Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 4.djvu/404

 112 STAT. 2681-375 PUBLIC LAW 105-277—OCT. 21, 1998 Board established under section 412 of the National Education Statistics Act of 1994 (20 U.S.C. 9011). (c) STUDIES.— (1) PURPOSE, DEFINITION, AND ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS. —The National Assessment Governing Board shall determine and clearly articulate in a report the purpose and intended use of any proposed federally sponsored national test. Such report shall also include— (A) a definition of the meaning of the term "voluntary" in regards to the administration of any national test; and (B) a description of the achievement levels and reporting methods to be used in grading any national test. The report shall be submitted to the White House, the Committees on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate, and the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate not later than September 30, 1999. (2) RESPONSE TO REPORT. —The National Assessment Governing Board shall develop and submit to the entities identified in paragraph (1) a report, not later than September 30, 1999, that addresses and responds to the findings reported by the National Academy of Sciences in the report entitled "Grading the Nation's Report Card: Evaluating NAEP and Transforming the Assessment of Educational Progress" that assert that the achievement levels of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are fundamentally flawed. (3) TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY.— The National Academy of Sciences shall conduct a study regarding the technical feasibility, validity, and reliability of including test items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 4th grade reading and 8th grade mathematics or from other tests in State and district assessments for the purpose of providing a common measure of individual student performance. The National Academy of Sciences shall submit, to the entities identified under paragraph (1), an interim progress report not later than June 30, 1999 and a final report not later than September 30, 1999. SEC. 306. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any institution of higher education which receives funds under title III of the Higher Education Act, except for grants made under section 326, may use up to 20 percent of its award under part A or part B of the Act for endowment building purposes authorized under section 331. Any institution seeking to use part A or part B funds for endowment building purposes shall indicate such intention in its application to the Secretary and shall abide by departmental regulations governing the endowment challenge grant program. SEC. 307. (a) From the amount appropriated for title VI of the Elementary suid Secondary Education Act of 1965 in accordance with this section, the Secretary of Education— (1) shall make available a total of $6,000,000 to the Secretary of the Interior (on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs) and the outlying areas for activities under this section; and (2) shall allocate the remainder by providing each State the greater of the amount the State would receive if a total of $1,124,620,000 were allocated under section 1122 of the

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