[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 192 (Friday, October 3, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51838-51839]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-26199]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Advisory Council on Education Statistics, (ACES)

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of partially closed meetings.

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SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the schedule and proposed agenda of the 
forthcoming meetings of the Advisory Council on Education Statistics 
(ACES). Notice of these meetings are required under Section 10(a)(2) of 
the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This document is intended to notify 
the general public of their opportunity to attend.

DATES: October 9-10, 1997.

TIMES: October 9, 1997--Full Council, 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., (open); 
11:30 to 1:15 p.m., (closed); Management Committee, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 
p.m., (open); Statistics Committee, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. (open), 
Strategy/Policy 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. (open). October 10, 1997--Full 
Council 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. (open); Statistics Committee, 8:30 a.m.-
12:00 noon (open); Strategy/Policy Committee, 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon 
(closed); and Management Committee, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon (open).

LOCATION: The Phoenix Park Hotel, 520 North Capitol Street, NW., 
Washington, DC 20001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Barbara Marenus, National Center for Education Statistics, 555 New 
Jersey Ave. NW., Room 400j, Washington, DC 20208-5530. Telephone (202) 
219-1828.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Advisory Council on Education Statistics 
(ACES) is established under Section 406(c)(1) of the Education 
Amendments of 1974, Public Law 93-380. The Council is established to 
review general policies for the operation of the National Center for 
Education Statistics (NCES) in the Office of Educational Research and 
Improvement and is responsible for advising on standards to insure that 
statistics and analyses disseminated by NCES are of high quality and 
are not subject to political influence. In addition, ACES is required 
to advise the Commissioner of NCES and the National Assessment 
Governing Board on technical and statistical matters related to the 
National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The meetings of the 
Council are open to the public.
    The proposed agenda for the full Council includes the following:
    <bullet> A status report from the NCES Commissioner on major Center 
initiatives;
    <bullet> New member swearing -in;
    <bullet> The presentation of Committee reports;
    <bullet> A discussion on the development of an NCES periodical;
    <bullet> A discussion of strategic issues in technology facing 
NCES; and
    <bullet> A status report on the NAEP redesign and the development 
of a new request for proposal (RFP) for NAEP.
    Since the full Council's discussion on the implementation of the 
NAEP redesign includes reporting on plans for an upcoming procurement, 
this session must be closed to the public. The premature release of 
this information would result in the disclosure of information that 
would be likely to significantly frustrate implementation of the 
agency's proposed action. Such matters are protected by exemption 
(9)(B) of Section 552b (c) of title 5 U.S.C.
    Individual meetings of the three ACES subcommittees will focus on 
specific topics:
    <bullet> The agenda for the Management Committee includes 
discussion on the results from the 1996 Customer Service Survey and 
plans for the 1997 survey, plans for the development of partnerships 
with external organizations, and a discussion of ``capacity building'' 
activities for NCES.
    <bullet> The agenda for the Statistics Committee focuses on the 
development of a research agenda on the NAEP achievement level setting 
process.
    <bullet> The agenda for the Strategy/Policy Committee includes 
discussion of NCES procurement initiatives for 1999 and beyond, a new 
NCES database for budgeting and planning, and a discussion of design 
options for the redesign of the Schools and Staffing

[[Page 51839]]

Survey. Because the discussion will include information on planned 
procurements, this session must be closed to the public. The public 
disclosure of this information would be likely to significantly 
frustrate the implementation of planned agency action if conducted in 
open session. Such matters are protected by exemption (9)(B) of Section 
552b (c) of Title 5 U.S.C.
    A summary of the activities and related matters, which are 
informative to the public and consistent with the policy of Title 5 
U.S.C. 552b, will be available to the public within 14 days after the 
meetings. Records are kept of all Council proceedings and are available 
for public inspection at the Office of the Executive Director, Advisory 
Council on Education Statistics, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, room 400J, 
Washington, DC 20208-7575.
Ricky Takai,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 97-26199 Filed 10-2-97; 8:45 am]
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