The Nation's Report Card provides important data for librarians to use in planning early literacy programs and other services for young children and their families. 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in subjects such as mathematics, reading, science, and writing. NAEP assessments are administered uniformly across the nation every 2 years. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time. The results of the NAEP student assessments for 2017 were released in May 2018 in The Nation's Report Card. This report can be used to assess student progress, compare progress across states, and develop ways to improve education.

Visit Ohio's State Profile on the NAEP website to explore Ohio student achievement, trends over time, and how Ohio compares to the nation. Overall, student scores in Ohio were slightly higher than national averages across grades and subjects. Ohio scores did not change greatly from the 2015 assessment to the 2017 assessment. 39% of Ohio 4th graders performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level in 2017. This percentage was not significantly different from that in 2015 (38%). 71% of Ohio 4th graders performed at or above the NAEP Basic level in 2017; also not significantly different from that in 2015 (72%).

NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).​