According to the National Center for Education Statistics website, “The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in various subject areas. It most frequently assesses mathematics and reading. Other subjects, such as writing, science, U.S. history, civics, geography, economics and the arts are assessed periodically. The results are released as The Nation’s Report Card.”
Recently the 8th grade class at Stone Ridge Christian School participated in tests covering reading and math. Each student took one test. The tests were proctored by Roy Hamlin, area coordinator for National Assessment Education Program. Hamlin is a 15-year veteran of proctoring tests for NAEP.
Stone Ridge was randomly selected by computer from all the private schools in Minnesota. In the United States, 25 percent of schools are private schools. The results from the tests our students took will be used as representative of all private schools in the state. NAEP is integral to developing the “National Report Card” for all schools, which is then sent to Congress in October. The information on how schools are doing is used to determine how much funding will be available for private schools in the future.
Individual scores are not released, so there is no way for us to know how our students did individually. The testing has been done with paper and pencil in the past; however, this year NAEP provided laptop computers for the first time. Hamlin was impressed with the students’ ability to finish their testing in 70 minutes. The normal time necessary for finishing the test is 90 minutes.
Rudy Carlson, Stone Ridge’s head teacher, commented that he felt privileged to be asked to be part of such an important study. He also mentioned to the NAEP coordinator that he suspected by testing our students at Stone Ridge, it would raise all the results Nationwide because of how smart our kids are.
If you’re interested in reading more about the “National Report Card” and its statistics, go to nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard for previous years’ results.
—Collene Rognlie-Klik is the volunteer communication director for Stone Ridge Christian School.
