[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 198 (Friday, October 12, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62228-62231]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-25186]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Impact Evaluation of Race
to the Top and School Improvement Grants
AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of a new system of records.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5
U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act), the Department of Education (Department)
publishes this notice of a new system of records entitled ``Impact
Evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants'' (18-13-
32). The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional
Assistance at
[[Page 62229]]
the Department's Institute of Education Sciences awarded a contract in
September 2010 to Mathematica Policy Research to conduct an
implementation and impact evaluation of two of the Department's grant
programs: Race to the Top and Title I School Improvement Grants. The
system of records will contain records on students in tested grades
from approximately 61 school districts in 21 states and the District of
Columbia, and will be used to conduct the study.
DATES: In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act, the
Department seeks comments on the new system of records described in
this notice and in particular on the proposed routine uses for the new
system of records. We must receive your comments on or before November
13, 2012.
The Department filed a report describing the new system of records
covered by this notice with the Chair of the Senate Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Chair of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Administrator of
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) on October 9, 2012. This system of records will become
effective at the later date of--(1) the expiration of the 40-day period
for OMB review on November 19, 2012, unless OMB waives 10 days of the
40-day review period for compelling reasons shown by the Department, or
(2) November 13, 2012, unless the system of records needs to be changed
as a result of public comment or OMB review. The Department will
publish any changes to the system of records or routine uses that
result from public comment or OMB review.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about the proposed routine uses to Dr.
Audrey Pendleton, Associate Commissioner, Evaluation Division, National
Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue
NW., Room 502D, Washington, DC 20208-0001. Telephone: (202) 208-7078.
If you prefer to send your comments through the Internet, use the
following address: [email protected]. You must include the term ``Impact
Evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants'' in the
subject line of the electronic message.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about this notice at the Department in Room 502D, 555 New
Jersey Avenue NW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and
4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, Monday through Friday of each week
except Federal holidays.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking
Record
On request we will provide an appropriate accommodation or
auxiliary aid to an individual with a disability who needs assistance
to review the comments or other documents in the public rulemaking
record for this notice. If you want to schedule an appointment for this
type of accommodation or auxiliary aid, please contact the person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Audrey Pendleton, Associate
Commissioner, Evaluation Division, National Center for Education
Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences,
U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW., Room 502D,
Washington, DC 20208-0001. Telephone: (202) 208-7078. If you use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text telephone (TTY),
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in an
accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or compact
disc) on request to the contact person listed in this section.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
The Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) requires the Department to publish
in the Federal Register this notice of a new system of records (5
U.S.C. 552a(e)(4) and (e)(11)). The Department's regulations
implementing the Privacy Act are contained in the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) at 34 CFR part 5b.
The Privacy Act applies to information about individuals that
contains individually identifying information and that is retrieved by
a unique identifier associated with each individual, such as a name or
social security number. The information about each individual is called
a ``record,'' and the system, whether manual or computer based, is
called a ``system of records.''
Whenever the Department publishes a new system of records or makes
a significant change to an established system of records, the Privacy
Act requires it to publish a system of records notice in the Federal
Register. The Department is also required to submit reports to the
Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at
OMB, the Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs, and the Chair of the House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. These reports are
intended to permit an evaluation of the probable effect of the proposal
on the privacy rights of individuals.
Electronic Access to This Document
The official version of this document is the document published in
the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the official edition of
the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations is available
via the Federal Digital System at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you
can view this document, as well as all other documents of this
Department published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable
Document Format (PDF). To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader,
which is available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at:
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published
by the Department.
Dated: October 9, 2012.
John Q. Easton,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Director of the
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
(Department) publishes a notice of a new system of records to read as
follows:
SYSTEM NUMBER:
18-13-32
SYSTEM NAME:
Impact Evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
None.
SYSTEM LOCATIONS:
(1) Evaluation Division, National Center for Education Evaluation
and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S.
Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW., Room 502D,
Washington, DC 20208-0001.
(2) Mathematica Policy Research, 600 Alexander Park, Suite 100,
Princeton, NJ 08540 (contractor).
(3) The American Institutes for Research, 1000 Thomas Jefferson St.
[[Page 62230]]
NW., Washington, DC 20007 (subcontractor).
(4) Social Policy Research Associates, 1330 Broadway, Suite 1426,
Oakland, CA 94612 (subcontractor).
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
The system will contain records on students in tested grades from
approximately 61 school districts in 21 states and the District of
Columbia.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
The system of records will include information about the students
who are included in the study. This student-level information will
include, but will not necessarily be limited to, student IDs; the names
and IDs of the school and school district that the student attends;
year of birth; demographic information such as race, ethnicity, gender,
and educational background (grade level, free and reduced-price lunch
status, English language learner status, and special education status);
whether the student graduated from high school and enrolled in college;
and assessment information and scores on reading and mathematics state
assessments.
AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
The study is authorized under the Education Sciences Reform Act of
2002, Part D, Section 171(b)(2) (20 U.S.C. 9561(b)(2)), which
authorizes the IES to ``conduct evaluations of Federal education
programs administered by the Secretary (and as time and resources
allow, other education programs) to determine the impact of such
programs (especially on student academic achievement in the core
academic areas of reading, mathematics, and science).''
PURPOSE(S):
The information contained in the records maintained in this system
will be used to conduct an implementation and impact evaluation of two
of the Department's grant programs: Race to the Top and Title I School
Improvement Grants.
The study will address the following four research questions: (1)
How are Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants implemented at
the State, district, and school levels? (2) Are Race to the Top reforms
related to improvement in student outcomes? (3) Does receipt of School
Improvement Grants funding to implement a school turnaround model
affect outcomes for low-performing schools? (4) Is the implementation
of school turnaround models, and strategies within those models,
related to improvement in student outcomes?
ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
The Department may disclose information contained in a record in
this system of records under the routine uses listed in this system of
records without the consent of the individual if the disclosure is
compatible with the purposes for which the record was collected. The
Department may make these case-by-case disclosures or, if the
Department has complied with the computer matching requirements of the
Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (Privacy Act) (5 U.S.C. 552a), under a
computer matching agreement. Any disclosure of individually identifying
information from a record in this system must also comply with the
requirements of section 183 of the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA)
(20 U.S.C. 9573), which provides confidentiality standards that apply
to all collection, reporting, and publication of data by IES.
(1) Research Disclosure. The Director of IES may disclose
information from this system of records to qualified researchers solely
for the purpose of carrying out specific research that is compatible
with the purpose of this system of records. The researcher shall be
required to maintain under the Privacy Act and the ESRA safeguards with
respect to such records. When individually identifying information from
a student's education record will be disclosed to the researcher under
the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. 1232g (FERPA),
the researcher also shall be required to comply with the requirements
of a written agreement between the researcher and IES pursuant to the
written agreement requirements under FERPA.
(2) Contract Disclosure. If the Department contracts with an entity
to perform any function that requires disclosing records in this system
to the contractor's employees, the Department may disclose the records
to those employees who have received the appropriate level of security
clearance from the Department. Before entering into such a contract,
the Department will require the contractor to establish and maintain
the safeguards required under the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(m)) with
respect to the records in the system.
DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
None.
POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING,
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
The Department maintains records on CD-ROM, and the contractor
(Mathematica Policy Research) and subcontractors (The American
Institutes for Research and Social Policy Research Associates) maintain
data for this system on computers and in hard copy.
RETRIEVABILITY:
Records in this system are indexed and retrieved by a unique random
number assigned to each individual that is cross-referenced by the
individual's unique State- or district-assigned student ID on a
separate list.
SAFEGUARDS:
All physical access to the Department's site and to the sites of
the Department's contractor and subcontractors, where this system of
records is maintained, is controlled and monitored by security
personnel. The computer system employed by the Department offers a high
degree of resistance to tampering and circumvention. This security
system limits data access to Department and contract staff on a need-
to-know basis and controls individual users' ability to access and
alter records within the system.
The contractor and subcontractors will establish a similar set of
procedures at their sites to ensure confidentiality of data. The
contractor and subcontractors are required to ensure that print data
identifying individuals are in files physically separated from other
research data and electronic files identifying individuals are
separated from other electronic research data files. The contractor and
subcontractors will maintain security of the complete set of all master
data files and documentation. Access to individually identifying data
will be strictly controlled. At each site, all print data will be kept
in locked file cabinets during nonworking hours and work on hardcopy
data will take place in a single room, except for data entry.
Physical security of electronic data will also be maintained.
Security features that protect project data include: Password-protected
accounts that authorize users to use the contractor's system but to
access only specific network directories and network software; user
rights and directory and file attributes that limit those who can use
particular directories and files and determine how they can use them;
and additional security features that the network administrators will
establish for projects as needed.
[[Page 62231]]
The Department's, contractor's, and subcontractors' employees who
``maintain'' (collect, maintain, use, or disseminate) data in this
system must comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act and the
confidentiality standards in section 183 of the ESRA.
RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
Records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with the
Department's Records Disposition Schedules ED 068.a (NARA Job Number:
N1-441-08-18).
SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS:
Associate Commissioner, Evaluation Division, National Center for
Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW., Room
502D, Washington, DC 20208-0001.
NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
If you wish to determine whether a record exists regarding you in
the system of records, contact the system manager at the address listed
under SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS. Your request must meet the
requirements of the Department's Privacy Act regulations at 34 CFR
5b.5, including proof of identity.
RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE:
If you wish to gain access to a record about you in this system of
records, contact the system manager at the address listed under SYSTEM
MANAGER AND ADDRESS. Your request must meet the requirements of the
Department's Privacy Act regulations at 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of
identity.
CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURE:
If you wish to contest the content of a record regarding you in the
system of records, contact the system manager at the address listed
under SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS. Your request for access to a record
must meet the requirements of the Department's Privacy Act regulations
at 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of identity, specification of the
particular record you are seeking to have changed, and the written
justification for making such a change.
RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
This system will contain records on students included in the Impact
Evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants. Data will
be obtained through student records maintained by states or school
districts.
EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
None.
[FR Doc. 2012-25186 Filed 10-11-12; 8:45 am]
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