On Including Speaking and Listening in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Assessments

1973 NCTE Annual Business Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Background The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a program of the Education Commission of the States, is designed to evaluate educational achievement in basic subject matter areas at stipulated age levels of instruction.  Within the general areas of language arts, the present NAEP program stresses reading, written composition, and literature, with little stress on speaking and listening skills.  Although over the years NAEP staff members have made informal assurances that more attention will be paid to listening and speaking, not enough has been done.  At its meeting in Minneapolis in November, 1972, the NCTE Commission on the English Curriculum adopted a resolution supporting the inclusion of speaking and listening in NAEP.  Be it therefore Resolution Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English transmit a statement of its conviction to the Director of the National Assessment of Educational Progress that national assessment should include the evaluation of speaking and listening skills in a form consistent with their importance; and           that NCTE request that the NAEP begin its formulation of tests only after seeking NCTE's advice as well as that of the Speech Communication Association, the Modern Language Association, the American Dialect Society, and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages for guidance and direction in the formulation of adequate evaluation procedures on speaking and listening skills.