NAEP Report Card: Grade 12 Mathematics

The schools and students participating in the NAEP grade 12 mathematics assessment were selected to be representative of all schools nationally. The results from the 2024 mathematics assessment at grade 12 are based on a representative sample of 19,300 twelfth-graders from 1,500 schools who took the assessment either on a Surface Pro tablet or Chromebook. Results are reported for the nation only and reflect the performance of students attending public schools, private schools, Bureau of Indian Education schools, and Department of Defense Schools.

The results from the assessed students are combined to provide accurate estimates of the overall performance of students in the nation. Results for the nation reflect the performance of students attending public and private schools. Download the summary data tables via the link at the bottom of the page to see the national sample sizes for the 2024 mathematics assessment.

Each school that participated in the assessment and each student assessed represents only a portion of the larger population of interest. The results are weighted to account for the disproportionate representation of some groups in the selected sample, including the oversampling of schools with high concentrations of students from certain racial/ethnic groups and the lower sampling rates of students who attend small schools. Read more about NAEP sampling and weighting in the NAEP Technical Documentation.

NAEP Inclusion

Assessing representative samples of students, including students with disabilities (SD) and English learners (EL), helps to ensure that NAEP results accurately reflect the educational performance of all students in the target population and are a meaningful measure of U.S. students' academic achievement over time.

To ensure that all selected students from the population can be assessed, many of the same accommodations that SD and EL students use on other tests are provided for those students participating in NAEP. Read more about accommodations available in NAEP. Accommodations were first made available for the mathematics assessment in 1996. The 1996 mathematics assessments at grades 4 and 8 used a split-sample design to make it possible to continue reporting trends in students' mathematics achievement and, at the same time, to examine how including students assessed with accommodations affect overall assessment results. Separate samples of students were assessed with each of the administration procedures (samples for whom accommodations were permitted and samples for whom they were not permitted). In the report, the first year with a split sample—1996—shows results for the sample with accommodations permitted and for the sample assessed without accommodations. For subsequent assessment years, only results from the accommodated sample are shown. Any comparisons to 1996 in the text are based only on the sample eligible for accommodations. In the NAEP mathematics digitally based assessments (DBA), some accommodations were provided by the test delivery system (e.g., extended time), while others were available outside of the test delivery system (e.g., breaks during the test). DBA also included a set of accessibility features, referred to as universal design elements, that were available to all students.

Even with the availability of accommodations, some students may still be excluded. Differences in student populations and in state/jurisdiction and district policies and practices for identifying and including SD and EL students should be considered when comparing variations in exclusion and accommodation rates. States/jurisdictions and districts also vary in their proportions of SD and EL students. Download the summary data tables via the link at the bottom of the page to see the percentages of SD and/or EL students identified, excluded, and assessed in mathematics in 2024.

In March 2010, the National Assessment Governing Board adopted a new policy outlining specific inclusion goals for NAEP samples. At the national, state, and district levels, the goal is to include 95 percent of all students selected for the NAEP samples and 85 percent of those in the NAEP sample who are identified as SD or EL. Read more about the inclusion policy and how the percentages of students are calculated.

Download the summary data tables via the links at the bottom of this page to see the inclusion rates in grade 12 mathematics for the nation in 2024.

School and Student Participation

National participation

To ensure unbiased samples, NAEP requires that participation rates for original school samples be 70 percent or higher to report national results separately for public and private schools. In instances where participation rates meet the 70 percent criteria but fall below 85 percent, a nonresponse bias analysis is conducted to determine whether the responding school sample is not representative of the population, thereby introducing the potential for nonresponse bias.

Before replacing originally sampled schools that declined to participate with substitute schools, the weighted national school participation rate for the 2024 grade 12 mathematics assessment was 87 percent for grade 12 (92 percent for public schools, 26 percent for private schools, and 48 percent for Catholic schools). In 2024, the school participation rates for private schools and Catholic schools at grade 12 did not meet the criteria so their results are not reportable.

Weighted student participation rate (after makeup sessions) for the 2024 mathematics assessment was 68 percent at grade 12 (68 percent for public school students, 67 percent for private school students, and 66 percent for Catholic school students).

Download the summary data tables via the link at the bottom of the page to see the participation rates in mathematics for the nation.