NOTHIN' BUT NAEP!

By Caitlin Emma | from Politico Morning Education | http://bit.ly/1PORO0Z

10/27/2015 10:00 AM EDT   ::  Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are expected Wednesday and word around town is - they're bad.

Education policy watchers are bracing themselves for the onslaught of political finger pointing, urging folks to pump the brakes before laying any blame on one particular policy or party. Chad Aldeman of Bellwether Education Partners is asking folks to look at the scores on a macro scale:

"Although NAEP scores barely budge year-to-year, over the long term, NAEP scores are way, way up. Remember that no matter what happens this week." He also cautions that changing demographics have masked how NAEP scores have improved: http://bit.ly/1PQ1d7I.

• - Urban Institute senior fellow Matthew Chingos writes in a new report that NAEP scores have increased more than one would expect based on demographic shifts from 2003 to 2013. But "recent gains in NAEP scores have been partially concealed by increased enrollments of lower-scoring demographic groups in all 50 states," he writes. Chingos writes that the Education Department and the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP, "should proactively encourage the responsible use of NAEP data, for example by releasing demographically adjusted NAEP data alongside the raw scores for each state." More: http://urbn.is/1S70yxN.
• - ICYMI: A new study suggests that NAEP should be more aligned to the Common Core to accurately assess what students are learning in the classroom. A mismatch between classroom instruction and what NAEP assesses could be one explanation for lower scores: http://politico.pro/1LRNiJ3.