23642 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 82 /Wednesday, April 29, 1998 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.902F]

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

development, scoring, analysis, and

reporting component for the 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: Public, private,

for-profit, and non-profit individuals,

institutions, agencies, and other

qualified organizations or consortia of

these institutions, agencies, and

organizations.

Deadline for Transmittal of

Applications: July 1, 1998.

Applications Available: May 1, 1998.

Available Funds: In FY 1998,

$640,000 will be available for the

development, scoring, analysis, and

reporting component. It is anticipated

that in FYs 1999 to 2002 an average of

$16,000,000 will be available annually

in FYs 1999 through 2002, and

$6,000,000 available in FY 2003.

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: The

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.

Development, Scoring, Analysis and

Reporting of Data From the National

Assessment of Educational Progress

The grantee must develop assessment

booklets for history, geography, reading

and writing. The grantee must score,

analyze, and report data collected for

mathematics, science, history,

geography, reading and writing in

grades 4, 8, and 12 from a nationally

representative sample. The grantee must

also score, analyze, and report data

collected from samples representative of

each participating State in mathematics,

science, reading and writing in fourth

and eighth grades. The NAEP must be

reported in ways that increase the

information available to educational

policymakers and the general public

regarding the educational achievement

of American students. Section 412

requires the NAGB to develop the

guidelines for the analysis and reporting

of the NAEP results. The grantee must

score, analyze, and report in accordance

with guidelines specified by the

National Assessment Governing Board.

Each report must be published and

disseminated after completing the

National Center for Educational

Statistics (NCES) peer review procedure.

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: Steve Gorman, U.S.

Department of Education, 555 New

Jersey Avenue, NW., room 404g,

Washington, DC 20208–5653. E-mail:

sgorman@inet.ed.gov; or FAX your

request to: (202) 219–1801 with the

surface mail address to which the

application should be sent. For

information call (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 alternate format

(e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or

computer 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 alternate format, also, by

contacting that person. However, the

Department is not able to reproduce in

alternate 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. 9010–9011.

Dated: April 24, 1998.

Ricky Takai,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational

Research and Improvement.

[FR Doc. 98–11375 Filed 4–28–98; 8:45 am]

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