The New England Common Assessment Program (universally abbreviated NECAP, and generally pronounced "knee cap") was a series of reading, writing, mathematics and science achievement tests, administered annually, which were developed in response to the Federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Starting in 2005, school students in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont participated in NECAP, and Maine joined the assessment program in 2009.
The NECAP tests measured students’ academic knowledge and skills relative to Grade Expectations which were created by teams of teachers representing the original three participating states.
The scores served a variety of purposes, including – NECAP tests were made up of multiple choice, short answer and constructed response questions.
Students in grades 4 and 8 work in pairs to conduct an actual, hands-on science experiment (11th graders use authentic data from existing research).