Appendix C: 

Sample Description 

Of 

School Coordinator Responsibilities 

 
MyNAEP Guide for School Coordinators

The MyNAEP website provides 

participating schools and 

districts with a convenient way to 

prepare for the upcoming 

National Assessment of 

Educational Progress (NAEP).

• MyNAEP will serve as your 

primary resource and action 

center throughout the 

assessment process.

• Previously, schools prepared for 

NAEP by completing paperwork and 

holding a preassessment visit with 

NAEP representatives.

MyNAEP offers schools an electronic 

way to complete the same tasks at 

their own pace.

• The website’s menu is a virtual 

checklist of all activities that 

schools will need to complete 

throughout the school year, so 

it is important to check in 

frequently to make sure your 

school is on track with 

preparations.

• Visit the MyNAEP website to 

get started: 

https://www.mynaep.com.

Each school that will participate in NAEP 2014 has a designated staff member to 

serve as its NAEP school coordinator. You have been selected to serve as 

coordinator and liaison for all NAEP assessment activities in your school. Thank 

you in advance for helping to prepare for this important assessment!

In the fall, you will be responsible for the following:

Registering for and using the MyNAEP website. MyNAEP will provide you with all of 

the information your school needs to participate in NAEP, including information about 

what to expect at each stage. Multiple school staff may register to access the site, but 

only schools coordinators will have full access to all menus. Register at 

www.mynaep.com by entering the registration ID assigned by your NAEP State 

Coordinator. (For more detailed instructions on how to do this, refer to page 3 of this 

document.)

Completing and submitting school information. Go to the Provide School 

Information page on MyNAEP to enter and submit your school’s contact and 

characteristic information, including your school’s name, address, and the number of 

students enrolled in the selected grade. Providing up-to-date information about your 

school ensures that materials can be prepared for the assessment. 

Preparing and submitting a list of your school’s students in the selected grade 

level (if requested). 

NAEP requires a complete list of students in the selected grade so that a random 

sample of students can be selected to participate in the assessment and demographic 

information about these students can be collected. Visit the Submit Student List page 

on MyNAEP to determine if you will need to prepare and upload this list. Student 

names will always be kept confidential and individual student responses or scores on 

NAEP are never reported.

PLACEHOLDER FOR MYNAEP GRAPHIC
In December, the NAEP representative responsible 

for administering NAEP in your school will contact 

you and discuss how to complete these tasks listed 

under the Prepare for Assessment menu:

Updating student information and preparing for the 

assessment of students with disabilities and 

English language learners (SD/ELL). Visit the Update 

Student List page to identify any withdrawn and 

ineligible students that need to be removed from the 

original sample. You will also need to review 

demographic information and provide updates, in case 

any information is missing or inaccurate. To ensure that 

NAEP reflects the educational progress of all students, 

you will need to submit information on the Include 

Students page about how SD/ELL students will 

participate in the assessment and the accommodations 

they will receive. 

Informing parents/guardians of student 

participation. By law, parents/guardians of students 

selected to participate in NAEP must be notified in 

writing of their child’s selection prior to the 

administration of the assessment. An electronic copy of 

the Parent/Guardian Notification Letter is available on 

the Notify Parents page for downloading, printing, and 

distributing.

Other Prepare for Assessment menu tasks will 

become available in January:

Submitting a current roster of students (if 

requested). For NAEP to maintain statistical validity, all 

eligible students must have a chance to be selected. If 

requested, you will need to visit Submit Current 

Roster of Students and upload an Excel file of 

students currently enrolled in the selected grade. 

Managing the completion of questionnaires by 

school staff. You will be responsible for distributing 

and ensuring the completion of online questionnaires 

designed to help provide contextual information for the 

assessment results. These questionnaires may be 

accessed, distributed, and monitored for completion 

through the Manage Questionnaires page on 

MyNAEP.

Promoting the importance of NAEP with school 

staff and students. Teachers are essential for 

motivating students to do their best on NAEP. Students 

selected to take NAEP will represent hundreds of 

students across the state and the nation, so it is vital 

that they participate and do their best. Online 

resources, 5-minute videos, and strategies for 

promoting NAEP are all available on the Encourage 

Participation page.

Finalizing assessment arrangements. Assessment 

day details, including the location(s) and start time of 

the assessment, how students and teachers will be 

notified, and SD/ELL student accommodation logistics, 

will need to be entered via MyNAEP’s Finalize 

Assessment Arrangements page.

On the assessment date, you will meet your NAEP 

representative and their assessment team, and be 

responsible for:

Ensuring that students attend the session. Prior to 

the assessment start time, you will need to be available 

to ensure that students attend the sessions. 

Appointment cards can be created/printed from 

MyNAEP’s Support Assessment Activities page. You 

and/or teachers of the selected students are 

encouraged to remain in the room during the 

assessment. If attendance of sampled students is less 

than 90 percent, a makeup session will be necessary, 

and the NAEP representative will schedule another date 

to administer the assessment to the students who were 

absent.

Provide School 

Information

Submit Student 

List

Prepare for 

Assessment

Support 

Assessment 

Activities

Wrap Up

August/September 

October/November

December/January

Before the assessment dateJune 1 or last day of school
How to Register for and Access MyNAEP

Register for and access MyNAEP by following these simple steps:

1. Go to https://www.mynaep.com. On the right side of the screen, select Please register. 

2. Enter the MyNAEP registration ID included in the letter 

sent by your NAEP State or TUDA Coordinator and 

select Continue. If you cannot locate your registration 

ID, please contact your coordinator or the NAEP Help 

Desk at 800-283-6237 or naephelp@westat.com. 

Multiple district and school staff can use the registration 

ID to register for the website.

3. Complete the registration form and 

create a password to access MyNAEP (for 

detailed instructions, select Registration 

Help). MyNAEP is a secure website that 

contains confidential information, so all users 

will be prompted to update their password 

every 120 days. A username will be 

automatically generated and emailed to you. 

Links are available on the login page in case 

you ever forget your username or password. 
MyNAEP Resources

Although the website is designed for quick and easy use, MyNAEP offers a variety of support options. The Contact

menu in the website banner allows users to reach the NAEP Help Desk instantly by phone, email, or live chat. The 

Resources menu offers tutorials that demonstrate how to quickly enter information for each task and explain why 

NAEP collects information from every school. 

The NAEP Help Desk and State and TUDA Coordinators are available to help year–round. Your school’s NAEP 

representative will be available starting in early December. Your NAEP representative will be responsible for 

administering the assessment in your school and will also assist you with the tasks listed under the Prepare for 

Assessment menu. 

MyNAEP Activity Overview

Timeframe MyNAEP Menu Location Actions Steps to Complete and Helpful Resources

Now https://www.mynaep.com Register for MyNAEP to gain website access.

AugustSeptember 

2013

Provide School Information Ensure NAEP has the most up-to-date information about your school.

OctoberNovember

2013

Submit Student List* Prepare and upload an Excel list of all students in the selected grade, including 

demographic information. (If requested.)

December 

2013-January

2014

Prepare for Assessment [menu goes live in December]

• Update Student List Ensure NAEP has the most up-to-date student information for the selected grade.

• Include Students Submit information for sampled SD/ELL students, including classification and 

accommodations each receives for state assessments. 

• Notify Parents Inform parents/guardians of student participation. 

January 2014

• Submit Current Roster of 

Students*

Submit an up-to-date student roster to identify eligible students not included in the 

list that was submitted for sampling in the fall. (If requested)

• Manage Questionnaires Manage names, email addresses, and questionnaire completion statuses of 

teachers in the selected grade and NAEP assessment subject. 

• Encourage Participation Discuss strategies with your school principal for motivating students to participate 

in the assessment. 

• Finalize Assessment 

Arrangements

Submit additional information to ensure assessment day runs smoothly, such as 

the selected assessment location and start time of each session.

One week 

before the 

assessment,

assessment 

day

Support Assessment Activities Promote student and teacher participation in NAEP. 

June 1 or last 

day of school Wrap Up Shred all confidential hardcopy materials in the envelope provided in December by your NAEP representative.

Includes Frequently Asked 

Questions, tutorials, and a 

Glossary.

Contact information for State and 

TUDA Coordinators, the Help Desk, 

and your school’s NAEP 

representative.
Appendix D: 

Usability Review Recommendations on e-PAV 
Usability Review Comments

1st round of internal testing – July 3, 2013

This document provides usability design recommendations for the development of the NAEP website

based on an analysis of findings during the usability evaluations made between June 28 and July 2, 2013.  

Specific examples of usability issues are provided however, these recommendations apply across the

entire design program.  The data presented below reflects a heuristic review conducted by a usability

expert.

1. Provided Global and Contextual Help

Issue: There is no global help and few opportunities for contextual help.   

Example: There are a few places on the website where there is no directions on what to do if data is

missing or in error  (e.g. on the confirm SD/ELL screen, one student didn’t have a FNAME or MNAME but

no way to add them).  

Recommendation:  The addition of global and contextual help features would greatly serve the

infrequent and first time user of the NAEP website.  From a global help perspective, there could be a link

on every page with FAQ’s categorized by topic and section of the website.  From a contextual help

perspective, new users would benefit from seeing a small graphic symbol (signifying help) next to

difficult passages, column headers, etc. that when clicked on, would provide information on the task at

hand.

2. Design for Error Prevention

Issue: Eliminate designs which lead to error prone conditions and when that isn’t possible, prove

meaningful, actionable error messages.  

Example: There are several pages on the website where the buttons at the bottom of the page (e.g.

Back  Save Continue Exit) are very close together and as a result, could result in accidental activation of a

non‐desired button by the user.   

Recommendation: Consider spacing buttons no less than the width of the cursor (arrow).

3. Provide User Control and Freedom

Issue: Users should have the control to recover from unintended actions; better yet is a design which

precludes such events (as noted above in Error Prevention). With respect to ensuring user control and

freedom, consider the ramifications of using the Back button and its effect on data entered and page

sequencing.  

Example: Users are frustrated when they enter data, use the Back button to check on a previous screen

and then return to the data entry screen to find that the data they entered is gone.  Likewise, we

noticed on this website in an area were skip patterns where used, that hitting the back button and then

moving forward again brought up an incorrect screen (we assume because after using the Back button

when we returned to the original screen, the default path was not the path we originally chose).   
For example: on the Promote school encouragement page, on our first pass, we selected YES to

creating a Certificate and were presented with the certificate distribution option page.  We then

when back and selected NO but was again presented with the certificate distribution option

page.

Recommendation: Evaluate the effect of using the Back button on each page and either locking it out or

providing a warning message when its use could/would result in unintended consequences.

4. Provide a Match Between System and Real World

Issue: What users see and do on the website should look and operate as other things do to the user.

Example (1): On several screens, the data entry field populates from right to left which is unexpected.

https://testing.mynaep.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f#register.   

Recommendation (1): Consider populating the data from left to right.  This is how American read (from

left to right) and a common expectation for data entry.

Example (2): It is difficult to tell the difference between finish and exit buttons.  If existing the system

will result in loss data, popup a warning dialog box each time the user clicks on exit except when directly

after clicking the save button.  If the finish button saves the data prior to exiting the screen, consider

changing the button text to Save and Exit, which will differentiate it from just Exit.   

Recommendation (2): In general, ensure that the button names clearly describe the functionality.  

Usability testing with end users is the best way to make that determination.

5. Design for Recognition Rather than Recall  

Issue: High cognitive workload is a strain on users. To avoid this, website designs aspire to be “intuitive”

such that users instinctively know what to do by looking at the screen.  In other words, users recognize

what to do (e.g. seeing an 8‐sided, red icon means to stop) rather than having to mentally process

information to figure out (or recall) what to do (e.g. seeing a box with a paper half way in the box

requires thought and context to understand what it is referring to).   

Example: The SC does not have to complete her/his work in a specific order (e.g. the order displayed by

the vertical order of links).  The SC can start the process of gathering the information to put into the

parent notification and then have to log out of the system due to time, and log in and out several more

times to complete it.  However, upon returning to the website after a one week delay, the user might

start back up in the Update Student List and then when working down to notify parent (several days)

later, look at the purple (already visited) Notify Parent link and mistakenly assume she/he has already

completed that step, and the letters may never go out.  This is just one hypothetical example of how not

having a progress indicator could result in a negative outcome.

Recommendation: Following a limited review of the MyNAEP website, I recommend a progress status

system be engineered into the My NAEP website.

6. Build an Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

Issue: High cognitive workload can result in errors, injury and low satisfaction ratings.  Cognitive

workload can be reduced by eliminating irrelevant/competing data and minimizing data to essential

concise language.   
Example (1): On the screen which requests information on the last day of school, the calendar pops up

with years prior to the current school year.  These choices are irrelevant and compete with visual space

and unnecessarily consume cognitive bandwidth.   

Recommendation (1): Consider removing all irrelevant data (prior years) so that the amount of design

can be minimized.

Example (2): There are several forms with columns which are unnecessarily wide with respect to the

amount of data in each row.  Reduce the column widths such that the eyes don’t have to travel

unnecessarily across the page.  Also, there are data fields which are misaligned with their column

headers.   

Recommendation (2): Aligning field titles and data provides a more aesthetic design and requires less

cognitive processing.

7. Use Consistency and Standards in Design

Issue:  Users should get what they expect when clicking on a link, and designs which mean one thing on

one page should mean the same thing throughout the website, unless the user is notified otherwise.  

Regarding the former, when the users click on a hyperlink to new content, the page they are brought to

should have the same title as the hyperlink.   

Example:  When users click on the ID withdrawn of ineligible student’s hyperlink, the title of the page

they are taken to changes to “confirm withdrawn or ineligible students”.  Obviously, the act of

Identification and Confirmation can have two distinct meanings.    

Recommendation:  the page title the user is brought to should reflect the hyperlink that took them to it.