP School Coordinators can print materials containing PII for their own schools. 

    6. NAEP School Coordinators are instructed to destroy all materials containing PII at the end of the assessment cycle. 

    7. DC contractor Field Staff can update PII for schools within their assignment. 

    8. DC contractor Field Staff can print materials containing PII for schools within their assignment. 

    9. DC contractor Field Staff store materials containing PII for schools within their assignment in their NAEP-provided storage bag. 

    10. At no point in time does any individual system have access to both the student’s name and student assessment and questionnaire responses. 


PII is destroyed in the following ways 

    1. After the assessment is completed, DC contractor Field Staff place materials containing PII in a secure envelope with instructions for destruction using a shredder or other secure method. 

    2. School Coordinators are responsible for destroying these materials once the assessment concludes.

    3. Contractors destroy PII after the data collection has concluded, effectively 10 months after the weights are delivered in June. Therefore, PII are destroyed by April the calendar year after which the assessment was conducted.

In addition, parents/guardians are notified of the assessment. Appendices D-10 to D-13 provide the parental/guardian notification letters. The letters are adapted for each grade/age and subject combination; however, information regarding confidentiality and the appropriate law reference will remain unchanged. The school principal or school coordinator can obtain these letters. Note: by law, parents/guardians of students selected to participate in NAEP must be notified in writing of their child’s selection prior to the administration of the assessment. As such, parents/guardians are required to receive notification of student participation, but NAEP does not require explicit parental consent. 
A.11. Sensitive Questions
NAEP emphasizes voluntary respondent participation. Insensitive or offensive items are prohibited by the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act, and the Governing Board reviews all items for bias and sensitivity. The nature of the questions is guided by the reporting requirements in the legislation, the Governing Board’s Policy on the Collection and Reporting of Background Data, and the expertise and guidance of the NAEP Standing Committees (see Appendix A). Throughout the item development process, NCES staff work with consultants, contractors, and internal reviewers to identify and eliminate potential bias in the items.
The NAEP student questionnaires include items that require students to provide responses about their family’s socioeconomic background, self-reported behaviors, and learning contexts, both in the school setting as well as more generally. In compliance with legislation, student questionnaires do not include items about family or personal beliefs (e.g., religious or political beliefs). The student questionnaires focus only on contextual factors that clearly relate to academic achievement.
Educators, psychologists, economists, and others have called for the collection of non-cognitive student information that can explain why some students do better in school than others. Similar questions have been included in other NCES-administered assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and other federal questionnaires, including the U.S. Census. The insights achieved by the use of these well-established survey questions will help educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders make better informed decisions about how best to help students develop the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.
All questions proposed for piloting have gone through multiple rounds of reviews, including but not limited to reviews by edit and fairness experts, NAEP subject-matter expert groups, and the Governing Board. Furthermore, NAEP does not report student responses at the individual or school level, but strictly in aggregate forms. To reduce the impact of any individual question on NAEP reporting, the program has shifted to a balanced reporting approach that includes multi-item indices, where possible, to maximize robustness and validity. In compliance with legislation and established practices through previous NAEP administrations, students may skip any question.
A.12. Estimation of Respondent Reporting Burden (2027)
The burden numbers for NAEP data collections fluctuate considerably, with the number of students sampled every other year being much larger than in the years in between. 

Exhibit 1 provides the burden information per respondent group, by grade, for the 2027 data collection. It is assumed that slightly over 80 percent of the sample will be in the School Device Model. Exhibit 2 summarizes the burden by respondent group. 

A description of the respondents or study is provided below, as supporting information for Exhibit 1:
All districts will ensure that the School Technology Survey (STS) is completed on behalf of their schools.
School Technology Survey Respondent—District Superintendent, District Assessment Coordinator, and School Administrators receive initial communication information that schools have been sampled for NAEP. They must ensure that the School Technology Survey is completed, the registration for the Assessment Management System is completed, and staff roles for the assessment are assigned. For 2027, the School Technology Survey will determine which administration model schools will be assigned for the assessment. Estimated burden for reading the initial communication and completing the School Technology Survey is 45 minutes (Appendix I). 

School Device Model
    • Students—Students in eighth grade will be assessed using 60 minutes of cognitive blocks in one subject followed by a non-cognitive block which requires up to a total of 15 minutes to complete. The core non-cognitive items are answered by students across subject areas and are related to demographic information. In addition, students answer subject-specific non-cognitive items. Based on timing data collected from cognitive interviews and previous assessments, eighth-grade students can respond to approximately six non-cognitive items per minute. Using this information, the non-cognitive blocks are assembled so that most students can complete all items in the allocated amount of time. Each cognitive and non-cognitive block is timed so that the burden listed in Exhibit 1 is the maximum burden time for each student. The administrators and/or test delivery system will move students to the next section once the maximum amount of time is reached. Additional student burden accounts for time to read directions, log on to the digital device, and view a tutorial. This additional burden is estimated at 15 minutes. The cognitive or assessment items are not included in the burden estimate because they are not subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act. Therefore, the total burden for students is 30 minutes. 
    • Teachers—The teachers of the eighth-grade students participating in the main NAEP are asked to complete questionnaires about their teaching background, education, training, and classroom organization. Average eighth-grade teacher burden is 20 minutes if only one subject is taught, and an additional 10 minutes for each additional subject taught in an operational year. For the 2027 science pilot administration, the teacher SQ burden is estimated to be 20 minutes.  
    • Principals/Administrators—The school administrators in the sampled schools are asked to complete a questionnaire. The core items are designed to measure school characteristics and policies that research has shown are highly correlated with student achievement. Subject-specific items concentrate on curriculum and instructional services issues. The burden for school administrators is determined in the same manner as burden for teachers (see above) and is estimated to average 20 minutes per principal/administrator, although burden may vary depending on the number of subject-specific sections included. The 20-minute burden estimate includes a supplemental charter school questionnaire designed to collect information on charter school policies and characteristics and is provided to administrators of charter schools who are sampled to participate in NAEP. The supplement covers organization and school governance, parental involvement, and curriculum and offerings. 
    • School Staff Preassessment Activities—Each school participating in NAEP has designated staff members to support the assessment: a School Coordinator, an Application Installer, and, potentially, a Technology Coordinator. Preassessment and assessment activities include functions such as finalizing student samples, verifying student demographics, reviewing accommodations, and planning logistics for the assessment. The AMS is used by School Coordinators to provide requested administration information securely online, including logistical information, updates of student and teacher information, and school logistics. Additionally, these individuals must find and prepare devices for the assessment, install the NAEP Assessment Application onto select devices, and attend an Assessment Planning Meeting (APM). More information about the Technology Coordinators’ and School Coordinators’ responsibilities is included in section B.2. Based on information collected from preassessment activities in previous years, it is estimated that it will take a total of 5.5 hours on average, for school personnel to complete these activities. The AMS data will be used to inform response patterns to make further refinements to the system and to minimize burden. 
    • Submission of Samples—Survey sample information is collected from schools in the form of lists of potential students who may participate in NAEP. This sample information can be gathered manually or electronically at the school, district, or state level. If done at the state level, some states require a data security agreement, which is customized based on the specific requests of the state and provides verbatim security and confidentiality information from section A.10. If done at the school or district level, some burden will be incurred by school personnel. It is estimated that it will take 2 hours, on average, for school personnel to complete the submission process. Based on recent experience, it is estimated that approximately 26 percent of the schools will complete the submission process (based on the data from 2022). 
    • School Staff Day of Assessment Activities—The School Coordinator will review any updates that have occurred since the Assessment Planning Meeting. These could be updates to student information, such as accommodations or new refusals, or dismissal protocols, which is estimated to take 5 minutes of time. A designated school or district staff member will also provide support on the day of the assessment to troubleshoot any issues with devices, provide a swap out device if necessary, and work through any network issues. Estimated burden for the assumed two individuals to perform all of these tasks is up to 120 minutes per individual, up to 240 minutes total. 
    • Additional School Staff—Schools who choose to assess all 50 sampled students at once in one or two locations are asked to designate an additional staff member to provide classroom management support. Based on the 2026 Operational Assessment, it is estimated that 77 percent of the schools will choose to assess all 50 students at one time. The burden for this individual would be 120 minutes, and this is captured in Exhibit 1.
    • Post-Assessment Activities—After administration, the School Coordinator will ensure the removal of the NAEP Assessment Application from student devices, provide feedback about the assessment process, and destroy any documents with student identifying information. The total estimated burden to perform these tasks is 60 minutes. 
    • SD and EL—SD and EL information is provided by school personnel concerning students identified as SD or EL. This information will be used by those personnel to determine the appropriate accommodations for students. The burden for school administrators is estimated at 15 minutes, on average, for each student identified as SD and/or EL. The estimated percent of SD/EL students is 23 percent at grade 8 (based on the NAEP 2024 sample).

NAEP Device Model
    • Students—Students in eighth grade will be assessed using 60 minutes of cognitive blocks in one subject followed by a non-cognitive block which requires up to a total of 15 minutes to complete. The core non-cognitive items are answered by students across subject areas and are related to demographic information. In addition, students answer subject-specific non-cognitive items. Based on timing data collected from cognitive interviews and previous assessments, eighth-grade students can respond to approximately six non-cognitive items per minute. Using this information, the non-cognitive blocks are assembled so that most students can complete all items in the allocated amount of time. Each cognitive and non-cognitive block is timed so that the burden listed above is the maximum burden time for each student. The administrators and/or test delivery system will move students to the next section once the maximum amount of time is reached. Additional student burden accounts for time to read directions, log on to the digital device, and view a tutorial. This additional burden is estimated at 15 minutes. The cognitive or assessment items are not included in the burden estimate because they are not subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act. Therefore, the total burden for students is 30 minutes. 
    • Teachers—The teachers of eighth-grade students participating in NAEP are asked to complete questionnaires about their teaching background, education, training, and classroom organization. Average eighth-grade teacher burden is 20 minutes if only one subject is taught, and an additional 10 minutes for each additional subject taught in an operational year. For the 2027 science pilot administration, the teacher SQ burden is estimated to be 20 minutes. 
    • Principals/Administrators—The school administrators in the sampled schools are asked to complete a questionnaire. The core items are designed to measure school characteristics and policies that research has shown are highly correlated with student achievement. Subject-specific items concentrate on curriculum and instructional services issues. The burden for school administrators is determined in the same manner as burden for teachers (see above) and is estimated to average 20 minutes per principal/administrator, although burden may vary depending on the number of subject-specific sections included. The 20-minute burden estimate includes a supplemental charter school questionnaire designed to collect information on charter school policies and characteristics and is provided to administrators of charter schools who are sampled to participate in NAEP. The supplement covers organization and school governance, parental involvement, and curriculum and offerings. 
    • School Staff Preassessment Activities—Each school participating in NAEP has a designated staff member to serve as its NAEP School Coordinator. Preassessment and assessment activities include functions such as finalizing student samples, verifying student demographics, reviewing accommodations, and planning logistics for the assessment. The AMS was developed so that school coordinators would provide requested administration information securely online, including logistical information, updates of student and teacher information, and school logistics. This individual will also attend an APM. More information about School Coordinator responsibilities is included in section B.2. Based on information collected from the use of the preassessment system in previous years, it is estimated that it will take 2 hours on average for school personnel to complete these activities. The AMS system data will be used to inform response patterns to make further refinements to the system and to minimize burden. 
    • Submission of Samples—Survey sample information is collected from schools in the form of lists of potential students who may participate in NAEP. This sample information can be gathered manually or electronically at the school, district, or state level. If done at the state level, some states require a data security agreement, which is customized based on the specific requests of the state and provides verbatim security and confidentiality information from section A.10. If done at the school or district level, some burden will be incurred by school personnel. It is estimated that it will take 2 hours, on average, for school personnel to complete the submission process. Based on recent experience, it is estimated that approximately 26 percent of the schools will complete the submission process (based on the data from 2022). 
    • School Staff Day of Assessment Activities—The School Coordinator will review any updates that have occurred since the APM. These could be updates to student information, such as accommodations or new refusals, or dismissal protocols. On the day of the assessment, the School Coordinator may also assist in classroom management. Estimated burden is 120 minutes total. 
    • Post-Assessment Activities—After administration, the School Coordinator will provide feedback about the assessment process, and will destroy any documents with student identifying information, for a total estimated burden of 20 minutes.
    • SD and EL—SD and EL information is provided by school personnel concerning students identified as SD or EL. This information will be used by those personnel to determine the appropriate accommodations for students. The burden for school administrators is estimated at 15 minutes, on average, for each student identified as SD and/or EL. The estimated percent of SD/EL students is 23 percent at grade 8 (based on the NAEP 2024 sample). 











EXHIBIT 1
Estimated Burden for NAEP 2027 Assessments 






 
 
8th Grade



Subjects
Science Pilot (School Device Model)
Science Pilot
(NAEP Device Model)

Total
School Technology Survey (STS)
# of Staff
270
51

321

Avg. Minutes per Response
45
45

N/A

Burden (in hours)
202
39

241
Students
 # of Students
10,080
1,920

12,000

Avg. Minutes per Response
30
30

N/A

Burden (in hours)
5,040
960

6,000
Teachers
# of Teachers 
540
102

642

Avg. Minutes per Response
20
20

N/A

Burden (in hours)
180
34

214
School Questionnaire 
(School Principal)
# of Schools
270
51

321

Avg. Minutes per Response 
20
20

N/A

Burden (in hours) 
90
17

107
Preassessment Activities
# of Staff
540
51

591

Avg. Minutes per Response 
165
120

N/A

Burden (in hours)
1,485
102

1,587

Sample Submission
(School Coordinator)
# of School Coord.
270
51

321

Burden (in hours)
140
27

167
Day of Assessment Activities
# of Staff
748
51

799

Avg. Minutes per Response
120
120

N/A

Burden (in hours)
1,496
102

1,598
Post-Assessment activities
# of Staff
270
51

321

Avg. Minutes per Response
60
20

80

Burden (in hours)
270
17

287
SD/EL (School Staff)
# of Schools
270
51

321

# of SD/EL Students
2,318
442

2,760

Avg. Minutes per Response
15
15

N/A

Burden (in hours)
580
111

691
Total Burden (in hours)
9,483
1,409

10,892
Note: Numbers may not sum to totals because of rounding.
EXHIBIT 2

Total Annual Estimated Burden Time Cost for NAEP 2027 Assessments
Data Collection Year
Number of Respondents
Number of Responses
Total Burden (in hours)
2027
14,344
18,076
10,892

The estimated respondent burden across all these activities translates into an estimated total burden time cost of 10,892 hours,7 broken out by respondent group in the table below.
Students
Teachers & School Staff
Principals
Total
Hours
Cost
Hours
Cost
Hours
Cost
Hours
Cost
6,000
$43,500 
4,785
$165,737 
107
$5,973
10,892
$215,210

A.13. Cost to Respondents
There are no direct costs to respondents.
A.14. Estimates of Cost to the Federal Government
The total cost to the federal government for the administration of the 2027 NAEP data collections (i.e., contract costs plus NCES salaries and expenses) is estimated to be $41,039,668. The table below represents the 2027 assessment cost estimates as of July 2026. 
NCES salaries and expenses
$700,150
Contract costs
$40,339,518
Scoring
$1,903,027

Item Development
 $5,220,684 

Sampling and Weighting
 $1,572,256

Data Collection (including materials distribution)
 $11,628,274 

Recruitment and State Support
 $1,153,244 

Design, Analysis, and Reporting
 $2,034,444 

Securing and Transferring DBA Assessment Data
 $794,321 

NAEP System Development
 $16,033,268 


A.15. Reasons for Changes in Burden and Budget (from last Clearance submittal)
This Amendment reflects slight updates to the NAEP 2027 Clearance package burden and budget. Minor shifts in schools expected to participate in School Device Model versus NAEP Device Model, as well as percentages of schools who will need an additional staff member to support the assessment, resulted in an increase in burden hours from the initial Clearance package (10,790 hours) compared to this Amendment (10,892 hours). 

In addition, the costs to the Federal Government have increased by $1,889,007 from the initial Clearance package. 

A.16. Time Schedule for Data Collection and Publications
The time schedule for the data collection for the 2027 assessment is shown below.
NAEP 2027 Science Pilot Administration
January 25–March 19, 2027

The national and state results are typically released to the public around October of the same year (i.e., about 6–7 months after the end of data collection). All other operational assessments are typically released 12–15 months after the end of data collection. In 2027, no data will be published for the public for the Science Pilot Administration. 
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 2027 Science Pilot, which will adhere to a similar pattern. 
    • February–Summer 2026: Select the school sample and notify schools. Schools and districts complete the School Technology Survey. If eligible and qualified for school devices, they can begin deploying the NAEP Assessment Application. 
    • October–November 2026: States, districts, or schools submit the list of students.
    • December 2026–January 2027: Select the student sample. Schools in the school device model will complete installation of the NAEP Assessment Application.
    • December 2026–January 2027: Schools prepare for the assessments in the AMS.
    • January–March 2027: Administer the assessments.
    • March–May 2027: Process the data and score constructed-response items.
    • March–September 2027: Analyze the data.

A.17. Approval for Not Displaying OMB Approval Expiration Date
No exception is requested.

A.18. Exceptions to Certification Statement
No exception is requested.