The cut to the Ministry of Education will still hit a very valuable national report card, even if it becomes a Siren Blair in student test scores.
The national assessment of Grade 12 Educational Progress (NAEP) has recently been cancelled, with the best officials in charge taking leave and advocates doubting the promise from the Ministry of Education that NAEP will not be affected by Elon Musk's reduction in government efficiency (DOGE).
“NAEP provides the only consistent cross-state picture of student learning. This data is essential to understand the effectiveness of education policies and ensure that taxpayer dollars are invested in strategies that lead to improved education and learning outcomes.”
NAEP is the most comprehensive of such US educational assessments, comparing scores between state and decades of data
Although the core NAEP ratings for 4th and 8th graders have not yet been affected, there have already been changes in other parts of the national test.
The 17-year-old NAEP exam, which occurs every four years, was cancelled in 2025.
“NAEP is a valuable resource for educators, parents and policymakers. Cancellation of long-term trend assessments at age 17 is not unprecedented and has been cancelled several times in the past,” said Maddie Biederman, deputy director of communications at the Ministry of Education. We will continue to support transparency regarding NAEP access and student data. ”
And the tests conducted show disastrous results.
Reading is further declined in both fourth and eighth graders this year's NAEP results. For the lowest levels of people, the scores were soaked at the lowest in decades.
In mathematics, the fourth graders improved slightly, but still behind the place before the pandemic, while the eighth graders saw no change.
In both subjects, the gap between the lowest and highest performing students is still growing.
“We know the importance of tools [NAEP] Eric Duncan, Director of P-12 Policy at ED Trust, said:
Peggy Kerr, appointed by former President Biden to become NAEP administrator decades later at the Department of Education, has taken administrative leave, one of many agency staff who could be on Doge's crosshairs, but the agency originally said NAEP was not affected by the roughly $1 billion cuts.
The NAEP results are highly anticipated each year as they avoid some of the criticisms stating student face evaluations.
Edtrust considers NAEP scores to be a state exam check.
“For example, state tests measure performance against state curriculum standards, which are more closely linked to students' learning in the classroom than to measure NAEPs of mathematics and reading skills,” the organization said. I said it in the evaluation.
Experts say that all student assessments need to be monitored and improved at all times, but it is not clear what is happening with the NAEP under the Trump administration.
“I don't think every change needs to be vast and big. I think it's a kind of structural element of having a national assessment that allows us to appreciate,” Duncan said.
Mark Schneider, former director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, who served under President Trump's first administration and served in the middle of Biden; He told the Education Outlet to 74 Reductions to NAEP could potentially respond to that growth.
“NAEP is going to get a haircut, I don't think there's any question about that,” Schneider said of the national exam, which costs more than $170 million. “The question is, 'How do you prioritize what it does in a tough fiscal environment?' ”
“I've been doing the Main NAEP since the 1990s. Why do you need a long-term trend test?” he added. “NAEP has grown, grown, grown, grown. From my perspective, it's too expensive.”
Other experts say it's just as important as keeping a solid exam.
“When it comes to education policy decisions, I'm interested in looking at the desire for evidence. I want to see ongoing investment in programs like NAEP. NAEP is an important tool for providing transparency, informing education policy decisions, and examining long-term trends in student outcomes,” says Chakravarty.
