[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 134 (Friday, July 12, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41924-41926]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-16696]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Impact Evaluation of Math
Professional Development
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
(Privacy Act), the Department of Education (Department) publishes this
notice of a new system of records entitled ``Impact Evaluation of Math
Professional Development'' (18-13-35). The National Center for
Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Department's
Institute of Education Sciences awarded a contract in September 2012 to
American Institutes for Research to conduct an impact evaluation of an
intensive, content-focused math professional development (PD) program
on teacher knowledge, teacher practices, and student achievement. The
system of records will contain records on approximately 200 fourth-
grade teachers and their students in 6 school districts and will be
used to conduct the study.
DATES: Submit your comments on this proposed new system of records on
or before August 12, 2013.
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 June 25, 2013. This system of records will become
effective at the later date of--(1) the expiration of the 40-day period
for OMB review on August 4, 2013, unless OMB waives 10 days of the 40-
day review period for compelling reasons shown by the Department, or
(2) August 12, 2013, 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 system of records 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 Math Professional Development'' 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), you may 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 records about individuals that contain
individually identifying information that are retrieved by a unique
identifier associated with each individual, such as
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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.''
The Privacy Act requires the Department to publish a system of
records notice in the Federal Register upon establishment or revision
of the system of records.
Whenever the Department publishes a new system of records or makes
a significant change to an established system of records, 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: June 25, 2013.
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:
18-13-35
SYSTEM NAME:
Impact Evaluation of Math Professional Development.
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) The American Institutes for Research, 1000 Thomas Jefferson St.
NW., Washington, DC 20007 (contractor).
(3) Harvard University, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
02138 (subcontractor).
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
The system of records will contain records on approximately 200
fourth-grade teachers and their students in 6 school districts.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
The system of records will include information about the teachers
and students who are included in the study. The teacher-level
information will include, but will not necessarily be limited to:
Teacher IDs; names and IDs of the school and school district in which
the teacher teaches; demographic information such as race, ethnicity,
gender, and educational background (teaching experience, prior math
coursework, college major, highest degree, professional development
activities, and teacher certification status); and scores on a teacher
knowledge test and classroom observation measure. The student-level
information will include, but will not necessarily be limited to:
Student IDs; the IDs of the student's teacher; month and year of birth;
demographic information such as race, ethnicity, gender, and
educational background (attendance level, grade level, free and
reduced-price lunch status, English language learner status, and
special education status); and assessment information and scores on
mathematics State assessments and a computer-adaptive mathematics test.
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 this system of records will be used to
conduct an impact evaluation of an intensive, content-focused math
professional development (PD) program on teacher knowledge, teacher
practices, and student achievement.
The study will address the following two research questions: (1)
What is the average impact of providing teachers with a specialized
professional development intervention relative to ``business-as-usual''
professional development on (a) teachers' content knowledge, (b)
teachers' classroom practices, and (c) student achievement? (2) How is
the professional development intervention implemented? What challenges
were encountered during the process of implementing the intervention?
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 this system of
records under the routine uses listed here 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 identifiable 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 license
confidential information from this system of records to qualified
external researchers solely for the purpose of carrying out specific
research that is compatible with the purpose(s) of this system of
records. The researcher must maintain, under the Privacy Act and the
ESRA, safeguards with respect to such records. When personally
identifiable information from a student's education record will be
disclosed to the researcher, under the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. 1232g), the researcher must comply with
the requirements in the applicable FERPA exception to consent.
(2) Contract Disclosure. If the Department contracts with an entity
to perform any function that requires
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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
(American Institutes for Research) and subcontractor (Harvard
University) 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 teacher or 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 subcontractor, 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 subcontractor will establish a similar set of
procedures at their sites to ensure confidentiality of data. The
contractor and subcontractor are required to ensure that print data
identifying individuals are in files physically separated from other
research data and that electronic files identifying individuals are
separated from other electronic research data files. The contractor and
subcontractor 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 non-working 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. The Department's, contractor's, and
subcontractor's 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 (20 U.S.C. 9573).
RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
These records are covered by a draft records schedule under
development, ED 231 Research and Statistics Records. This schedule
shall be submitted to the National Archives and Records Administration
for review and approval when complete. Until such time as it is
approved by NARA, no records shall be destroyed.
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. In addition, you must meet the
requirements of the Department's Privacy Act regulations at 34 CFR
5b.7, including, 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 teachers and students included
in the Impact Evaluation of Math Professional Development. Data will be
obtained through study data collection from teachers and students, as
well as administrative records maintained by school districts.
EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
None.
[FR Doc. 2013-16696 Filed 7-11-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P