The National Assessment Government Board made some very good news last week, albeit a decade or two late, when it voted to commence more frequent testing of civics and, especially, to make 12th grade results available (in civics, reading, and math) at the state level.
Let me underscore it: state-level NAEP results for 12th graders. Finally! Data at the end of high school on how much the young people of a state know and can do in key subjects.
Though NAEP has been testing 4th, 8th, and 12th graders in most subjects for decades, with rare exception (see below) the 12th grade results have been reported only for the nation as a whole, making it impossible for state leaders to know how their high school seniors are doing on these respected benchmark assessments when compared with the country and with other states.
In recent years, in fact, NAEP has sometime skipped 12th grade altogether—partly for budgetary reasons as Congress requires (ever since NCLB) that state-level results be provided for reading and math every two years in grades 4 and 8, which has sopped up much of the NAEP appropriation. Civics, for example, has not been tested at all at the 12th grade level since 2010.
Crazy, yes, considering that most kids’ deepest exposure to civics—if any—comes during high school, during which the majority of states (36 at last count, plus D.C.) require them to take at least a half-year course in the subject.
Twelfth grade obviously represents the end of K–12, the transition from compulsory state-provided education to the dizzying array of options that young people then pursue, often including college but often, too, directly into the workplace, the military, or (pathetically) their parents’ basements.
One should expect state leaders to be obsessed with how well their students are prepared for what follows—and many do seem interested, but NAEP has been no help.
For a very long time I’ve been pushing to change this. Back in 2018, I wrote that “The single best thing that could happen to American education in the next few years would be for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to begin regularly reporting state-by-state results at the 12th-grade level.”
It seemed obvious:
Even as they write “college and career readiness” rates into their ESSA plans, many states have no reliable way to determine how many of their high school seniors are reaching that point and, regardless of what they use for standards and tests, practically none will be able to make valid comparisons with other states.
Were NAEP to supply state-level 12th grade results, I argued, it would:
…give participating states a valid and reliable metric for how many of their students are truly college-ready at the end of high school. Because NAEP is based on a sample, it would discourage the kinds of test prep, credit recovery, grade changing, and rate faking that afflict graduation data—and that often afflict state assessments. (Because NAEP employs just a sample of students and schools, it also means less curricular distortion and pressure on teachers.) And it would enable state leaders to see precisely how their twelfth graders are doing when compared with other states and with the country as a whole.
This was not, in fact, a new idea. NCES had experimented with state-level 12th grade results in 2009 and again in 2013. It was optional for states, and just 11 volunteered, but those that did learned a ton about their education system and their students. Massachusetts, for example, learned that while its 12th graders overall scored higher than the nation as a whole—43 percent were “at or above proficient” in reading while the country was at 36 percent—huge gaps remained between its White and Asian students, on the one hand, and its Black and Hispanic youngsters on the other.
I don’t know why this experiment didn’t continue after 2013, whether it was budgetary, political, or simply the lack of demand from states. It’s not hard to think of reasons that some jurisdictions might pass on the opportunity. (“Too much testing.” “Nothing we can do about it after 12th grade.” “Results might be embarrassing.” “Kids won’t take it seriously in the spring of their senior years.”)
Pause on that last concern, which is plausible on its face. NAEP is a no-stakes tests for those taking it, so why not just “bubble in” one’s non-answers, especially if graduation is around the corner? Back before DOGE defenestrated the National Center for Education Statistics, the NAEP team there did some serious investigation into this concern and concluded that the 12th grade NAEP data are valid, cautiously reporting (in 2017) that:
…most 12th-grade students participate in and are engaged when taking NAEP assessments. Student response rate percentages are in the mid-90s, off-task and nonresponse rates are low, and most schools have found that simple techniques (such as a thank-you or certificate of participation) are enough to encourage students to participate.
This will be a continuing concern, of course, as will the relevance of 12th grade NAEP results to the growing number of kids emerging from CTE programs and headed in directions other than traditional college. Research sponsored by NAGB has shown clear links between NAEP scores and college readiness, but (to my knowledge) not much is known about NAEP in relation to workplace preparation. It stands to reason, however, that every American adult who seeks to earn a decent living should be reasonably proficient in reading and math—and it’s certainly true that good citizenship will benefit from some understanding of civics.
It took NAGB longer than it should have to get to this point, but the Board made the right decision last week and now we’ll see how many states really want these data. Unlike 4th and 8th grade reading and math, which all states must participate in if they want to receive Title I funding, the new state-level reports will (once again) be optional for states—though free for those that opt in. State leaders have until January to declare their intention to take part in the 2028 round of 12th grade reading and math assessment, as well as 8th grade civics. Then comes state-level 8th grade science in 2029. Unfortunately, the 12th grade civics option doesn’t arise until distant 2032.
The ed-reform community, if it’s on the ball, as well as business leaders, civil rights groups, and others, should press their state leaders to sign up ASAP. Congress ultimately holds the purse strings and will want to see evidence of appetite for these important data.
In the meantime, kudos to NAGB for creating the opportunity. They should have done it a decade ago—and Congress should have included 12th grade in the NCLB mandate a quarter century back—but, as I said, better late than never.
