This report provides a description of the design for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1994 Trial State Assessment in Reading and gives an overview of the steps involved in the implementation of the program from the planning stages through to the analysis and reporting of data. The report does not provide the results of the assessment--rather, it provides information on how those results were derived. Chapters in the report are (1) "Overview: The Design, Implementation, and Analysis of the 1994 Trial State Assessment Program in Reading" (John Mazzeo and Nancy L. Allen); (2) "Developing the Objectives, Cognitive Items, Background Questions, and Assessment Instruments" (Jay R. Campbell and Patricia L. Donahue); (3) "Sample Design and Selection" (James L. Green and others); (4) "State and School Cooperation and Field Administration" (Nancy Caldwell and Mark Waksberg); (5) "Processing and Scoring Assessment Materials" (Patrick Bourgeacq and others); (6) "Creation of the Database, Quality Control of Data Entry, and Creation of the Database Products" (John J. Ferris and others); (7) "Weighting Procedures and Variance Estimation" (Mansour Fahimi and others); (8) "Theoretical Background and Philosophy of NAEP Scaling Procedures" (Eugene G. Johnson and others); (9) "Data Analysis and Scaling for the 1994 Trial State Assessment in Reading" (Nancy L. Allen and others); and (10) "Conventions Used in Reporting the Results of the 1994 Trial State Assessment in Reading" (John Mazzeo and Clyde M. Reese). Contains 48 tables and 25 figures of data. Appendixes provide a list of participants in the objectives and item development process, a summary of participation rates, conditioning variables and contrast codings, IRT parameters for reading items, information on Trial State Assessment reporting subgroups, and discussions of setting achievement levels, the effect of monitoring an assessment sessions in nonpublic schools, correction of the NAEP program documentation error, and the information weighting error. (RS)