[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 53 (Monday, March 22, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15209-15210]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-05885]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2021-SCC-0043]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and approval; Comment 
Request; National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2021 Update 
#2

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of Education 
(ED).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, ED is 
proposing a revision of a currently approved information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
April 21, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for proposed 
information collection requests should be sent within 30 days of 
publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find 
this information collection request by selecting ``Department of 
Education'' under ``Currently Under Review,'' then check ``Only Show 
ICR for Public Comment'' checkbox. Comments may also be sent to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Carrie Clarady, (202) 245-6347.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Education (ED), in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general public and Federal agencies with 
an opportunity to comment on proposed, revised, and continuing 
collections of information. This helps the Department assess the impact 
of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's 
information collection requirements and provide the requested data in 
the desired format. ED is soliciting comments on the proposed 
information collection request (ICR) that is described below. The 
Department of Education is especially interested in public comment 
addressing the following issues: (1) is this collection necessary to 
the proper functions of the Department; (2) will this information be 
processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the estimate of burden 
accurate; (4) how might the Department enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information to be collected; and (5) how might the 
Department minimize the burden of this collection on the respondents, 
including through the use of information technology. Please note that 
written comments received in response to this notice will be considered 
public records.
    Title of Collection: National Assessment of Educational Progress 
(NAEP) 2021 Update #2.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-0928.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals or Households Total 
Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 673,355.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 401,495.
    Abstract: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 
conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is a 
federally authorized survey of student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 
12 in various subject areas, such as mathematics, reading, writing, 
science, U.S. history, civics, geography, economics, technology and 
engineering literacy (TEL), and the arts. The National Assessment of 
Educational Progress Authorization Act (Public Law 107-279 Title III, 
section 303) requires the assessment to collect data on specified 
student groups and characteristics, including information organized by 
race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, disability, and limited 
English proficiency. It requires fair and accurate presentation of 
achievement data and permits the collection of background, 
noncognitive, or descriptive information that is related to academic 
achievement and aids in fair reporting of results. The intent of the 
law is to provide representative sample data on student achievement for 
the nation, the states, and subpopulations of students and to monitor 
progress over time. NAEP consists of two assessment programs: the NAEP 
long-term trend (LTT) assessment and the main NAEP assessment. The LTT 
assessments are given at the national level only and are administered 
to students at ages 9, 13, and 17 in a manner that is very different 
from that used for the main NAEP assessments. LTT reports mathematics 
and reading results that present trend data since the 1970s.
    The request to conduct NAEP 2021, including operational assessments 
and pilot tests: operational national/state/TUDA Digitally Based 
Assessments (DBA) in mathematics and reading at grades 4 and 8, and 
Puerto Rico in mathematics at grades 4 and 8; and operational national 
DBA in U.S. history and civics at grade 8 was approved in April 2020, 
with further updates to the materials approved in July and November 
2020. Throughout 2020 NCES worked with its contractors and with OMB to 
find the best way to plan for a data collection in schools in 2021, and 
as the coronavirus pandemic progressed over the course of the year, 
plans for NAEP 2020 data collection changed multiple times. In November 
2020, the NCES Commissioner announced the delay of NAEP 2021 by one 
year to early 2022.
    Since then, NAEP has continued to work to salvage any pieces of 
their data collection plans for 2021 and begin planning for NAEP 2022. 
NCES has used the drawn and notified sample from 2021 for two data 
collections that don't include the student assessment that is central 
to the NAEP program, instead using that sample to collect information 
about basic school operations during the coronavirus

[[Page 15210]]

pandemic (NAEP 2021 School Survey; OMB# 1850-0957) and a planned data 
collection seeking more detail about the experiences of teachers and 
school staff over the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years (NAEP 2021 
School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study; OMB# 1850-0956). The 
2022 sample may utilize some of the schools originally selected for 
2021. Details will be provided in a forthcoming amendment.
    This request is to conduct NAEP operational assessments in 2022, 
which will follow the traditional NAEP design which assesses each 
student in 60-minutes for one cognitive subject. The 2022 data 
collection will consist of operational national/state/TUDA DBA in 
mathematics and reading at grades 4 and 8, and Puerto Rico in 
mathematics at grades 4 and 8; and operational national DBA in U.S. 
history and civics at grade 8. In addition to the regular NAEP 
operational assessments delayed from 2021, this submission also 
contains materials for the LTT. LTT was last administered in 2020 for 
ages 9 and 13 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures, the 
age 17 administration has been delayed until early 2022.
    Two additional 30-day packages will be submitted in May and July 
2021 in order to update all materials in time for the data collection 
in early 2022.

    Dated: March 17, 2021.
Stephanie Valentine,
PRA Coordinator, Strategic Collections and Clearance Governance and 
Strategy Division Office of Chief Data Officer, Office of Planning, 
Evaluation and Policy Development.
[FR Doc. 2021-05885 Filed 3-19-21; 8:45 am]
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