[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 139 (Wednesday, July 20, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43286-43287]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-18183]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


National Assessment Governing Board; Meeting

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Education, National Assessment Governing 
Board.

ACTION: Notice of open meeting and partially closed sessions.

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SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the schedule and proposed agenda of a 
forthcoming meeting of the National Assessment Governing Board (Board) 
and also describes the functions of the Board. Notice of this meeting 
is required under Section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee 
Act. This notice is intended to notify members of the general public of 
their opportunity to attend. Individuals who will need special 
accommodations in order to attend the meeting (e.g.: interpreting 
services, assistive listening devices, materials in alternative format) 
should notify Munira Mwalimu at 202-357-6938 or at 
[email protected] no later than July 22, 2011. We will attempt to 
meet requests after this date, but cannot guarantee availability of the 
requested accommodation. The meeting site is accessible to individuals 
with disabilities.
    Dates: August 4-6, 2011.
    Times:
    August 4: Committee Meetings:
    Ad Hoc Committee: Open Session: 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
    Assessment Development Committee: Closed Session: 11:30 a.m.-4:15 
p.m.
    Executive Committee: Open Session: 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.; Closed 
Session: 5:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
    August 5:
    Full Board: Open Session: 8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m.; Closed Session: 
12:45 p.m.-1:45 p.m.; Open Session: 1:45 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
    Committee Meetings:
    Assessment Development Committee: Closed Session: 10:15 a.m.-12:30 
p.m.
    Committee on Standards, Design and Methodology: Open Session: 10:15 
a.m.-12:00 p.m.
    Closed Session: 12:00 p.m.-12:30 p.m.
    Reporting and Dissemination Committee: Open Session: 10:15 a.m.-
12:30 p.m.
    August 6:
    Nominations Committee: Closed Session: 7:30 a.m.-8:15 a.m.
    Full Board: Open Session: 8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
    Location: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd Street, NW., 
Washington, DC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Munira Mwalimu, Operations Officer, 
National Assessment Governing Board, 800 North Capitol Street, NW., 
Suite 825, Washington, DC 20002-4233, Telephone: (202) 357-6938.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The National Assessment Governing Board 
(Board) is established under section 412 of the National Education 
Statistics Act of 1994, as amended.
    The Board is established to formulate policy guidelines for the 
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The Board's 
responsibilities include the following: selecting subject areas to be 
assessed, developing assessment frameworks and specifications, 
developing appropriate student achievement levels for each grade and 
subject tested, developing standards and procedures for interstate and 
national comparisons, developing guidelines for reporting and 
disseminating results, and releasing initial NAEP results to the 
public.
    On August 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., the Ad Hoc Committee on 
Parent Engagement will meet in open session. From 11:30 a.m. to 4:15 
p.m. the Assessment Development Committee will meet in closed session 
to review secure test items for the 2012 Economics assessment at grade 
12 and the 2013 Pilot Writing computer-based assessment at grade 4. The 
Assessment Development Committee will also review secure task outlines 
for the 2013 Pilot of the Technology and Engineering Literacy 
assessment at grade 8. The Board will be provided with specific test 
materials/questions for review that cannot be discussed/disclosed in an 
open meeting. Premature disclosure of these secure test items and 
materials would significantly impede implementation of the NAEP 
assessments, and is therefore protected by exemption 9(B) of section 
552b(c) of Title 5 of the United States Code.
    On August 4, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., the Executive Committee 
will meet in open session and thereafter in closed session from 5:30 
p.m. to 6:00 p.m. During the closed session, the Committee will receive 
a briefing from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on 
options for NAEP contracts covering assessment years beyond 2011 and 
address budget implications for the NAEP assessment schedule. The 
discussion of contract options and costs will address the 
congressionally mandated goals and Board policies on NAEP assessments. 
This part of the meeting must be conducted in closed session because 
public discussion of this information would disclose independent 
government cost estimates and contracting options, adversely impacting 
the confidentiality of the contracting process. Public disclosure of 
information discussed would significantly impede implementation of the 
NAEP contracts, and is therefore protected by exemption 9(B) of section 
552b(c) of Title 5 of the United States Code.
    On August 5, the full Board will meet in open session from 8:30 
a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The Board will review and approve the meeting agenda 
and meeting minutes from the May 2011 Board meeting, followed by the 
Chairman's remarks. The Executive Director of the Governing Board will 
then provide a report to the Board, followed by updates from the 
Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and 
the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The Board 
will then discuss ways of improving student achievement and closing 
achievement gaps. Following these sessions, the Board will recess for 
Committee meetings from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
    The Governing Board's standing committees, the Assessment 
Development Committee, and the Reporting and Dissemination Committee 
and the Committee on Standards, Design and Methodology will meet on 
August 5 from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Reporting and Dissemination 
Committee will meet in open session from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
    The Assessment Development Committee (ADC) will meet in closed 
session from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. During the closed meeting the ADC 
will complete their review of secure NAEP test items for the 2012 
Economics assessment at grade 12 and the 2013 Pilot Writing computer-
based assessment at grade 4 which the Committee began to review on 
Thursday, August 4 in closed session. In addition, the ADC will receive 
a closed session briefing on embargoed data from cognitive lab studies 
of 4th grade students in preparation for the 2012 computer-based 
Writing Pilot assessment. Following that writing briefing, the ADC will 
receive an update

[[Page 43287]]

on embargoed data from cognitive lab studies of 8th graders on the 
computer-based Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) assessment, in 
preparation for the 2013 TEL Pilot. The Board will be provided with 
specific test materials/questions for review that cannot be discussed/
disclosed in an open meeting. Premature disclosure of these secure test 
items and materials would significantly impede implementation of the 
NAEP assessments, and is therefore protected by exemption 9(B) of 
section 552b(c) of Title 5 United States Code.
    The Committee on Standards, Design and Methodology will meet in 
open session from 10:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and in closed session from 
12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. During the closed session, the Committee will 
receive a briefing on secure data collected from the NAEP writing 
assessment regarding student uses of computer based options for the 
assessment and student responses collected as part of the assessment. 
The Board will be provided with specific assessment data for review 
that cannot be discussed/disclosed in an open meeting. Premature 
disclosure of these secure test results would significantly impede 
implementation of the NAEP assessments, and is therefore protected by 
exemption 9(B) of section 552b(c) of Title 5 United States Code.
    On August 5, from 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. the full Board will meet 
in closed session to receive a briefing from NCES on the 2009 NAEP 
State Mapping Study. The Board will be provided with embargoed data and 
results that cannot be discussed in an open meeting prior to their 
official release by the National Center for Education Statistics on a 
date to be determined. Premature disclosure of these results would 
significantly impede implementation of the NAEP assessment program, and 
is therefore protected by exemption 9(B) of section 552b(c) of Title 5 
United States Code.
    From 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in open sessions, the Board will 
receive updates from the Common Core State Assessment Consortia. 
Following this session, from 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., the Board will 
receive an overview of recent NAEP Report Card releases and discuss 
policy implications. The August 5, 2011 session of the Board meeting is 
scheduled to conclude at 4:30 p.m.
    On August 6, 2011, the Nominations Committee will meet in closed 
session from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. to receive an update on the status 
of finalists for Board terms beginning on October 1, 2011. Following 
the update, the Committee will discuss nominations for the 2011-2012 
cycle. These discussions pertain solely to internal personnel rules and 
practices of an agency and will disclose information of a personal 
nature where disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of 
personal privacy. As such, the discussions are protected by exemptions 
2 and 6 of section 552b(c) of Title 5 of the United States Code.
    On August 6, the full Board will meet in open session from 8:30 
a.m. to 10:30 a.m. From 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., the Board will receive 
an Inside NAEP briefing on maintaining NAEP Trends. The Board is 
scheduled to receive Committee reports and take action on Committee 
recommendations. The August 6, 2011 session of the Board meeting is 
scheduled to adjourn at 10:00 a.m.
    Detailed minutes of the meeting, including summaries of the 
activities of the closed sessions and related matters that are 
informative to the public and consistent with the policy of section 5 
U.S.C. 552b(c) will be available to the public within 14 days of the 
meeting. Records are kept of all Board proceedings and are available 
for public inspection at the U.S. Department of Education, National 
Assessment Governing Board, Suite 825, 800 North Capitol 
Street, NW., Washington, DC, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 
Monday through Friday.
    Electronic Access to This Document: You may view this document, as 
well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal 
Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the 
Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister/index.html. To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 
available free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, 
call the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free at 1-866-512-
1800; or in the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-0000.

    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.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.


    Dated: July 14, 2011.
Cornelia S. Orr,
Executive Director, National Assessment Governing Board, U.S. 
Department of Education.
[FR Doc. 2011-18183 Filed 7-19-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P