 In 1992 NCEE, in conjunction with 23 states and 6 cities, created the New Standards Project.The goal of New Standards was to develop standards for the core subjects in the curriculum and applied learning standards coupled with new assessment instruments designed to measure those standards using new, complex performance tasks that more closely resemble real world problems, thereby providing a rich context in which students could demonstrate their knowledge and skills 

In the fall of 1998, the NCEE contracted with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) to "conduct the evaluation of the America’s Choice School Design", a program based on the work of NARE and New Standards.The program provides research-based school instructional intervention solutions and programs for states, districts, and schools.