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Student performance and skills on mathematics assessment questions

The NAEP mathematics assessment measures students' knowledge and skills in five broad content areas of mathematics (Number properties and operations; Measurement; Geometry; Data analysis, statistics, and probability; and Algebra) and their ability to apply their content area knowledge to problem-solving situations. The NAEP mathematics framework guides the content and development of the mathematics assessment at grades 4 and 8. As specified in the framework, questions are classified by mathematical subtopic which is used to determine the key concept or skill that should be measured within each content area. Read more about the NAEP mathematics assessment.

To better understand students’ mathematics knowledge and skills across the content areas, student performance on samples of publicly released questions from the 2024 mathematics assessment at grade 4 are presented below. Student performance is expressed as the percentage of receiving a full credit for each question in 2024 compared to performance on the same set of questions that were administered as part of the 2022 and 2019 assessments. Click on "show details" for each question to see the mathematics content area, subtopic, question type, and description of the mathematics skills assessed.

One way to understand the NAEP mathematics scale is by seeing the skills demonstrated by students performing at different points on the scale and within the score range for each NAEP achievement level. The descriptions below indicate mathematics knowledge and skills demonstrated by fourth-grade students on selected questions administered as part of the 2024 mathematics assessment. For example, fourth-grade students with a score of 262 (NAEP Proficient range) were likely to correctly answer a number properties and operations question that required them to “solve a multi-step story problem”.

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Figure National grade 4 NAEP mathematics item map in 2024 and percentage of fourth-grade students who received the full credit for the listed sample questions in 2024 and 2022
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NOTE: The position of a question on the scale represents the scale score attained by students who had a 65 percent probability of obtaining credit at a specific level of constructed-response questions or polytomously scored selected-response questions, a 74 percent probability of correctly answering a four-option single-selection multiple choice type of selected-response question, or a 72 percent probability of correctly answering a five-option single-selection multiple choice type of selected-response question in certain subjects. For dichotomously scored, non-single-selection multiple-choice type of selected-response questions, the position reflects the scale score for students with a 65 percent probability of obtaining credit, unless evidence indicates a high rate of guessing, in which case the probability is recalculated as for a single-selection multiple-choice question. Selected-response question includes question types such as single-selection multiple choice, matching, grid, zone, and in-line choice. There is no direct relationship between the position of a question on the scale and the percentage of students attaining credit at the associated level in any given assessment year. The percentage differences between the assessment years are based on unrounded numbers as opposed to the rounded numbers shown in the report.

View Student Skills by Jurisdiction

Explore the State and District Profile Tools to see students’ demonstrated mathematics knowledge and skills on the publicly released assessment questions for individual states/jurisdictions and participating TUDA districts.

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Additional NAEP Sample Question Resources

NAEP Questions Tool

See the NAEP Questions Tool to learn more about released mathematics questions from the 2024 assessment and previous assessment years. See examples of students’ answers to constructed-response questions, scorer comments, and the percentage of students who answered each question correctly.

Experience NAEP Assessment Questions

You can try test questions that were administered to students as part of the 2024 mathematics assessment. After completing the questions, you can see the correct answers, scoring rubrics, and student performance results.

NAEP Item Maps

One way to understand the NAEP mathematics scale is by seeing the types of questions that students performing at different points on the scale are likely to answer correctly. See the 2024 item map with a range of skills demonstrated on the mathematics scale and within the score range for each NAEP achievement level.