01-31363. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Secondary Analysis Program

ACTION:

Notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2002.

Purpose of Program: To encourage the preparation of reports that would not otherwise be available and that apply new approaches to the analysis and reporting of the NAEP and NAEP High School Transcript Studies data. Analyses and reports prepared under this program should potentially be useful to the general public, parents, educators, educational researchers, or policy makers.

For FY 2002, the competition for new awards focuses on projects designed to meet the priorities we describe in the PRIORITIES section of this application notice.

Eligible Applicants: Public or private organizations and consortia of organizations.

Applications Available: December 21, 2001.

The application package for this competition is also available on line at: http://ed.gov/​GrantApps/​

Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 8, 2002.

Estimated Available Funds: $700,000.

The estimated amount of funds available for new awards is based on the Administration's request for NAEP for FY 2002. The actual level of funding for the secondary analysis program, if any, depends on final congressional action. However, we are inviting applications to allow enough time to complete the grant process before the end of the fiscal year, if Congress appropriates funds for this program.

Estimated Range of Awards: $15,000—$100,000.

Estimated Average Size of Awards: $85,000.

Maximum Award: We will reject any application that proposes a budget exceeding $100,000 for a single budget period of 18 months.

Estimated Number of Awards: 6-8.

Note:

The Department is not bound by any estimates in this notice.

Project Period: Up to 18 months.

Page Limit: The application narrative (Part III of the application) is where you, the applicant, address the selection criteria that reviewers use to evaluate your application. You must limit Part III to the equivalent of no more than 60 pages, using the following standards:

• A page is 8.5″ x 11″, on one side only, with 1” margins at the top, bottom, and both sides.
• You must double space (no more than three lines per vertical inch) all text in the application narrative, including titles, headings, footnotes, quotations, references, and captions, as well as all text in charts, tables, figures, and graphs.
• Use a font that is either 12-point or larger or no smaller than 10 pitch (characters per inch).

The page limit does not apply to Part I, the cover sheet; Part II, the budget section, including the narrative budget justification; Part IV, the assurances and certifications; or the one-page abstract, the resumes, the bibliography, or the letters of support. However, you must include all of the application narrative in Part III.

We will reject your application if—

• You apply these standards and exceed the page limit; or
• You apply other standards and exceed the equivalent of the page limit.

Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75 (except for those provisions of part 75 noted in 34 CFR 700.5(a)), 77, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99. (b) The regulations in 34 CFR part 700.

Priorities

Invitational Priorities

We are particularly interested in applications that meet one or more of the invitational priorities listed in this section of this notice. Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1) we do not give an application that meets one or more of the priorities a competitive or absolute preference over other applications.

Invitational Priority 1—Projects that use NAEP achievement data alone or in combination with other data sets to assist policy makers and educators who make decisions about curriculum and instruction.

Invitational Priority 2—Projects designed to assist States in analyzing, interpreting and reporting their State-level NAEP results.

Invitational Priority 3—Projects that include the development of analytic procedures that improve precision with which NAEP estimates group and subgroup performance.

Invitational Priority 4—Projects that develop improved sampling procedures for national or State-level NAEP.

Invitational Priority 5—Projects to analyze and report data using statistical software developed by the project to permit more advanced analytic techniques to be readily applied to NAEP data.

FOR APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Alex Sedlacek, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 8007, Washington, DC 20006. Telephone: [phone] or via Internet: [e-mail]

If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.

Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on request to the program contact person listed under FOR APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application package in an alternative format by contacting the program person listed under FOR APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. However, the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the standard forms included in the application package.

Electronic Access to This Document

You may view this document, as well as all other Department of Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: www.ed.gov/​legislation/​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 [phone].

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.access.gpo.gov/​nara/​index.html

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 9010.

Dated: December 17, 2001.

Grover J. Whitehurst,

Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.