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The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is mandated by the United States Congress to survey the educational accomplishments of U.S. students and monitor changes in those accomplishments. For more than 25 years, NAEP has assessed the educational achievement of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students in selected subject areas, making it the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what U.S. students know and can do. NAEP assessments are based on content frameworks and specifications developed through a national consensus process involving teachers, curriculum experts, parents, and members of the general public. The frameworks are designed to reflect a balance among the emphases suggested by current instructional efforts, curriculum reform, contemporary research, and desirable levels of achievement. In 1996, NAEP assessed the abilities of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in the subjects of mathematics and science. The first release of results from the mathematics assessment appeared in the "NAEP 1996 Mathematics Report Card", a report designed to provide policymakers and the public with a broad view of student achievement. The current report, which provides a more detailed perspective on mathematics achievement and practices in 1996, is primarily for teachers, curriculum specialists, and school administrators. To illustrate what students know and can do, the report presents examples of student work in five different content strands of mathematics. Information on current instruction in mathematics classes, as reported by students and teachers, is also included. This report presents three types of information derived from the NAEP 1996 mathematics assessment: (1) information on what students know and can do in mathematics; (2) information on course-taking patterns and current classroom practices in this subject area; and (3) information on student attitudes toward mathematics. The first portion of this information is derived from an analysis of student performance on the actual assessment exercises. The latter two portions draw upon the questionnaires completed by the students who participated in the assessment and their mathematics teachers. The chapters on student work are organized around the five content strands assessed by NAEP: (1) Number Sense, Properties, and Operations; (2) Measurement; (3) Geometry and Spatial Sense; (4) Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability; and (5) Algebra and Functions. Discussion within these chapters also highlights students' proficiency on a number of cognitive skills that cut across the different content areas. These include conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, and problem solving, as well as the ability to reason in mathematical situations, to communicate perceptions and conclusions drawn from a mathematical context, and to connect the mathematical nature of a situation with related mathematical knowledge and information gained from other disciplines or through observation. (ASK)

The data collected through the 1994 Federal Libraries and Information Centers Survey present a picture of federal libraries and information centers that provide a wide variety of services to their respective agencies as well as to the general public. Federal libraries and information centers reported holding over 51 million volumes or volume equivalents in print and about 625,000 current serial subscriptions. In addition, about half of these federal libraries and information centers indicated providing centralized technical services and selective dissemination of information services; about two in five reported providing professional consultation services and preparing published bibliographies; and about one in three reported producing publications other than bibliographies and providing outreach services such as bookmobiles, clinical and circuit libraries, and regional services. More than half of the federal libraries and information centers either included the general public in their clientele or reported having services available to the public. These libraries have responded to the advanced technology revolution. About one third of the federal libraries and information centers indicated they maintain some electronic collections, and the majority of respondents indicated that they have available the more common technologies such as fax, e-mail, CD-ROM, local area networks (LANs), and Internet access. The report contains an executive summary, introduction and three chapters: (1) Services; (2) Collections and Expenditures; and (3) Staff. Appendices include: the 1994 Federal Libraries and Information Centers Survey; technical notes--survey, data collection, and statistical procedures; and tables of standard errors and response rates. (SWC)