23640 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 82 /Wednesday, April 29, 1998 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.902E]

The National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP)

Program; Notice Inviting Applications

for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY)

1998

Purpose of Program: To conduct the

sampling and data collection

component for the 1999, 2000, 2001,

and 2002 National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP

supports the National Education Goals

by providing measures of progress

toward the Goals.

Eligible Applicants: Individuals,

public, private, for-profit, and non-profit

institutions, agencies, and other

qualified organizations or consortia of

such institutions, agencies, and

organizations.

Deadline for Transmittal of

Applications: July 1, 1998.

Applications Available: May 1, 1998.

Available Funds: In FY 1998,

$700,000 will be available for the

sampling and data collection

component. It is anticipated that in FYs

1999 through 2002, an average amount

of $7,500,000 will be available annually.

Estimated Number of Awards: 1.

Project Period: Up to 60 months.

Applicable Regulations: (a) The

Education Department General

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in

34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 82, 85,

and 86; (b) the regulations in 34 CFR

700.30 and 34 CFR part 98; and (c) 48

CFR part 31 (Contracts with Commercial

Organizations).

Supplementary Information: NAEP is

authorized by section 411 of the

National Education Statistics Act of

1994 (20 U.S.C. 9010). Section 412 of

this law provides for the establishment

of the National Assessment Governing

Board (NAGB)(20 U.S.C. 9011). The law

requires the NAGB, among other

responsibilities, to formulate the policy

guidelines for the National Assessment

and select the subject areas to be

assessed. A cooperative agreement is

currently in operation to develop

assessment instruments for the 2000

assessment.

Priority

Absolute Priority

Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) and 20

U.S.C. 9010–9011, the Secretary gives

an absolute preference to applications

that meet the priority in the next

paragraph. The Secretary funds under

this competition only applications that

meet this absolute priority.

Sampling and Data Collection for the

National Assessment of Educational

Progress

The grantee must use sampling

techniques that produce data that are

representative on a national, regional,

and State basis. The grantee must collect

data for mathematics, science, history,

geography, reading and writing in

grades 4, 8, and 12 from a nationally

representative sample. The grantee must

also monitor data collection in each

participating State in mathematics,

science, reading and writing in fourth

and eighth grades.

In carrying out the National

Assessment, the grantee shall not collect

any data that are not directly related to

the appraisal of educational

performance, achievement, and

traditional demographic reporting

variables, and shall ensure that all

personally identifying information

about students, their educational

performance, and their families remains

confidential.

Evaluation Criteria

The Secretary selects from the criteria

in 34 CFR 700.30(e) to evaluate

applications for new grants under this

competition. Under 34 CFR 700.30(a),

the Secretary announces in the

application package the evaluation

criteria selected for this competition and

the maximum weight assigned to each

criterion.

For Applications or Information

Contact: Laurence Ogle, U.S.

Department of Education, National

Center for Education Statistics, Office of

Educational Research and Improvement,

room 404A, 555 New Jersey Avenue,

NW., Washington, DC 20208–5653. Email: laurencelogle@ed.gov.

Telephone: (202) 219–1761. Individuals

who use a telecommunications device

for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–

800–877–8339 between 8 a.m. and 8

p.m., Eastern time, Monday through

Friday.

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain this document in an alternative

format (e.g., Braille, large print,

audiotape, or diskette) on request to the

contact person listed in the preceding

paragraph.

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain a copy of the application package

in an alternative format, also, by

contacting that person. However, the

Department is not able to reproduce in

an alternative format the standard forms

included in the application package.

Electronic Access to This Document

Anyone may view this document, as

well as all other Department of

Education documents published in the

Federal Register, in text or portable

document format (pdf) on the World

Wide Web at either of the following

sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm

http://www.ed.gov/news.html

To use the pdf you must have the Adobe

Acrobat Reader Program with Search,

which is available free at either of the

previous sites. If you have questions

about using the pdf, call the U.S.

Government Printing Office toll free at

1–888–293–6498.

Anyone may also view these

documents in text copy only on an

electronic bulletin board of the

Department. Telephone: (202) 219–1511

or, toll free, 1–800–222–4922. The

documents are located under Option

G—Files/Announcements, Bulletins and

Press Releases.

Note: The official version of a document is

the document published in the Federal

Register.

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e–1.

Dated: April 24, 1998.

Ricky Takai,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational

Research and Improvement.

[FR Doc. 98–11374 Filed 4–28–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P