[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 241 (Friday, December 13, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 65930]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-31665]


      

[[Page 65929]]

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Part X





Department of Education





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The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Redesign 
Program; Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 1997; 
Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 241 / Friday, December 13, 1996 / 
Notices  

[[Page 65930]]



DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.902A]


The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Redesign 
Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 
(FY) 1997

    Purpose of Program: NAEP provides information on the educational 
achievement of school children. For FY 1997, the Secretary encourages 
applicants to propose ideas for its redesign that focus on innovative 
methods for conducting the state and national components of NAEP for 
the year 2000 and beyond.
    Eligible Applicants: Public, private, for-profit, and non-profit 
institutions, agencies, and other qualified organizations or consortia 
of such institutions, agencies, and organizations.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: February 6, 1997.
    Applications Available: December 20, 1996.
    Available Funds: Up to $750,000 can be made available in fiscal 
year 1997 for these projects.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $50,000 to $150,000.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: $125,000.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 6.

    Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this 
notice.

    Project Period: 3 months.
    Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) 34 CFR Parts 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 82, 
85, 86; (b) The regulations in 34 CFR Part 700 (Standards for the 
Conduct and Evaluation of Activities Carried out by the Office of 
Educational Research and Improvement (OERI)--Evaluation of Applications 
for Grants and Cooperative Agreements and Proposals for Contracts); and 
(c) The regulations in 34 CFR Part 98 (Students Rights in Research, 
Experimental Activities, and Testing).

Supplementary Information: The National Assessment of Educational 
Progress is authorized by Section 411 of the National Education 
Statistics Act of 1994, Title IV of the Improving America's Schools Act 
(20 U.S.C. 9010). Section 412 (20 U.S.C. sections 9011) provides for 
the establishment of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). 
The law requires NAGB, among other responsibilities, to formulate the 
policy guidelines for NAEP and select the assessment methodology used. 
Copies of these guidelines are available from the Department.
    NAGB policy guidelines require a redesign of the NAEP for the year 
2000. This grant announcement is soliciting applications for the 
development of innovative ideas to improve the NAEP design in any or 
all of the seven areas listed under the priorities section of this 
notice.
    Priorities: Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1) and 20 U.S.C. sections 9010-
9011, the Secretary is particularly interested in applications that 
meet one or more of the seven invitational priorities listed in this 
notice. However, under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1), an application that meets 
one or more of these invitational priorities does not receive 
competitive or absolute preference over other applications.
    Invitational Priorities. The Secretary encourages projects that 
will contribute to the redesign of NAEP by proposing new strategies for 
conducting the state and national components of NAEP for the year 2000 
and beyond. The Secretary is particularly interested in projects that 
focus on innovative methods in one or more of the following priority 
areas:
    Invitational Priority 1--Sampling schemes that minimize school 
sample size and maximize efficiency.
    Invitational Priority 2--Data collection procedures that minimize 
burden on students, teachers, and schools while maximizing the 
information available to the public on the performance and related 
contextual data of school children.
    Invitational Priority 3--Scoring procedures for open-ended and 
constructed response items that are cost-effective, utilizing the 
latest technologies while maintaining high scorer reliability.
    Invitational Priority 4--Psychometric procedures that maximize test 
reliability while minimizing analytic complexity and processing time.
    Invitational Priority 5--Reporting techniques that inform 
educators, parents and leaders to take actions to improve their schools 
using creative analytic procedures.
    Invitational Priority 6--Development of methods to improve the 
collection of contextual information (such as socioeconomic status and 
home and community educational emphasis) to explain the results of 
educational attainment for nations, regions, and jurisdictions.
    Invitational Priority 7--Development of innovative means to measure 
cognitive skills related to subject matter.
    Selection Criteria: The Secretary selects from the criteria in 34 
CFR 700.30(e) to evaluate applications for new grants under this 
competition. Under 34 CFR 700.30(a), the Secretary will announce in the 
application package the evaluation criteria selected for this 
competition and the maximum weight assigned to each criterion.
    For Applications or Information Contact: Steven Gorman, U.S. 
Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., Room 404G, 
Washington, D.C. 20208-5653. Telephone: (202) 219-1761, Internet: 
([email protected]). Individuals who use a telecommunications device 
for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service 
(FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, 
Monday through Friday.
    Information about the Department's funding opportunities, including 
copies of application notices for discretionary grant competitions, can 
be viewed on the Department's electronic bulletin board (ED Board), 
telephone (202) 260-9950; on the Internet Gopher Server (at gopher://
gcs.ed.gov); or on the World Wide Web (at http://gcs.ed.gov). However, 
the official application notice for a discretionary grant competition 
is the notice published in the Federal Register.

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 9010-9011.

    Dated: December 3, 1996.
Charles E. Hansen,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 96-31665 Filed 12-12-96; 8:45 am]
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