83 FR 45618 - Draft Policy Statement on Developing Student Achievement Levels for the National Assessment of Educational Progress

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 175 (September 10, 2018)

The National Assessment Governing Board (Governing Board) is soliciting public comment for guidance in finalizing a revised policy on Developing Student Achievement Levels for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The Governing Board is authorized to formulate policy guidelines for NAEP. The NAEP legislation specifies that the Governing Board is to develop appropriate student achievement levels for each subject and grade tested. Such levels are determined by identifying the knowledge and skills that can be measured and verified using widely accepted professional assessment standards. It is anticipated that the revised policy on Developing Student Achievement Levels for NAEP will be presented for approval at the National Assessment Governing Board quarterly meeting on November 15-17, 2018. Public and private parties and organizations are invited to provide written comments and recommendations. Voluntary participation by all interested parties is urged. This notice sets forth the review schedule and provides information for accessing additional materials that will be useful for this review.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 175 (Monday, September 10, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45618-45619]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-19650]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Draft Policy Statement on Developing Student Achievement Levels 
for the National Assessment of Educational Progress

AGENCY: National Assessment Governing Board, U.S. Department of 
Education.

ACTION: Notice of opportunity for public comment for policy statement 
on Student Achievement Levels for the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress (NAEP).

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SUMMARY: The National Assessment Governing Board (Governing Board) is 
soliciting public comment for guidance in finalizing a revised policy 
on Developing Student Achievement Levels for the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress (NAEP).
    The Governing Board is authorized to formulate policy guidelines 
for NAEP. The NAEP legislation specifies that the Governing Board is to 
develop appropriate student achievement levels for each subject and 
grade tested. Such levels are determined by identifying the knowledge 
and skills that can be measured and verified using widely accepted 
professional assessment standards. It is anticipated that the revised 
policy on Developing Student Achievement Levels for NAEP will be 
presented for approval at the National Assessment Governing Board 
quarterly meeting on November 15-17, 2018.
    Public and private parties and organizations are invited to provide 
written comments and recommendations. Voluntary participation by all 
interested parties is urged. This notice sets forth the review schedule 
and provides information for accessing additional materials that will 
be useful for this review.

DATES: Comments must be received no later than September 30, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be provided via email at [email protected] 
and may also be mailed to the following address: NAEP Achievement Level 
Setting Policy, National Assessment Governing Board, 800 North Capitol 
Street NW, Suite 825, Washington, DC 20002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharyn Rosenberg, National Assessment 
Governing Board, 800 North Capitol Street NW, Suite 825, Washington, DC 
20002-4233, Telephone: (202) 357-6940.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: All responses will be taken into 
consideration before finalizing the updated policy on Developing 
Achievement levels for NAEP for Board adoption. Once adopted, the 
policy will be used in setting and reporting achievement levels for 
NAEP assessments.
    Additional information (including the materials referenced below) 
can be found on the Governing Board website at https://www.nagb.gov/news-and-events/calendar/public-comment-on-als-policy.html.

Proposed Revised Policy on Developing Student Achievement Levels for 
the National Assessment of Educational Progress

    The proposed revised policy can be downloaded from the Governing 
Board website.

Existing Policy on Developing Student Performance Levels for the 
National Assessment of Educational Progress

    The existing policy (adopted in 1995) can be downloaded from the 
Governing Board website.

Governing Board's Formal Response to the Evaluation of NAEP Achievement 
Levels

    From 2014-2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 
and Medicine conducted an independent evaluation of the NAEP 
achievement levels. The Governing Board's formal response to the 
recommendations put forth in the evaluation noted that the revision of 
the Board policy on developing achievement levels for NAEP would 
specify a process and timeline for conducting regularly recurring 
reviews of the achievement level descriptions and would be explicit 
about the conditions that necessitate consideration of a new standard 
setting. More information about the evaluation and the Governing 
Board's response can be found on the Governing Board website. A link to 
the final report from the evaluation can be found on the Governing 
Board website.

Summary of Proposed Revisions

    Compared to the existing 1995 policy on Developing Student 
Performance Levels for NAEP, the proposed revised policy reflects:

 Reorganization of principles, streamlining of language, 
minimization of redundancies
 Minor (non-substantive) edits to the NAEP policy definitions 
for clarity
 A change in terminology from Proficient to NAEP Proficient to 
better differentiate the NAEP achievement levels from other common uses 
of Basic, Proficient, Advanced
 A new principle on periodic review of achievement level 
descriptions and cut scores, prompted by the Board's response to the 
evaluation of NAEP achievement levels
 A new principle to clarify participation of multiple 
stakeholders at various points throughout process
 A new principle to summarize the role of the Board
 Reference to an interpretative guide that would accompany the 
release of

[[Page 45619]]

NAEP results and explain how the achievement levels should (and should 
not) be used
 Reference to multiple types of achievement level descriptions 
(ALDs), including reporting ALDs that would be created using empirical 
data and written in terms of what students do know and can do rather 
than what students should know and be able to do
 Clarification on the standard setting participants, in 
particular the non-educator group
 Additional details about the achievement level setting 
process, including some practices that have become institutionalized 
over time (e.g., the use of ``impact data'')
 Removal of details on implementation directed to staff and 
contractors, which will instead be included in a ``procedures manual''

    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: www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.

     Dated: September 5, 2018.
Lisa Stooksberry,
Deputy Executive Director, National Assessment Governing Board, U.S. 
Department of Education.
[FR Doc. 2018-19650 Filed 9-7-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P