Information About the 2005 Mathematics Assessment

The NAEP mathematics assessment presents a broad view of what America’s students know and can do in mathematics. The assessment was developed and reviewed by a committee of mathematics and measurement experts to capture the goals of the mathematics framework. The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), 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 should feature. The Mathematics Development Committee was instrumental in the development of the assessment.

Students in more than 17,600 schools participated in the 2005 mathematics assessment. The  assessment was administered from January to early April 2005 to approximately 172,000 students at grade 4; 162,000 students at grade 8; and 9,000 students at grade 12. National and state results are available for grades 4 and 8. In addition, results are available for the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in mathematics at grades 4 and 8. Ten urban school districts and the District of Columbia participated in the TUDA in mathematics. Results for grade 12 (at the national level only) will be reported in the spring of 2006.

The assessment consisted of both multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. Short constructed-response questions required students to provide answers to computation problems or to describe solutions in one or two sentences. Extended constructed-response questions required students to give longer responses when answering the questions.

Questions were based on the following five content areas: number properties and operations, measurement, geometry, data analysis and probability, and algebra. Read a description of each of the mathematics content areas on the NAEP website. Find out more about what the mathematics assessment measures.