Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Notices 49869 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 

3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35) requires 

that the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) provide interested 

Federal agencies and the public an early 

opportunity to comment on information 

collection requests. OMB may amend or 

waive the requirement for public 

consultation to the extent that public 

participation in the approval process 

would defeat the purpose of the 

information collection, violate State or 

Federal law, or substantially interfere 

with any agency’s ability to perform its 

statutory obligations. The Director, 

Information Collection Clearance 

Division, Regulatory Information 

Management Services, Office of 

Management, publishes that notice 

containing proposed information 

collection requests prior to submission 

of these requests to OMB. Each 

proposed information collection, 

grouped by office, contains the 

following: (1) Type of review requested, 

e.g. new, revision, extension, existing or 

reinstatement; (2) Title; (3) Summary of 

the collection; (4) Description of the 

need for, and proposed use of, the 

information; (5) Respondents and 

frequency of collection; and (6) 

Reporting and/or Recordkeeping 

burden. OMB invites public comment. 

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. 

Dated: September 23, 2009. 

Angela C. Arrington, 

Director, Information Collection Clearance 

Division, Regulatory Information 

Management Services, Office of Management. 

Office of Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services 

Type of Review: Revision. 

Title: Report on IDEA part B 

Maintenance of Effort Reduction and 

Coordinated Early Intervening Services. 

Frequency: Annually. 

Affected Public: State, Local, or Tribal 

Gov’t, SEAs or LEAs. 

Reporting and Recordkeeping Hour 

Burden: 

Responses: 60. 

Burden Hours: 1,032,480. 

Abstract: This package provides 

instructions and forms necessary for 

States to report the provisions of 

coordinated early intervening services 

(CEIS) and maintenance of effort (MOE) 

reduction in IDEA. The form satisfies 

reporting requirements and is used by 

OSEP to monitor SEAs and for 

Congressional reporting. 

Requests for copies of the proposed 

information collection request may be 

accessed from http://edicsweb.ed.gov, 

by selecting the ‘‘Browse Pending 

Collections’’ link and by clicking on 

link number 4146. When you access the 

information collection, click on 

‘‘Download Attachments’’ to view. 

Written requests for information should 

be addressed to U.S. Department of 

Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., 

LBJ, Washington, DC 20202–4537. 

Requests may also be electronically 

mailed to ICDocketMgr@ed.gov or faxed 

to 202–401–0920. Please specify the 

complete title of the information 

collection when making your request. 

Comments regarding burden and/or 

the collection activity requirements 

should be electronically mailed to 

ICDocketMgr@ed.gov. Individuals who 

use a telecommunications device for the 

deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 

1–800–877–8339. 

[FR Doc. E9–23444 Filed 9–28–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

National Assessment Governing 

Board; Public Hearings 

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Education, 

National Assessment Governing Board. 

ACTION: Notice of public hearing. 

SUMMARY: The National Assessment 

Governing Board is announcing a public 

hearing on November 9, 2009 to obtain 

comment on expert panel 

recommendations on uniform national 

rules for testing of Students with 

Disabilities (SD) and English Language 

Learners (ELL) on the National 

Assessment of Educational Progress 

(NAEP). 

Public and private parties and 

organizations are invited to present 

written and/or oral testimony. The 

hearing will be held in the Phoenix Park 

Hotel, 520 North Capitol Street, NW., 

Washington, DC 20001 from 9:30 a.m. to 

3 p.m. EST. 

This notice sets forth the schedule 

and proposed agenda of a forthcoming 

public hearing of the National 

Assessment Governing Board. This 

notice 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 

document is intended to notify members 

of the general public of their 

opportunity to provide comment. 

Individuals who will need special 

accommodations in order to attend the 

hearing (such as interpreting services, 

assistive listening devices, materials in 

alternative format) should notify Munira 

Mwalimu at 202–357–6938 or at 

Munira.Mwalimu@ed.gov no later than 

November 4, 2009. 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: November 9, 2009. 

Location: Phoenix Park Hotel, 520 

North Capitol Street, NW., Washington, 

DC 20001. The hotel may be reached via 

the Union Station Metro. 

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST. 

Background 

Under Public Law 107–279, the 

National Assessment Governing Board 

(NAGB) is responsible for determining 

the content and methodology of the 

National Assessment of Educational 

Progress (NAEP). The assessment is 

required to provide a fair and accurate 

measurement of student academic 

achievement through a random 

sampling process that produces 

representative data for the nation, the 

States, and other participating 

jurisdictions. 

Despite changes in policy during the 

past decade, variations in inclusion and 

accommodation rates continue for 

students with disabilities and English 

language learners among States and 

urban districts participating in the 

National Assessment. These 

differences—both between jurisdictions 

and over time—continue to prompt 

concern about the fairness and 

comparability of NAEP results. 

The Governing Board has established 

an Ad Hoc Committee of Board 

members to conduct a comprehensive 

examination of NAEP testing and 

reporting of these two student groups. 

The Committee appointed two technical 

advisory panels to recommend uniform 

national rules for NAEP testing of SD 

and ELL students to better assure that 

NAEP samples are fully representative 

and produce comparable results. These 

panels reported to the Board at its 

meeting on August 6 and 7, 2009. The 

Board plans to consult widely before 

deciding whether or not to adopt the 

expert panel recommendations. 

The reports and recommendations 

being considered are available under 


jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
49870 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Notices 

supplementary information in this 

notice and on the website of the 

Governing Board at http:// 

www.nagb.org. Other related material on 

the Governing Board and NAEP may be 

found at this Web site and at http:// 

www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard. 

The Board is seeking comment from 

policymakers, teachers, researchers, 

State and local school administrators, 

specialists in SD and ELL students, 

parents of children in elementary and 

secondary schools, representatives of 

interested organizations, and members 

of the public. Representatives of the 

Governing Board will conduct the 

hearing to receive testimony, and may 

ask clarifying questions or respond to 

presentations. Oral presentations should 

not exceed ten minutes. Testimony will 

become part of the public record. 

All views will be considered by the 

Ad Hoc Committee and the full Board. 

It is anticipated that the Committee will 

make recommendations to the 

Governing Board at the Governing Board 

meetings on November 19–21, 2009 and 

March 4–6, 2010. 

To register to present oral testimony 

on November 9, 2009 at the Phoenix 

Park Hotel in Washington, DC, please 

call Tessa Regis, of the National 

Assessment Governing Board staff, at 

202–357–7500 or send an e-mail to 

tessa.regis@ed.gov by 4 p.m. (Eastern 

Time) on Friday, November 6, 2009. 

Written testimony should be sent by 

mail, fax or e-mail for receipt in the 

Board office by November 10, 2009. 

The Board will make an effort to hear 

testimony from all persons who wish to 

address it at the hearing without prior 

registration. Speakers are encouraged to 

bring written statements for distribution 

at the hearing. 

Testimony should be sent to: National 

Assessment Governing Board, 800 North 

Capitol Street, NW. — Suite 825, 

Washington, DC 20002, Attention: Tessa 

Regis, FAX: (202) 357–6945, E-mail: 

tessa.regis@ed.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tessa Regis or Lawrence Feinberg, 

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 

is established under section 412 of the 

National Education Statistics Act of 

1994, as amended. The Board 

formulates policy guidelines for the 

National Assessment of Educational 

Progress (NAEP). The Board’s 

responsibilities include selecting subject 

areas to be assessed, developing 

assessment specifications and 

frameworks, designing the methodology 

of the assessment, 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. 

The expert panel recommendations 

being considered by the Governing 

Board are summarized below. They are 

not mutually exclusive. Some could go 

into effect quickly while others would 

be for medium-term or long-range 

implementation. NAEP is a 

representative-sample survey, designed 

to produce valid, comparable data on 

the academic achievement of large 

groups of students. It is prohibited by 

law from providing results for 

individual children or schools. The 

recommendations are being considered 

because of concern that variations in 

exclusion and accommodation practices 

may jeopardize the fairness and 

comparability of NAEP results. 

The recommendations on which 

public comment is sought are 

summarized as follows: 

By Expert Panel on Uniform National 

Rules for NAEP Testing of Students 

With Disabilities 

(1) Encourage as many students as 

possible to participate in NAEP, and 

provide for the use of allowable 

accommodations that are necessary to 

enable students with disabilities to 

participate. 

(2) Clarify and expand NAEP’s 

guidance to schools, encouraging 

maximum participation of students with 

disabilities so at least 95 percent of 

those drawn for the NAEP sample 

participate. 

(3) Report separately on students who 

have individualized education programs 

(IEPs) and those with Section 504 plans, 

but (except to maintain trend) only 

count the students with IEPs as students 

with disabilities. 

(4) Provide incentives for schools to 

include students with disabilities, 

including additional outreach and 

public reporting of participation rates 

below 95 percent of students with 

disabilities. 

(5) Support research efforts to develop 

targeted testing for students at both the 

top and bottom levels of achievement, 

with sound procedures to identify 

students to receive targeted test booklets 

on the basis of their performance on 

some standard indicator of achievement. 

(6) Encourage and review research on 

the identification and progress of 

students who have a significant 

cognitive disability but in the short term 

do not test this 1% of students on 

NAEP. 

(7) Assess the English language 

proficiency of students with disabilities 

who are English language learners and 

are drawn for the NAEP sample and 

provide linguistically appropriate 

accommodations for those who need 

them before determining whether 

additional accommodations may be 

needed to address any disabilities those 

students may have. 

By Expert Panel on Uniform National 

Rules for NAEP Testing of English 

Language Learners 

(1) ELLs in all States and districts 

selected for the NAEP sample who have 

been in United States schools for one 

year or more should be included in the 

National Assessment. This policy 

should be implemented with the 

disaggregated reporting of ELL test 

results by detailed information on 

students’ English language proficiency 

and the availability of accommodations 

that maximize meaningful participation. 

(2) Students should be offered ELLresponsive accommodations that 

maintain the constructs in the NAEP 

framework, including items and 

directions in plain language, side-byside bilingual Spanish-English test 

booklets, word-to-word bilingual 

glossaries without definitions, as well as 

other accommodations currently 

allowed by NAEP. The accommodations 

for each student should be selected at 

the local level by school personnel who 

are qualified to make judgments 

regarding the inclusion of the ELL in 

NAEP, including knowledge of his or 

her level of English language 

proficiency. 

(3) NAEP results for ELL students 

should be disaggregated and reported by 

the best available standardized 

assessment data on the level of English 

language proficiency. 

(4) To attain comparable participation 

rates across States and districts, special 

efforts should be made to inform and 

solicit the cooperation of State and local 

officials who decide upon the 

participation of individual students, 

including joint planning sessions and 

targeted information sharing. A high 

common goal for 95 percent or more of 

ELL students sampled to participate 

should be established. 

(5) NAEP should adopt an aggressive 

timeline for innovation and research, 

including (a) the development of test 

items written in plain language; (b) a 

short test of English language 

proficiency; (c) targeted testing with 

blocks of items at low and high levels 

of difficulty; and (d) computerized 


jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Notices 49871 

administration of the assessment when 

feasible. 

The full reports and recommendations 

of the technical advisory panels are 

available at http://nagb.org/newsroom/

PressReleasePDFs/SD–Panel-Report.pdf 

and http://nagb.org/newsroom/

PressReleasePDFs/ELL–PanelReport.pdf. PowerPoint summaries are 

available at http://nagb.org/newsroom/

PressReleasePDFs/PPt-SD–PanelReport.pdf and http://nagb.org/

newsroom/PressReleasePDFs/PPt-ELL– 

Panel-Report.pdf. 

A detailed summary of the hearing 

that is 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 a.m. to 5 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 1–888–293–6498; or in the 

Washington, DC, 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.gpoaccess.gov/nara/ 

index.html. 

Dated: September 24, 2009. 

Cornelia S. Orr, 

Executive Director, National Assessment 

Governing Board, U. S. Department of 

Education. 

[FR Doc. E9–23467 Filed 9–28–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. CP09–465–000] 

Northern Natural Gas Company; Notice 

of Application 

September 22, 2009. 

Take notice that on September 14, 

2009, Northern Natural Gas Company 

(Northern), 1111 South 103rd Street, 

Omaha, Nebraska 68124, filed with the 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 

an application under Section 7 of the 

Natural Gas Act to expand the existing 

certificated storage boundary of the 

Cunningham storage field located in 

Pratt and Kingman counties, Kansas, to 

include the Viola and Simpson 

formations in the Extension Area 

(including Northern’s acquisition of all 

property interests), all as more fully set 

forth in the request which is on file with 

the Commission and open to public 

inspection. 

In its application, Northern asserts the 

need to acquire additional storage acres 

to control and mitigate storage gas 

migration from the Cunningham storage 

field that is occurring to the north of 

Northern’s existing certificated storage 

boundary. 

Any questions regarding this 

application should be directed to 

Michael T. Loeffler, Senior Director of 

Certificates and External Affairs for 

Northern, 1111 South 103rd Street, 

Omaha, Nebraska 68124, (402) 398– 

7103; or Bret Fritch, Senior Regulatory 

Analyst, at (402) 398–7140. 

The filing is available for review at 

the Commission in the Public Reference 

Room or may be viewed on the 

Commission’s Web site Web at http:// 

www.ferc.gov using the eLibrary link. 

Enter the docket number excluding the 

last three digits in the docket number 

field to access the document. For 

assistance, contact FERC at 

FERCOnlineSupport@gerc.gov or call 

toll-free, (886) 208–3676 or TYY, (202) 

502–8659. 

There are two ways to become 

involved in the Commission’s review of 

this project. First, any person wishing to 

obtain legal status by becoming a party 

to the proceedings for this project 

should, on or before the comment date 

stated below file with the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 

First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426, 

a motion to intervene in accordance 

with the requirements of the 

Commission’s Rules of Practice and 

Procedure (18 CFR 385.214 or 385.211) 

and the Regulations under the NGA (18 

CFR 157.10). A person obtaining party 

status will be placed on the service list 

maintained by the Secretary of the 

Commission and will receive copies of 

all documents filed by the applicant and 

by all other parties. A party must submit 

14 copies of filings made in the 

proceeding with the Commission and 

must mail a copy to the applicant and 

to every other party. Only parties to the 

proceeding can ask for court review of 

Commission orders in the proceeding. 

However, a person does not have to 

intervene in order to have comments 

considered. The second way to 

participate is by filing with the 

Secretary of the Commission, as soon as 

possible, an original and two copies of 

comments in support of or in opposition 

to this project. The Commission will 

consider these comments in 

determining the appropriate action to be 

taken, but the filing of a comment alone 

will not serve to make the filer a party 

to the proceeding. The Commission’s 

rules require that persons filing 

comments in opposition to the project 

provide copies of their protests only to 

the party or parties directly involved in 

the protest. 

Persons who wish to comment only 

on the environmental review of this 

project should submit an original and 

two copies of their comments to the 

Secretary of the Commission. 

Environmental commentors will be 

placed on the Commission’s 

environmental mailing list, will receive 

copies of the environmental documents, 

and will be notified of meetings 

associated with the Commission’s 

environmental review process. 

Environmental commentors will not be 

required to serve copies of filed 

documents on all other parties. 

However, the non-party commentors 

will not receive copies of all documents 

filed by other parties or issued by the 

Commission (except for the mailing of 

environmental documents issued by the 

Commission) and will not have the right 

to seek court review of the 

Commission’s final order. 

The Commission strongly encourages 

electronic filings of comments, protests 

and interventions in lieu of paper using 

the eFiling link at http://www.ferc.gov. 

Persons unable to file electronically 

should submit an original and 14 copies 

of the protest or intervention to the 

Federal Energy regulatory Commission, 

888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 

20426. 

This filing is accessible on-line at 

http://www.ferc.gov, using the eLibrary 

link and is available for review in the 

Commission’s Public Reference Room in 

Washington, DC. There is an 

eSubscription link on the Web site that 

enables subscribers to receive e-mail 


jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES