National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) - Civics

NAEP Civics measures civic knowledge and skills related to the responsibilities of citizenship. It is congressionally mandated and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Currently, NAEP Civics is administered only to Grade 8 students. In the past, the assessment was also administered to Grade 4 and Grade 12 students.

Content

Sub-Category
Domains
Structure and Function of Government,
Foundations of the Political System,
Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens
Grades
8th Grade
Languages
English
Respondent
Student

Administration Information

Length
90-240 minutes
Administration
Computer
Timed
No

Access and Use

Open Access
No
Use in Research

Campbell, D. E., & Niemi, R. G. (2016). Testing civics: State-level civic education requirements and political knowledge. American Political Science Review110(3), 495-511. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055416000368

Savage, C. (2019). Academic majors of social studies teachers and student achievement in the U.S. Teaching and Teacher Education, 84, 66-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.04.020

Torney-Purta, J., & Amadeo, J. (2023). Considerations for use of civics assessment instruments. EdInstruments Brief, Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Brown University. https://edinstruments.org/civics.

Psychometrics

Scoring
Computer scoring
Referencing
Criterion-referenced
National Comparison
Yes
Item Type
Multiple choice
Open response

Psychometric Considerations

Psychometrics is the science of psychological assessment. A primary goal of EdInstruments is to provide information on crucial psychometric topics including Validity and Reliability – essential concepts of evaluation, which indicate how well an instrument measures a construct - as well as additional properties that are worthy of consideration when selecting an instrument of measurement.

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