[Federal Register: December 30, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 249)]
[Notices]
[Page 69081-69084]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30de09-41]
Download: 
----------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Race to the Top Fund
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.395C
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of three additional public meetings and request for
input from technical experts pertaining to a possible Race to the Top
Assessment program, and provide technical assistance to States for the
development and implementation of high-quality assessments based on
common standards.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: On October 23, 2009, the Department announced in the Federal
Register (74 FR 54795) a series of public meetings to be held
throughout November and December 2009 to inform its work on a potential
Assessment Program within the Race to the Top Fund and to provide
technical assistance to States. This notice announces three additional
public meetings intended to address questions outlined in the October
notice that have not been fully covered, and new topic areas and
questions that have emerged based on public and expert input. As
announced in the October notice, by March 2010, the Secretary of
Education (Secretary) intends to announce a competition for a program
that would support one or more consortia of States that are working
toward jointly developing and implementing common, high-quality
assessments aligned with a consortium's common set of kindergarten-
through-grade-12 (K-12) standards that are internationally benchmarked
and that build toward college and career readiness by the time of high
school completion. To inform the design of this program and the
development of a notice inviting applications that establishes the
requirements for this competition, and to provide technical assistance
to States, the Secretary continues to seek input from States, technical
experts, and members of the public through public meetings and written
submissions. Following the public meetings and review of the written
submissions, the Department intends to publish a notice inviting
applications for such a competition.
DATES: Public meetings will be held on the dates and at the locations
specified later in this notice. Written submissions must be received by
the Department by 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on Wednesday, January 20,
2010.
ADDRESSES: For those submitting written input, we encourage submissions
by e-mail using the following address:
racetothetop.assessment@ed.gov. If you prefer to send your input
by mail, address it to Office of Elementary and Secondary Education,
Attention: Race to the Top Assessment Program--Public Input Meetings,
U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 3W339,
Washington, DC 20202.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: U.S. Department of Education, 400
Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 3W339, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: 202-
453-7246 or by e-mail: racetothetop.assessment@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: The Race to the Top Fund, authorized under the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Public Law 111-5,
provides $4.35 billion for competitive grants to States to encourage
and reward States that are creating the conditions for education
innovation and reform; implementing ambitious plans in the four
education reform areas described in the ARRA; and achieving significant
improvement in student outcomes, including making substantial gains in
student achievement, closing achievement gaps, improving high school
graduation rates, and ensuring student preparation for success in
college and careers.
The Department is considering implementing two separate programs
under the Race to the Top Fund. The first, a general program, was
announced in November through a notice inviting applications and notice
of final priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria
published in the Federal Register on November 18, 2009 (74 FR 59688).
Under this general program, the Department will award approximately $4
billion to State applicants that have demonstrated that they have
created certain conditions for education innovation and reform;
achieved significant improvement in student outcomes, including making
substantial gains in student achievement, closing achievement gaps,
improving high school graduation rates, and ensuring student
preparation for success in college and careers; and proposed to develop
and implement comprehensive reform strategies that are integrated
across the four ARRA education reform areas.
Through this notice, we are seeking additional input on a second
proposed program (Assessment Program), which would provide
approximately $350 million in grants to consortia of States for the
development of common, high-quality assessments aligned with an
applicant consortium's common set of K-12 standards that are
internationally benchmarked and that build toward college and career
readiness by the time of high school completion.
At a later date, guided by the input from the public meetings and
written submissions described in this notice, and in conjunction with
the input received in response to the October 23, 2009 notice, the
Secretary intends to issue a notice inviting applications for a
competition for this second program that would set forth the
requirements and criteria for the submission of applications. Should
the Secretary decide not to conduct the Race to the Top Assessment
Program, the $350 million designated for this program will revert to
fund additional grants under the general Race to the Top Program.
Because requirements for an assessment program are highly
technical, the Department has been soliciting input through public
meetings to inform the design and development of this program,
including the notice inviting applications, and to provide technical
assistance to States. Based on the input received in the three public
meetings and written comments received thus far, the Department will
hold a second series of public meetings to address issues articulated
in this notice. At these meetings invited experts and members of the
public will have the opportunity to provide input, including written
input. Should we decide to implement this Assessment Program by holding
a competition, we do not intend to conduct notice and comment
rulemaking. Section 437(d)(1) of the General Education Provisions Act,
20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1), allows the
[[Page 69082]]
Department to waive rulemaking for the first grant competition under a
new or substantially revised program authority. This would be the first
competition for an Assessment Program under the Race to the Top Fund.
The three meetings announced in the previous notice and held in
November and December have informed the Department's thinking on the
design and development of the potential competition and on the notice
inviting applications. In addition, these meetings have provided an
important opportunity for the Department and States to learn more about
the design, development, and implementation of high-quality
assessments. The Department intends to extend that learning to a new
set of questions in the next set of meetings announced in this notice.
As with the previous meetings, the Department expects that States, in
particular, will acquire critical knowledge about best practices in
assessments, especially on the development and management of assessment
consortia, and then be able to employ that knowledge in developing
their applications and in designing high-quality assessments.
Details of Public Meetings
Structure of Public Meetings:
The Department anticipates that each meeting will have two
components as follows:
(1) Input from invited panels of experts and stakeholders:
[cir] Each meeting will have an invited set of panelists who will
have a set amount of time to respond individually to the questions in
this notice.
[cir] The Department representatives will then ask questions of
individual panelists and facilitate cross-panelist discussion.
(2) Open opportunity to share input:
[cir] Each meeting will have 30 to 60 minutes for interested
members of the public, who have registered to speak, to respond to the
questions in this notice.
[cir] Each individual scheduled to speak will have 5 minutes to
provide oral input.
[cir] Written submissions will also be accepted as described in the
Submission of Written Input section.
Each meeting will focus on a particular topic as indicated in the
next section. The Department will share any updates, including posting
additional questions, online at
http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/index.html.
Topic Areas, Dates, Times, Locations, and Registration Information:
The public meetings will occur on the following dates at the times
and locations indicated below.
Topic Area: Project and Consortium Management
[cir] Wednesday, January 13; in Washington, DC; at the United
States Department of Education's Potomac Center Plaza at 550 12th
Street, SW., 10th floor conference room, Washington, DC; from 10:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Topic Area: Procurement
[cir] Thursday, January 14; in Washington, DC; at the United States
Department of Education's Potomac Center Plaza at 550 12th Street, SW.,
10th floor conference room, Washington, DC; from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30
p.m.
Topic Area: General and Technical Assessment
[cir] Wednesday, January 20; in Washington, DC; at a Washington, DC
metro area location to be determined and announced via the Department's
Web site; from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Attendance: If you are interested in attending an event, you must
register by first sending an e-mail to racetothetop.assessment@ed.gov.
The subject line of your e-mail must read, ``Request form.'' A
registration form will be automatically sent to you. You must complete
this form electronically and return it by e-mail. Detailed instructions
are included in the form. Registrations will be processed on a first-
come, first-served basis with space reserved for State participants.
Individuals will be notified by e-mail when their registration is
confirmed.
Providing input: If you are interested in speaking during the open
input portion of the meeting, you must register by first sending an e-
mail to racetothetop.assessment@ed.gov. The subject line of your e-mail
must read, ``Speaker request form.'' A registration form will be
automatically sent to you. You must complete this form electronically
and return it by e-mail. Detailed instructions are included in the
form. Because the number of public speaking slots is limited,
individuals and organizations may register to speak at only one of the
three meetings. Requests to speak will be processed on a first-come,
first-served basis. Confirmed speakers will be notified by the
Department by e-mail, and will be asked to bring two hard copies of
their input to the meeting. People who are unable to attend a meeting
in person or who do not register early enough to speak during the
meeting are encouraged to submit written input.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities at the Public Meetings
The meeting sites will be accessible to individuals with
disabilities and sign language interpreters will be available. If you
need an auxiliary aid or service (e.g., interpreting service such as
sign language, oral, cued speech, or tactile interpreter; assisted
listening device; or materials in alternate format) to participate in
the meeting, notify the Department using the contact information
provided in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this
document at least two weeks before the scheduled meeting date. Although
we will attempt to meet any requests we receive after this date, we may
not be able to make available the requested auxiliary aid or service
because of insufficient time.
Submission of Written Input:
All interested parties, including those who cannot attend a meeting
or from whom we do not have time to hear at a meeting, may submit
written input in response to this notice.
Written input will be accepted at the meeting site or via e-mail
and mail at the addresses listed in the ADDRESSES section of this
notice. Written input must be submitted by the date listed in the DATES
section.
When submitting input at the meetings, we request that you submit
two written copies. Please include your name, organization (if
applicable), and contact information.
Both at the meetings and in your written submission, we encourage
you to be as specific as possible. To ensure that your input is fully
considered, we urge you to identify clearly the specific question,
purpose, and characteristic that each of your suggestions addresses and
to arrange your submission in the order of the questions listed in this
notice. Please also include a description of your involvement, if any,
in statewide assessment practices.
Sharing Input Publicly:
The Department is committed to gathering and sharing publicly the
input from the meetings and written submissions. Each meeting will be
transcribed. All transcripts will be available for viewing at
http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/index.html. All written
input received will be available for viewing via this Web site as well.
Assessment Program Design and Questions
As described in the October 23 notice, we intend for the Assessment
Program to support consortia of States working toward jointly
developing and implementing a next generation of common summative
assessments that are aligned with a common set of kindergarten-through-
grade-12 internationally benchmarked, college-
[[Page 69083]]
and career-ready standards that model and support effective teaching
and student learning. Such summative assessments would allow students,
including students with disabilities and English language learners, to
demonstrate at each grade level tested their mastery of knowledge and
skills and the extent to which each student is on track to college- and
career-readiness by the time of high school graduation.
In designing the requirements for this program, the Secretary is
particularly interested in innovative and effective approaches to
assessment that will assist States in creating powerful and useful
systems of assessment that meet these requirements.
In the following paragraphs, we have provided a framework that
outlines the characteristics we believe should be required or
encouraged in assessment systems supported by a grant under this
proposed program. We then list the specific questions on which we seek
input, taking into account this framework.
It is important to note that this proposed program, the public
meetings, and the framework below would focus on the design and quality
of assessment systems and not on accountability policies, such as those
described in section 1116 of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Action (ESEA). Given the pending reauthorization of the ESEA, we intend
that the Assessment Program would support the development of the best
possible assessments that could be not only appropriately used by
States under the current ESEA assessment and accountability
requirements, but could also serve additional purposes as outlined
later in this notice.
Framework:
Design of Assessment Systems--General Requirements
The Department is particularly interested in supporting the
development of summative assessments that measure--
Individual student achievement as measured against
standards that build toward college- and career-readiness by the time
of high school completion;
Individual student growth (that is, the change in student
achievement data for an individual student between two or more points
in time); and
The extent to which each individual student is on track,
at each grade level tested, toward college- or career-readiness by the
time of high school completion.
At a minimum, we would expect that the common assessments would
measure each of these elements in the subject areas of reading/language
arts and mathematics, would provide information for each student
annually in grades 3 through 8, and would provide information at the
high school level about each student's college- and/or career-
readiness. The assessments would not need to be limited to a single
end-of-year assessment but could include multiple summative components
administered at different points during the school year. Moreover, the
assessments might be viewed as replacing rather than adding to the
assessments currently in use in States participating in the consortia.
Information gathered from the assessments should be useable in
informing--
Teaching, learning, and program improvement;
Determinations of school effectiveness;
Determinations of principal and teacher effectiveness in
order to inform evaluation and the provision of support to teachers and
principals; and
Determinations of individual student college- and career-
readiness, such as determinations made for high school exit decisions,
college course placement in credit-bearing classes, or college
entrance.
Design of Assessment Systems--Required Characteristics
With respect to the design of the assessment system, the Department
would likely require that the assessments, at a minimum, meet the
following characteristics:
(1) Reflect and support good instructional practice by eliciting
complex responses and demonstrations of knowledge and skills consistent
with the goal of being college and career ready by the time of high
school completion;
(2) Be accessible to the broadest possible range of students, with
appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities and English
language learners;
(3) Contain varied and unpredictable item types and content
sampling, so as not to create incentives for inappropriate test
preparation and curriculum narrowing;
(4) Produce results that can be aggregated at the classroom,
school, local educational agency (LEA), and State levels;
(5) Produce reports that are relevant, actionable, timely,
accurate, and displayed in ways that are clear and understandable for
target audiences, including teachers, students and their families,
schools, LEAs, communities, States, institutions of higher education,
policymakers, researchers, and others;
(6) Make effective and appropriate use of technology;
(7) Be valid, reliable, and fair;
(8) Be appropriately secure for the intended purposes;
(9) Have the fastest possible turnaround time on scoring, without
forcing the use of lower-quality assessment items; and
(10) Be able to be maintained, administered, and scored at a cost
that is sustainable over time.
Design of Assessment Systems--Desired Characteristics
In addition, the Department is particularly interested in
assessment systems in which--
(1) Teachers are involved in scoring of constructed responses and
performance tasks in order to measure effectively students' mastery of
higher-order content and skills and to build teacher expertise and
understanding of performance expectations;
(2) The assessment approach can be easily adapted to include
summative assessments in other content areas (e.g., science, social
studies) in the future;
(3) The technology ``platform'' created for summative assessments
supports assessment and item development, administration, scoring, and
reporting that increases the quality and cost-effectiveness of
assessments; and
(4) The technology infrastructure created for summative assessments
can be easily adapted to support practitioners and professionals in the
development, administration, and/or scoring of high-quality interim
assessments.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Consistent with section 14006(c) of ARRA, the October 23,
2009 Federal Register notice announcing the initial public meetings
for the assessment competition stated that at least 50 percent of
any award under this competition would have to be provided to local
educational agencies through sub-grants (74 FR 54796). However,
section 310(2) of the Department of Education Appropriations Act,
2010 amended ARRA to make this requirement not apply to ``grants
made by the Secretary to consortia of States to develop academic
assessments that are aligned with academic standards.'' Therefore,
the requirement that 50 percent of the funds must be sub-granted to
LEAs does not apply to this assessment competition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Questions for Input:
The specific additional questions on which the Department seeks
input are listed below. All input, including expert presentations and
discussions, public input, and written submissions, should focus
primarily on responding to these questions in the context of the
framework outlined above, and may also provide input on the framework
itself. We encourage you to make your input as specific as possible, to
provide
[[Page 69084]]
evidence to support your proposals and answers, and to present the
information in a context and format that will be helpful to States
implementing high-quality assessments. These additional questions focus
on the topics of project and consortium management, procurement, and
general and technical assessment matters.
To ensure that your input is fully considered in the development of
the notice inviting applications, we urge you to identify clearly the
specific question, purpose, or characteristic that you are addressing,
and to arrange your input in the order of the questions as they are
listed in this notice.
Project and Consortium Management Questions
1. How would you recommend organizing a consortium to achieve
success in developing and implementing the proposed assessment system?
a. What governance model do you suggest and why? What leadership
model do you suggest and why?
b. What recommendations do you have on the decision-making process
within a consortium?
c. What recommendations do you have for States that are organizing
consortia regarding:
how to differentiate roles, responsibilities, and
workloads within a consortium?
roles for third parties (e.g., conveners, project
managers, assessment developers/partners, intermediaries)?
d. What advice do you have on the characteristics that all
consortium members must have in common in order for a consortium to be
successful, and what characteristics can vary across member States,
e.g., philosophical approaches to assessment, standards, scope and
sequence, etc.?
2. What would you recommend that a consortium be asked to
demonstrate in its application to show that it has the capacity,
structure, and potential to implement its proposed plan? What are the
critical success indicators six, 12 and 18 months into the life of a
consortium? What signals are predictive of ultimate success or failure?
3. What could go wrong in the development and management of a
consortium and what can States do to mitigate these factors up front?
In what ways could the Department structure the competition to help
mitigate these factors?
Procurement Questions
1. How do differences in State procurement rules affect how you
would design and manage a consortium? How will State procurement
regulations, processes and time frames likely affect how a consortium
carries out the development, piloting, and implementation of common
assessments? (You may use examples from outside the education sector,
if relevant.)
2. States have expressed interest in acquiring information about,
and input and ideas from, potential assessment partners/vendors in
advance of completing their applications. What actions, if any, would
you advise the Department to take to help facilitate this?
3. States expressed a desire to run competitive (as opposed to
sole-sourced) processes for selecting partners/vendors. How would you
advise the Department to structure the application to enable States to
do so? What other ideas would you offer in designing a process that is
flexible enough to accommodate other challenges that States might
encounter over time (e.g., challenges related to partner/vendor
selection or contract change management)?
General and Technical Assessment Questions
The Department continues to synthesize input received in response
to the October 23 notice of public input meetings. Approximately two
weeks in advance of the January 20 meeting on this topic, the
Department intends to publish via our website
(http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/resources.html)
a list of general and
technical assessment questions on which further input is requested.
Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this
document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print,
audiotape, or computer diskette) on request to the program contact
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Electronic Access to This Document: You can 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.
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:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.
Dated: December 24, 2009.
Arne Duncan,
Secretary of Education.
[FR Doc. E9-30975 Filed 12-28-09; 11:15 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P