One year before the National Education Summit, Congress had reauthorized the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and created a National Assessment Governing Board to develop and oversee policy for the NAEP. In conjunction with the call to establish national education goals, efforts are being made to establish standards for achievement on the NAEP. The Angoff method, the most widely used and straightforward of the judgmental evaluation methods was used to set standards as a first step toward setting achievement levels on the NAEP. The National Academy of Education Panel on the Evaluation of the NAEP Trial State Assessment was asked to evaluate the 1992 achievement levels and issues surrounding their use. The panel conducted four field-based studies, each involving more than 1,000 students at grades 4 and 8 before arriving at the conclusion that the 1992 achievement levels were set unreasonably high. Short-term recommendations were made regarding setting achievement levels, beginning with the discontinuation of both the Angoff method and the reporting by achievement levels for 1992. Long-term recommendations and suggestions for the design of the NAEP are also made. An appendix provides synopses of 10 background studies. Sixteen figures and 34 tables present achievement data and examples of test items. (Contains 49 references.) (SLD)