Senate Education Committee hears NAEP review, declines to hire both consultants and sends APA recommendation back to policy

Representative Beck presented an analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test results to the Senate Education Committee, saying he compared state test-cycle averages before and after several states adopted recommendations from a consultant referred to in the hearing as APA.

Beck told the committee the data cover 1998 through February 2019 and that his charts subtract the national average so the bars show deviation from the national trend. "This is the results of the National Assessment of Education Progress results," he said while describing the fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math comparisons. He told members the raw data are available for review.

Why it matters: the committee is deciding whether to authorize BLR (the bureau handling the contract) to hire a consultant to produce an adequacy study that could shape funding recommendations for K–12 schools. Lawmakers pressed whether the consultant’s recommendations reliably translate into improved student outcomes and whether the differences Beck showed were substantively meaningful…