National Trends and Student Skills

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Student performance and skills on reading assessment questions

The NAEP reading assessment measures students’ reading comprehension of literary and informational texts. Students read grade-appropriate texts and answer questions about them that require both literal and interpretive understanding as well as critical thinking skills. The NAEP reading framework guides the content and development of the reading assessment at grades 4, 8, and 12. The 2024 reading assessment at grades 4 and 8 used discrete question sets as well as scenario-based tasks (SBTs). The assessment comprised  selected-response  and constructed-response  questions. All reading assessment questions are classified by one of three NAEP reading cognitive targets. Read more about the NAEP reading assessment.

To illustrate students’ performance on the NAEP reading assessment, a set of publicly released questions from the 2024 assessments at grades 4 and 8 are presented below. The range of skills demonstrated by students on these released questions are shown at different points on the NAEP reading scale and within the score range for each NAEP reading achievement level. Also presented is the percentage of students receiving a full credit for each question in 2024 compared to the percentages on the same questions in the 2022 and 2019 assessments. Click on "show details" for each question to see the question type, cognitive target, and a description of the skills demonstrated by students who responded correctly.

Some fourth-grade students read and responded to a literary SBT that included a short poem by Shel Silverstein and a chapter from The Tale of Despereaux, a novel by Kate DiCamillo. The SBTs in the NAEP reading assessment begin with a specific purpose for reading and conclude with a question that reflects the stated purpose. The questions leading up to the final question are designed to help the students build the understandings that are important to the specific purpose and the final question. In this task, the specific purpose tells students they will answer questions that will help them think about how the message of the poem and the story relate to each other. The final question then asks students to explain how a story character reflects an idea from the poem using details from both texts. In 2024, the percentage of students who received the full credit across the sample questions ranged from 12 percent for a question asking students to select from highlighted text the section that supports an idea from the story to 71 percent for a selected-response question about the reason for a character’s action. 

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Figure National grade 4 NAEP reading 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 reading 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 reading 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 reading 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 reading 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 reading scale and within the score range for each NAEP achievement level.