Jan. 16, 2013
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The Nation's Report Card: Vocabulary Results from the 2009 and 2011 NAEP Reading Assessments presents results for student performance on the systematic measure of vocabulary included in the 2009 and 2011 NAEP reading assessments. While previous NAEP assessments had included some vocabulary questions, the new framework for the 2009 assessment provided criteria for developing vocabulary questions as well as prescribing the number of questions to be included in each comprehension section of the assessment. This systematic assessment of vocabulary allows for NAEP to more fully assess the impact of vocabulary knowledge on students' comprehension and makes it possible to report on students' vocabulary performance. Vocabulary questions are designed to assess how well students are able to use words to gain meaning from the passages they read. NAEP vocabulary questions assess whether readers know a word well enough to use it to comprehend the sentence or paragraph in which the word occurs.
Vocabulary results from the 2009 reading assessment are based on nationally representative samples of 116,600 fourth-graders, 103,400 eighth-graders, and 44,500 twelfth-graders. Results from the 2011 assessment are based on samples of 213,100 students at grade 4 and 168,200 students at grade 8. The reading assessment was not administered at grade 12 in 2011.
Complete 2011 results for the nation; findings from the student, teacher, and school surveys; as well as additional resources and information are available on the NAEP Reading website.
NAEP is a product of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education. The National Assessment Governing Board sets policy for NAEP.
