U.S. Department of Education, Grants & Contracts Services, 7th & D Street, SW, Room 3633, ROB-3, Washington, DC 20202-4337

B -- DEVELOPING ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS ON THE 1998 NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATION PROGRESS IN CIVICS AND WRITING SOL RFP-97-N01 DUE 031097 POC Stephen R. Swearingen, 202-357-0392/Contracting Officer, Daniel B. Taylor, 202-357-6938 The purpose of this Procurement is to carry out a process and to produce a set of recommendations which will assist the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) in developing achievement levels on the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP). Specifically, the requirement is for designing and conducting an achievement level-setting activity for the 1998 NAEP civics and writing assessments; for designing and conducting relevant research studies that will assist in the planning of this initiative in accordance with the Board's policies on standard setting and redesign; and for conducting a series of appropriate validation studies related to the current assessments examing the reasonableness of the levels being proposed, the validity of the levels, and the information value of the levels to the public. The achievement levels shall be established by the Board to define what students should know and be able to do at key grades in school and will be used for reporting NAEP results in a way which greatly increases its value to the American public. In arriving at a policy judgement, the National Assessment Governing Board will be informed by the technical work of this contract. The period of performance will be forty-eight months. RFP-97-N01 shall be issued on or about January 24, 1997. It is anticipated that the closing date for receipt of proposals will be on or about March 10, 1997. The RFP may retrieved in any one of five ways: The complete RFP appears on the NAGB Web site, http://www.NAGB.org where the Statement of Work can be viewed, and/or the complete solicitation can be downloaded. Telephone requests should be placed by calling 202-357-6938 or 202- 357-0392. FAX requests should be placed by dialing 202-357-6945. Written requests should be sent to the address given above. In response to all telephone, FAX, or written requests, RFP's will be mailed via regular U.S. Postal Service mail on or after the release date. Copies may be picked up on or after the date of release at address given above. (0009)

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