The Assessment of Thoughtful Literacy in NAEP: Why The States Aren't Measuring Up

This article talks about the two different exams that are given to study a students reading level, the ones given by the state exam and the NAEP test. This article states that the state tests do not measure up to the NAEP. Across the nation there are so many learners who do not read on their grade level, and in many cases this has not been identified or is identified too late. The article states that nation-wide we are having a problem with teachers not ensuring that thier students fully understand the text they are reading but simply that they are able to read the words. The reason why it is argured that state tests are not as good as the NAEP is becuase that they do not set the bar as high. State tests are not challenging for the students minds. So while the grades of all students across the board for the state test may be good the actual testing itself is not beneficial to the students. By simply just being able to read text and not having the ability to comprehend it is not the quality of good readers and is not what we are striving for for our students. As a teacher it is your responsibility to ensure that all of your students are comprehending and not simply doing just enough to get by. By taking the NAEP test it challenges the students more and will give you a better idea of where their literacy skills are at to make sure that they are the most succesful that they can be.