National Assessment Governing Board; Public Hearings, 49869-49871 [E9-23467]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Notices 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. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Dated: September 23, 2009. Angela C. Arrington, Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Regulatory Information Management Services, Office of Management. jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES 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. VerDate Nov<24>2008 16:18 Sep 28, 2009 Jkt 217001 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 https://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 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 49869 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 E:\FR\FM\29SEN1.SGM 29SEN1 49870 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Notices jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES supplementary information in this notice and on the website of the Governing Board at https:// www.nagb.org. Other related material on the Governing Board and NAEP may be found at this Web site and at https:// 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 VerDate Nov<24>2008 16:18 Sep 28, 2009 Jkt 217001 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 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 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 E:\FR\FM\29SEN1.SGM 29SEN1 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Notices administration of the assessment when feasible. The full reports and recommendations of the technical advisory panels are available at https://nagb.org/newsroom/ PressReleasePDFs/SD–Panel-Report.pdf and https://nagb.org/newsroom/ PressReleasePDFs/ELL–PanelReport.pdf. PowerPoint summaries are available at https://nagb.org/newsroom/ PressReleasePDFs/PPt-SD–PanelReport.pdf and https://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: https://www.ed.gov/news/ fedregister/. 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: https://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] jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES BILLING CODE 4000–01–P VerDate Nov<24>2008 16:18 Sep 28, 2009 Jkt 217001 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 https:// 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 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 49871 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 https://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 https://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 E:\FR\FM\29SEN1.SGM 29SEN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 187 (Tuesday, September 29, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49869-49871]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-23467]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

[[Page 49870]]

supplementary information in this notice and on the website of the 
Governing Board at https://www.nagb.org. Other related material on the 
Governing Board and NAEP may be found at this Web site and at https://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 ELL-responsive accommodations that 
maintain the constructs in the NAEP framework, including items and 
directions in plain language, side-by-side 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

[[Page 49871]]

administration of the assessment when feasible.
    The full reports and recommendations of the technical advisory 
panels are available at https://nagb.org/newsroom/PressReleasePDFs/SD-Panel-Report.pdf and https://nagb.org/newsroom/PressReleasePDFs/ELL-Panel-Report.pdf. PowerPoint summaries are available at https://nagb.org/newsroom/PressReleasePDFs/PPt-SD-Panel-Report.pdf and https://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: https://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister/. 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: https://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/.


    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
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