The Operating Mechanism Of The National Assessment Of Educational Progress (NAEP) In The United States

With the increasingly fierce international competition, governments are beginning to attach great importance to the quality of basic education, through scientific assessment system to monitor the quality of basic education to better service for the educational policy-making has become a major trend in the reform and development of education in today's world. The connotation of the quality of education is complex, of which students'academic achievement is a key indicator. From international experience, the establishment of national-level monitoring and assessment system of students'academic achievement has become a government action in many developed countries. As for China, the state and governments at all levels have also realized that the monitoring of the quality of basic education is not only the need for promoting educational equity, improving the quality of education, but also the need and logo of content development of education. In 2002,China promulgated the"National long-term educational reform and development program", in which the monitoring and assessment of the quality of basic education has been raised to unprecedented heights, it is moving from the periphery to the centre of the educational stage.Bearing on the above, to construct the monitoring and assessment system of students'academic achievement that is suitable for our education system and to ensure its effective operation has become a question to be solved. In this aspect, the international community provides us with many excellent cases in which the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP)can be said to create a precedent for assessing national academic achievement. NAEP is the only continuing and nationally representative measure of students'academic achievement in America, and it has become an important indicator to measure and monitor the educational development in America. In view of this, this study will examine the operating mechanism of NAEP in order to provide reference for constructing the monitoring and assessment system of students'academic achievement.Operating mechanism is the constraint relations and functions in the body of a certain organic in which its subsystems interrelated. The operating mechanism of NAEP is achieved from the following three aspects:The first is the platform of operation——organizational system. Organizations are the foundation of any management activities upon which to base. This study will focus on the centre of the organizational systems——the policy-making body——The National Assessment Governing Board(NAGB),in addition, analysis of the institutions that are directly related to the operation of NAEP will also be discussed, including the Ministry of Education and its affiliate——the National Centre for Educational Statistics(NCES),and professional organizations which are responsible for implementing specific services. From the affiliations and responsibilities of the organizations, we can see the unique approaches of its management——seeking to balance between"authoritarian"and"decentralization", as to ensure its authority and credibility without losing its professionalism.Followed by is the main part of operation——assessment system, including three subsystems, that is , proposition system, implementation system and reporting system, mainly related to the concepts, contents, models and procedures of the assessment. The concepts of the assessment play a key role in guiding an assessment. The concepts of NAEP embody the goals in the new round of the reform of basic education in U.S.——high academic standards and educational equity, and therefore the study will take"standard"and"equity"as the entry points, and analyze how NAEP achieves its goals through relevant policies and practices while servicing its concepts. On this basis, we can draw some lessons.Again, the operation of any system is not in a vacuum, certain foundations are needed. The securities of the operation——support system, including theoretical, policy and organizational supports will be discussed. Among them, theoretical supports refer to the knowledge upon which to base, policy supports include related legal and policy guidance, and organizational supports involve institutional, financial, and personnel aspects and so on. Just under the guidance of the assessment concepts, through the organizational system, assessment system and the support system, NAEP can operate coordinately and harmoniously.However, the only aspect of institutional level is not enough, because any institutions are the reflections of their cultural and ideological level, so NAEP must have its specific foundation and environment. To understand the internal operating mechanism of NAEP, it is necessary to explore into its background and development process. As Sadler said:"The things outside what is more important than school."So this study will first analysis the macro-political, economic and social background of 1960s in America and divide the development process into four stages, including starting ( 1963-1969 ), exploring ( 1969-1983 ), reforming ( 1983-1988 ) and transforming(1988-).Stones from other hills may serve to polish jade. Although historical and realistic backgrounds are different, we can also learn from NAEP under the common international goals in the pursuit of educational equity and quality. Therefore, the final analysis of this study will be based on the comparison of the different educational backgrounds and institutions between China and America, and try to put forward several questions that are worthy of further reflection.