Overview of Framework Chapters

The following text describes the content of the remaining four chapters of the 2014 NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy Framework.

Chapter Two: Areas of Technology and Engineering Literacy

This core chapter identifies the assessment targets for the 2014 assessment of technology and engineering literacy. The targets are grouped into the three major areas: Technology and Society, Design and Systems, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Each of the major areas is broken down into subareas. Each subarea has a listing of key principles and a chart identifying what students should know and be able to do at grades 4, 8, and 12. Each subarea has between 6 and 15 assessment targets.

Chapter Three: Practices and Contexts for Technology and Engineering Literacy

Chapter three has two major purposes. First, it articulates the kinds of thinking and reasoning that students are expected to demonstrate when responding to the assessment tasks and items. Three practices are presented: (1) understanding technological principles, (2) developing solutions and achieving goals, and (3) communicating and collaborating. Each practice is applied to the three major technology and engineering literacy areas in a chart. There are also tables that apply the practices to selected principles and to the subareas. Illustrative tasks and items suggest how the practices can be represented along with targets in each of the areas and subareas.

Next the chapter describes the contexts for the assessment—that is, the core school subjects and areas of technology, such as humanities, social sciences, medical imaging, publishing, or recycling, that will serve as backdrops for assessment questions. The choice and presentation of contexts are important because the framework cannot assume that students have prior knowledge of a specific topic or technology. If information about a specific type of technology is needed to respond to an item, this information must be provided to students in the item as contextual detail. Potential contexts are discussed within the three major areas: Technology and Society, Design and Systems, and Information and Communication Technology. Each of the three areas has a chart that provides examples of how different contexts can be used to formulate tasks and items in each of the three assessment areas.

Chapter Four: Overview of the Assessment Design

This chapter is an overview of the major components of the NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment. It discusses the types of tasks and items to which students will respond. These will be scenario-based items and discrete items. Examples illustrate how students might respond and what parts of their response would be assessed. Balance in four ways is an important requirement in the assessment: balance by major assessment areas and grades, balance by technological practices and grades, balance by assessment set types and grades, and balance by response types and grades. The chapter has charts containing percentages of testing time recommended for each of these features. The chapter concludes with suggestions for universal design and adaptations for students with disabilities and English language learners.

Chapter Five: Reporting Results of the NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment

The last chapter of the framework discusses the issues involved in reporting data from the Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment. Topics include NAEP sampling techniques, how NAEP results are reported, reporting scale scores and achievement levels, and reporting background variables. Appropriate and inappropriate uses of NAEP reporting are also discussed, especially in light of the varying definitions of technology and engineering literacy.