Advances and Missed Opportunities in the Development of the 2026 NAEP Reading Framework

Abstract

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading aims to measure reading comprehension for students in the United States and to monitor progress in our education system. NAEP Reading is developed based on an assessmentframework document that is periodically revised to reflect the latest understandings about reading comprehension and its assessment. A key goal of the VisioningPanel (VP) and the Development Panel (DP) charged with updating the NAEPReading Assessment Framework for 2026 was to lay the foundation for an assessment that made progress toward greater fairness, equity, and validity. In this essay,we discuss how the Framework development process unfolded and its results. Wedocument the unusual ways the National Assessment Governing Board (“theBoard”) shaped the development process. We provide evidence that a smallgroup of Board members aimed to preserve the status quo in reading assessmentby downplaying reliance on expertise and authoritative sources of research onreading, learning, and assessment and by removing attention to equity in NAEPReading. We also discuss both successful (i.e., approved by the Board) and unsuccessful (i.e., rejected by the Board) recommendations for changes to the 2026Framework that initially were proposed by the DP. We end by considering how,despite the efforts of the small group of Board members, we as a literacy fieldcan improve the nature and impact of our large-scale reading assessments, andNAEP in particular.