Fifty Franklin Elementary School students have been randomly selected to take part in a national math, reading and writing assessment on Feb. 28.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress conducts the digital-based assessment, dubbed the “Nation’s Report Card.”“It’s going to be interesting because we haven’t done a whole lot of assessments on iPads at this level,” said Principal Suzanne Howland. “We’ve been experimenting with it to get students more comfortable with the concept." The scores on this assessment don’t count against students. This is really a forum to collect data that will could used in educational policymaking in the future.”The Franklin fourth-graders selected will test in either the morning or afternoon on assessment day.Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of test booklets across the nation, results serve as a common metric for all states.The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes.“Our students who will be participating were randomly selected by NAEP in December,” said elementary teacher Patti Ebbert. “They have been very thorough as we had to give them a lot of information about the district right down to the floor plan of where the kids will be testing. The only input we got was to choose which students would be testing in the morning and the afternoon.”Students will also be asked survey questions such as how many books they have at home and what technology they use outside of school.