[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 114 (Friday, June 12, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35923-35924]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-12693]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

National Assessment Governing Board


Draft Reading Assessment Framework for the 2025 National 
Assessment of Educational Progress

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

ACTION: Notice of opportunity for public comment for the Reading 
Assessment Framework for the 2025 National Assessment of Educational 
Progress (NAEP).

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SUMMARY: The National Assessment Governing Board (Governing Board) is 
soliciting public comment for guidance in updating the Assessment 
Framework for the 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress 
(NAEP) in Reading. The Governing Board is authorized to formulate 
policy guidelines for NAEP. Section 302(e)(1)(c) of Public Law 107-279 
s specifies that the Governing Board determines the content to be 
assessed for each NAEP Assessment. Each NAEP subject area assessment is 
guided by a framework that defines the scope of the domain to be 
measured by delineating the knowledge and skills to be tested at each 
grade and subject, the format of the assessment, and the achievement 
level definitions--guiding assessments that are valid, reliable, and 
reflective of widely accepted professional standards. The NAEP Reading 
Assessment Framework was last revised in 2004. It is anticipated that 
the current update of the NAEP Reading Assessment Framework will be 
presented for approval at the National Assessment

[[Page 35924]]

Governing Board quarterly meeting on November 19-21, 2020. Public and 
private parties and organizations are invited to provide written 
comments and recommendations on the draft framework. This notice sets 
forth the review schedule and provides information for accessing 
additional materials that will be informative and useful for this 
review.

DATES: Comments must be received no later than July 23, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be uploaded at the following URL: https://www.naepframeworkupdate.org. Comments may also be provided via email at 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michelle Blair, National Assessment 
Governing Board, 800 North Capitol Street NW, Suite 825, Washington, DC 
20002-4233, Telephone: (202) 357-0396.
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll-free, at 1-
800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Assessment and Item Specifications elaborate 
on the framework as guidance for item development conducted by the 
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the NAEP assessment 
development contractor(s). The framework development and update process 
also produces recommendations for contextual variables, which supports 
NCES' development of the questionnaires administered to students, 
teachers, and schools to help the public understand the achievement 
results in each subject. By engaging NAEP's audiences, partners, and 
stakeholders in the panels that provide recommendations for NAEP 
frameworks and by seeking public comment, NAEP frameworks reflect 
content valued by the public as important to measure. Additional 
information on the Governing Board's work in developing NAEP Frameworks 
and Specifications can be found at https://www.nagb.gov/naep-frameworks/frameworks-overview.html.
    All responses will be taken into consideration before finalizing 
the updated NAEP Reading Assessment Framework for Board adoption. Once 
adopted, the framework will be used to guide assessment development and 
reporting for the 2025 NAEP Reading Assessment.
    Additional information (including the materials referenced below) 
can be found on the project website at https://www.naepframeworkupdate.org.

Proposed Updated Reading Framework for the 2025 NAEP

    Starting on June 22, 2020, the proposed revised framework can be 
downloaded from the framework project website at https://www.naepframeworkupdate.org.

Existing Reading Framework for the NAEP

    The existing framework (adopted in 2004) can be downloaded from the 
Governing Board website at https://www.nagb.gov/naep-frameworks/reading.html.

Governing Board's Periodic Review and Updating of NAEP Frameworks

    Governing Board policy articulates the Board's commitment to a 
comprehensive, inclusive, and deliberative process to determine and 
update the content and format of all NAEP assessments. For each NAEP 
assessment, this process results in a NAEP framework, outlining what is 
to be measured and how it will be measured. Periodically, the Governing 
Board reviews existing NAEP frameworks to determine if changes are 
warranted. Each NAEP framework development and update process considers 
a wide set of factors, including but not limited to reviews of recent 
research on teaching and learning, changes in state and local standards 
and assessments, and the latest perspectives on the nation's future 
needs and desirable levels of achievement.
    In 2018, the Board initiated a review of the NAEP Reading 
Framework. The Governing Board's NAEP Reading Framework review used 
expert commentary to determine whether a framework update was required 
and the type of updates that may be needed. As a result of this review, 
the Governing Board initiated a framework update process for the NAEP 
Reading Assessment. Learn more about the review at https://www.nagb.gov/focus-areas/framework-development/framework-development-reading.html.

Summary of Proposed Revisions

    Compared to the existing NAEP Reading Framework for the 2009-2019 
NAEP Reading Assessments, the draft updated framework proposes the 
following changes:
     Reporting scores in three different areas: Reading 
literature, reading science, and reading social studies, rather than 
reporting scores by literary and informational texts.
     Making all assessment tasks purpose-driven, rather than 
having a subset of tasks that are purpose-driven. In purpose-driven 
tasks, students are told why they are reading a passage and what they 
will be doing with it afterward, before they begin reading.
     Adding `Use and Apply' to the three comprehension targets 
that are scored, meaning that students will be asked to apply their 
reading to a culminating task such as making a recommendation, 
developing a website, and the like. The four comprehension targets 
would be Locate and Recall, Integrate and Interpret, Analyze and 
Evaluate and Use and Apply.
     Providing a basis for not only reporting but also 
explaining student achievement by collecting and reporting data about 
students' engagement, effort, and experiences with reading tasks.
     Accounting for students' differential knowledge by 
providing necessary background knowledge on novel topics and 
administering short probes to determine test-takers' knowledge about 
topics they will read about.
     Including digital forms of text that are dynamic and 
multimodal and that require navigation as well as comprehension skills.
     Introducing an expanded view of vocabulary that goes 
beyond individual word meanings to also include knowledge of language 
structures.
    Electronic Access to this Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. Internet 
access to the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations is available via the Federal Digital System at: 
www.gpo.gov/fdsys. This site allows the public to 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). To 
use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at 
the Adobe website. You may also access documents of the Department 
published in the Federal Register by using the article search feature 
at: www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, the advanced search feature 
at this site allow searches to documents published by the Department.

    Authority: Pub. L. 107-279, Title III--National Assessment of 
Educational Progress Sec.  301.

Lesley Muldoon,
Executive Director, National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), U.S. 
Department of Education.
[FR Doc. 2020-12693 Filed 6-11-20; 8:45 am]
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