[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 5, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 41536]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-16907]



[[Page 41535]]

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Part III





Department of Education





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National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): Foreign Language--
Item Development; Office of Educational Research and Improvement; 
Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2000; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 129 / Wednesday, July 5, 2000 / 
Notices  

[[Page 41536]]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.902K]


National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): Foreign 
Language--Item Development; Office of Educational Research and 
Improvement; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal 
Year (FY) 2000

Purpose of Program

    The main purpose is to develop items for the national assessment of 
foreign language proficiency in 2003. The program will also develop a 
block design or designs and screening process, assist in field test and 
scoring activities, and write reports. It is planned that the 2003 NAEP 
will be conducted at the national level in foreign language at grade 
12. The foreign language to be assessed is Spanish. NAEP supports the 
National Education Goals by providing measures of progress toward 
student competency over challenging subject matter. For FY 2000, the 
competition for new awards focuses on projects designed to meet the 
priority we describe in the PRIORITY section of this application 
notice.

Eligible Applicants

    Public, private, for-profit, and non-profit institutions, agencies, 
and other qualified organizations or consortia of those institutions, 
agencies, and organizations.
    Applications Available: July 6, 2000.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: August 21, 2000.
    Estimated Available Funds: Up to $2.5 million.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 1.

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

    Project Period: 40 months.
    Applicable Regulations: The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 
82, 85, 86, 97, 98 and 99.

Supplementary Information: The framework for the assessment, upon which 
the assessment items will be based, is formulated by the National 
Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). The National Assessment of 
Educational Progress is authorized by section 411 of the National 
Education Statistics Act 1994, Title IV of the Improving America's 
Schools Act (20 U.S.C. 9010). Section 412 (20 U.S.C. 9011) of this law 
requires NAGB, among other responsibilities, to formulate the policy 
guidelines for the national assessment. Copies of these guidelines are 
available from the Department.
    This notice is limited to seeking applications for item development 
for the foreign language assessment to be conducted in 2003, and 
training of scorers for that assessment. This does not include data 
collection during field testing and actual operation of the 2003 
assessment. A separate grantee will field test the items developed 
under this grant. The grantee under this competition will provide field 
test information and revise the items for the operational assessment. 
This grantee will also assist with scoring the 2003 operational 
assessment.

Priority

    This competition focuses on projects designed to meet the priority 
which implements the policy set by the NAGB under section 412(e)(1)(A) 
of the National Education Statistics Act of 1994, Title IV of the 
Improving America's Schools Act (20 U.S.C. 9010, 9011). Under 34 CFR 
75.105(c)(2) and 20 U.S.C. 9010-9011, we consider only applications 
that meet the following priority.
    Absolute Priority--Development of the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress for 2003 for foreign language proficiency.
    The grantee must perform this activity in accordance with 
guidelines developed by NAGB.
    For Applications and Further Information Contact: Janis Brown, 
Ph.D., U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education 
Statistics, 1990 K Street, NW., Suite 8089, Washington, DC 20006. 
Telephone: (202) 502-7400. If you use a telecommunications device for 
the deaf (TDD), you may call the Federal Information Relay Service 
(FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the program contact person listed under For 
Applications and Further Information Contact.
    Individuals with disabilities also may obtain a copy of the 
application package in an alternative format by contacting that person. 
However, the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative 
format the standard forms included in the application package.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at either of the 
following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm
http://www.ed.gov/news.html

    To use the PDF you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 
available free at either of the previous sites. If you have questions 
about using the PDF, call the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), 
toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in the Washington, D.C., area at (202) 
512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.

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

    Dated: June 29, 2000.
C. Kent McGuire,
Assistant Secretary, Office of Educational, Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 00-16907 Filed 7-3-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-U