OMB83C Change Memo

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

DATE: August 21, 2017

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, OMB Liaison, NCES

FROM: Linda Hamilton, NAEP Project, NCES

SUBJECT: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2018 Materials Change Request (OMB# 1850-0928 v.7).

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is a federally authorized survey of student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12 in various subject areas, such as mathematics, reading, writing, science, U.S. history, civics, geography, economics, technology and engineering literacy (TEL), and the arts. The National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (Public Law 107-279 Title III, section 303) requires the assessment to collect data on specified student groups and characteristics, including information organized by race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, disability, and limited English proficiency. It requires fair and accurate presentation of achievement data and permits the collection of background, noncognitive, or descriptive information that is related to academic achievement and aids in fair reporting of results. The intent of the law is to provide representative sample data on student achievement for the nation, the states, and subpopulations of students and to monitor progress over time. The nature of NAEP is that burden alternates from a relatively low burden in national-level administration years to a substantial burden increase in state-level administration years when the sample has to allow for estimates for individual states and some of the large urban districts. The NAEP results are reported to the public through the Nation’s Report Card as well as other online NAEP tools. The request to conduct NAEP in 2018 and 2019, including operational assessments, pilot tests, and special studies was approved by OMB in July 2017 with a change request approved in August 2017 (OMB# 1850-0928 v.5-6).

This request is to indicate which of the questionnaire items from the approved library of items (Appendix F NAEP 2018-2019 Questionnaires) will be used in NAEP 2018 and to provide the final versions of all NAEP 2018 communication materials, which are a subset of the approved library of communication materials (Appendix D NAEP 2018 & 2019 Communication Materials).

The final questionnaires to be administered as part of NAEP 2018 are presented as a new package document, Appendix I. In addition, minor wording changes have been made to some of the items based on pilot and cognitive testing and final reviews. All of these changes are non-substantive in nature and are also listed in Appendix I in a “Summary of Revisions” table included for each subject as applicable.

Please note that some of the questionnaires will utilize spiraling in order to minimize respondent burden while maximizing the amount of items that can be piloted. The spiral maps for these questionnaires are included in Appendix I as well.

The final set of all NAEP 2018 communication materials reflects the particular assessments to be administered, and is provided as Appendix J. Each appendix part is noted as being: 1) the same as in the approved Appendix D; 2) updated for 2018 (to be approved in this version); or 3) draft version that will be updated and submitted to OMB for final approval as a non-substantive change request by October 2017.

This amendment does not change the estimated respondent burden or the cost to the federal government.