A Lexicon of Learning

What Educators Mean When They Say...

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N

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

NAEP (pronounced "nape"), is also known as The Nation's Report Card. It is a federally funded program (currently contracted to Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.) that provides information about the achievement of students nationally and state-by-state. NAEP tests a representative sample of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 each year and reports the results to the public.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)

An independent, nonprofit organization that awards national certification to teachers who successfully complete a set of rigorous assessments. Teachers voluntarily apply for national certification, which complements, but does not replace, state licensing. State licensing systems specify minimum requirements, including entry-level standards for novice teachers. National Board certification establishes advanced standards for experienced teachers. A majority of members of the 63-member board are classroom teachers.

Created in 1987 as recommended in a Carnegie Forum report called A Nation Prepared, NBPTS has developed standards that describe accomplished teaching in numerous subjects and at various levels, as well as multipart performance-based assessments designed to measure the standards. There are currently about 10,000 National Board certified teachers in 50 states and the District of Columbia.

National Education Association (NEA)

One of the two large teacher unions (the other is the American Federation of Teachers). NEA describes itself as America's oldest and largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Founded in 1857 in Philadelphia and now headquartered in Washington, D.C., NEA has more than 2.5 million members who work at every level of education, from preschool to university graduate programs. It also has affiliates in every state and in more than 13,000 local communities across the United States.

national goals

The first national goals for education were established initially at a meeting of state governors convened in 1989 by President George Bush and, with minor changes, incorporated into legislation passed in 1994 under President Clinton. The eight goals, none of which were (or could reasonably have been) accomplished, were that by the year 2000 

1. All children in the United States will start school ready to learn. 
2. The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent. 
3. All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competence in challenging subject matter, including English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, the arts, history, and geography. Every school in the United States will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in the modern economy. 
4. Students will be the first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. 
5. Every adult citizen will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. 
6. Every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol, and all will offer a disciplined learning environment conducive to learning. 
7. The teaching force will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all students for the next century. 
8. Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parent involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children.

NCTM standards

A description of what students should be expected to learn in mathematics classes published originally in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The mathematics standards became the model for other subject matter organizations that developed standards in the early 1990s. 

Those standards were not adopted by the federal government, so instead they are used primarily for reference rather than for official purposes. For example, many of standards adopted by most states in the mid and later 1990s were at least partly derived from the national standards.

NEA

See National Education Association.

neighborhood schools

The idea that children should be able to attend the public schools nearest their homes. School district boundaries are usually drawn to provide for this, although choice plans let parents decide which schools their children will attend.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1956 outlawing segregated schools, many public school systems, especially those in large northern cities, adopted or were ordered by courts to implement desegregation plans under which some children were bused to schools away from their homes. Opponents of such plans called for neighborhood schools instead.

New American Schools

A nonprofit, nonpartisan, business-led organization promoting comprehensive school reform in more than 3,500 schools across the United States. Launched in 1991, New American Schools is supported by corporations, foundations, and the U.S. Department of Education. 

It sponsors design teams who help schools improve student performance by implementing one of several (currently 10) different research-based designs for organizing an entire school. Although the designs differ in their approach to teaching and learning, they all emphasize challenging academic standards, strong professional development programs, meaningful parental and community involvement, and a supportive school environment.

New Standards

A joint project begun in 1990 of the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1996, New Standards released a comprehensive set of internationally benchmarked performance standards in mathematics, English language arts, science, and applied learning at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. 

These were the first integrated set of performance standards in these subject areas developed for national use in the United States. In addition to the standards, the project has also developed a performance assessment system—available in published form as the New Standards Reference Examinations—tied to the standards. Several thousand schools in about 20 states were involved in creation of the standards and assessments.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act

See "Elementary and Secondary Education Act."

nongraded school

A way of organizing schools that uses individual student progress to determine when students move from one level of schooling to another. In a nongraded (also called ungraded) primary school, some students take longer than others to move into 4th grade from a primary-level multi-age classroom (kindergarten through 3rd grade). Students are not classified by grade levels and not evaluated using traditional letter grades (A, B, C, D, F), but their achievement is carefully monitored.

As part of a major school reform in Kentucky, all schools in that state are expected to have a nongraded primary school. The idea is that children ages 5–8 can progress at their own pace without fear of failure, and that they learn best through well-planned activities appropriate to each child's level of development.

norm-referenced tests

Standardized tests designed to measure how a student's performance compares with that of other students. Most standardized achievement tests are norm-referenced, meaning that a student's performance is compared to the performances of students in a norming group. Scores on norm-referenced tests are often reported in terms of grade-level equivalencies or percentiles derived from the scores of the original students.

This document contains some material that was previously published in The Language of Learning: A Guide to Educational Terms, edited by J. Lynn McBrien and Ronald Brandt, 1997, ASCD.