OMB83 Change Memo v13

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

Date: February 20, 2019

To: Robert Sivinski, OMB

From: Linda Hamilton, NCES

Through: Kashka Kubzdela, NCES

Re: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2019 and 2020 MSTS Pilot Study Results Change Request (OMB# 1850-0928 v.13)

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 request to conduct NAEP 2019 and 2020 was approved in September 2018 with the latest change request in November 2018 (OMB# 1850-0928 v.10-12) including operational assessments, pilot tests, and special studies, and all final procedures and materials for NAEP 2019, which comprise operational, national-level, Digitally Based Assessments (DBA) in mathematics, reading, and science at grades 4, 8, and 12; operational, state-level DBA in mathematics and reading at grades 4 and 8; pilot DBA for 2021 reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8; a paper-based assessment (PBA) to DBA bridge studies in mathematics and reading at grade 12, and science at grades 4, 8, and 12; National Indian Education Study (NIES); Computer Access and Familiarity Study (CAFS); Socioeconomic Status (SES) Questionnaire Study; High School Transcript Study (HSTS); and Middle School Transcript Study (MSTS).

The MSTS is to be administered as part of the 2019 assessment. This request is to include the Findings and Recommendations from the NAEP 2017 Pilot Study of the Middle School Transcript Study (MSTS) as Appendix L. This report will also be posted for public access on the NCES website.

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

In the Supporting Statement Part A included with this request, only the listing of Appendix L (Findings and Recommendations from NAEP 2017 Pilot Study of the Middle School Transcript Study (MSTS)) was added to the Table of Contents page 2. In the Supporting Statement Part B included with this request, only the following sentence was added to the end of section B.4 (Pilot Testing and Data Uses) on page 12: “The findings and recommendations from NAEP 2017 MSTS Pilot Study () have been provided in this submission in Appendix L.”

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