About the Trial Urban District Assessment in mathematics

Eleven urban districts participated in the 2007 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in mathematics at grades 4 and 8. See a table summarizing the demographic characteristics of each district at grade 4 and grade 8. Participating districts included the following:

The NAEP Trial Urban District Assessments are designed to explore the feasibility of using NAEP to measure performance of public school students at the district level on a common scale. The assessment was administered in both mathematics and reading in 2007. About 22,400 students in over 790 schools were sampled at grade 4, and about 17,500 students in over 560 schools were sampled at grade 8.

Only public school students participated in the 2007 TUDA assessments, so throughout this website scores are compared to public school averages for the nation and large central cities. Large central cities (cities with a population of 250,000 or more) provide a comparison that is more reflective of the demographic characteristics of these student populations.

The NAEP mathematics assessment presents a comprehensive view of what students in the United States know and can do in mathematics. In addition to district-level results, results are reported on a national and state level at grades 4 and 8.

The mathematics assessment was developed and reviewed by a committee of mathematics and measurement experts to capture the goals of the 2007 mathematics framework. The National Assessment Governing Board, through a comprehensive national process involving mathematics teachers, researchers, measurement experts, policymakers, and members of the general public, created the framework, which describes the goals of the assessment and the kinds of exercises it ought to feature. The Mathematics Development Committee was instrumental in the development of the assessment.

Learn more about procedures used as part of the 2007 mathematics assessment.

• Learn what the mathematics assessment measures.
• Read more about how the assessment was developed, including information about the process used to score constructed-response questions.
• Read about the NAEP mathematics scale on the NAEP website.
• Learn more about the sampling design.
• Read about how to interpret NAEP mathematics results.