Assessment Panel Seeks Ways To Attract State Participation

Arlington, Va.

To shore up and expand participation by states in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics is assembling a task force to learn how NAEP can best serve the states.

State participation in the assessment, known as the nation's report card, dropped between 1996's and this year's administrations of the exam, and federal officials are eager to have a good showing in 2000. NCES Commissioner Pascal D. Forgione Jr. briefed the National Assessment Governing Board on the creation of the task force at the board's quarterly...