[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 118 (Tuesday, June 21, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35656-35659]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-12226]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Impact Evaluation of 
Academic Instruction for After-School Programs

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 
Academic Instruction for After-School Programs'' (18-13-13).
    The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional 
Assistance at the Department's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) 
commissioned this evaluation. It will address the following two 
questions:
    (1) What is the effectiveness of offering intensive research-based 
reading support in an after-school program?
    (2) Is it more effective than offering more general academic 
support such as homework help?
    The system will contain information about approximately 4,000 
elementary school students and their teachers (approximately 600 
teachers--12 teachers in each of the studied centers) in 40 to 50 
after-school centers in 20 to 25 school districts yet to be determined. 
One quarter of these students will be participants using a mathematics 
curriculum, one quarter will be participants using a reading 
curriculum, and half will be in a control group. The system will 
include these students' names and demographic information, such as 
race/ethnicity, age, gender, and educational background, their results 
on reading or math assessments, and some of their school records data 
such as attendance and academic history. The system will also include 
responses to student and teacher surveys.

DATES: The Department seeks comment on this new system of records 
described in this notice, in accordance with the requirements of the 
Privacy Act. We must receive your comments on the proposed routine uses 
for the system of records described in this notice on or before July 
21, 2005.
    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 Government Reform, and the

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Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on June 16, 2005. This system of 
records will become effective at the later date of--(1) the expiration 
of the 40 day period for OMB review on July 26, 2005 or (2) July 21, 
2005, unless the system of records needs to be changed as a result of 
public comment or OMB review.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about the proposed routine uses the 
system or records described in this notice to Dr. Ricky Takai, 
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. Telephone: (202) 208-7083. If you 
prefer to send comments through the Internet, use the following 
address: [email protected].
    You must include the term ``After-School Interventions'' in the 
subject line of the electronic message.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all comments 
about this notice in room 502D, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., Washington, 
DC, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Eastern time, Monday 
through Friday of each week except Federal holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking 
Record

    On request, we supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or print 
magnifier, 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 aid, please contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Ricky Takai. Telephone: (202) 208-
7083. If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you 
may call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) 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 
maintained by the Department. The Department's regulations implementing 
the Act are contained in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) in 34 
CFR part 5b.
    The Privacy Act applies to information about individuals that 
contains individually identifiable 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.'' The Privacy Act requires each agency to 
publish notices of new or altered systems of records in the Federal 
Register and to submit reports to the Administrator of the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB), the Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs, and the Chair of the House Committee on 
Government Reform.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may 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) on the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S. 
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in 
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.


    Note: 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 on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.


    Dated: June 16, 2005.
Grover Whitehurst,
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, 
publishes a notice of a new system of records to read as follows:
18-13-13

SYSTEM NAME:
    Impact Evaluation of Academic Instruction For After-School 
Programs.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    (1) 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.
    (2) MDRC, 16 East 34th Street, New York, NY 10016.
    (3) Private/Public Ventures (P/PV), 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, 
Philadelphia, PA 19103.
    (4) Survey Research Management, 1495 Yarmouth Avenue, Suite A, 
Boulder, Colorado 80304.
    The impact evaluation is being conducted by MDRC in collaboration 
with the Bloom Associates, P/PV, and Survey Research Management. Bloom 
Associates will not maintain records from this system of records.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    The system will contain information about approximately 4,000 
elementary school students and their teachers (approximately 600 
teachers--12 teachers in each of the studied centers) in 40 to 50 
after-school centers in 20 to 25 school districts yet to be determined. 
One quarter of these students will be participants using a mathematics 
curriculum, one quarter will be participants using a reading 
curriculum, and half will be in a control group. Participation in the 
study is voluntary. The goal of this study is to establish and evaluate 
the effects of two supplemental academic programs (a reading program 
developed by Success For All and a mathematics program developed by 
Harcourt Publishers) for students with reading and math skills below 
grade level who participate in after-school programs. Study sites will 
include, but not be limited to, after-school programs funded by the 
21st Century Community Learning Centers program.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    The system will include the students' names, demographic 
information such as race/ethnicity, age, gender, and educational 
background, their results on standardized achievement tests, and some 
of their school records data, such as attendance and academic history. 
The system will also include responses to survey questions from the 
students and from the teachers of these students. These surveys will 
request information about the teachers' backgrounds, professional 
experience, and training, as well as information about the academic 
interventions. The student surveys will request information about the 
students' participation in after-school activities

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and other supplemental reading and mathematics activities.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    The evaluation being conducted is authorized under: (1) Sections 
171(b) and 173 of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) (20 
U.S.C. 9561(b) and 9563); and (2) section 4202(a)(2) of the Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child 
Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) (20 U.S.C. 7172(a)(2)).

PURPOSE(S):
    The information in this system will be used for the following 
purpose: to test innovative instructional strategies to be implemented 
in the after-school programs selected for the study. In particular, 
this system is necessary to provide information for analyses of the 
effectiveness of specific reading and mathematics interventions on 
elementary school students who participate in after-school programs.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    The Department of Education (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. These disclosures may be made on a case-by-case basis 
or, if the Department has complied with the computer matching 
requirements of the Privacy Act, 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 ESRA (20 U.S.C. 9573) providing for confidentiality standards that 
apply to all collections, reporting, and publication of data by IES.
    (1) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advice Disclosure. The 
Department may disclose records to the U.S. Department of Justice and 
the Office of Management and Budget if the Department concludes that 
disclosure is desirable or necessary in determining whether particular 
records are required to be disclosed under the FOIA.
    (2) Contract Disclosure. If the Department contracts with an entity 
for the purposes of performing any function that requires disclosure of 
records in this system to employees of the contractor, the Department 
may disclose the records to those employees. Before entering into such 
a contract, the Department requires the contractor to maintain Privacy 
Act safeguards as required under 5 U.S.C. 552a(m) with respect to the 
records in the system.
    (3) Research Disclosure. The Department may disclose records to a 
researcher if an appropriate official of the Department determines that 
the individual or organization to which the disclosure would be made is 
qualified to carry out specific research related to functions or 
purposes of this system of records. The official may disclose records 
from this system of records to that researcher solely for the purpose 
of carrying out that research related to the functions or purposes of 
this system of records. The researcher must maintain Privacy Act 
safeguards with respect to the disclosed records.

DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
    Not applicable to this system notice.

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 and 
subcontractors maintain data for this system on computers and in hard 
copy.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    Records in this system are indexed by a number assigned to each 
individual that is cross-referenced by the individual's name 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 computer 
system permits data access to Department and contract staff only on a 
``need-to-know'' basis and controls individual users'' ability to 
access and alter records within the system. The contractor, MDRC, and 
its subcontractors, P/PV, and Survey Research Management, have 
established similar sets of procedures at their sites to ensure 
confidentiality of data. Their systems ensure that information 
identifying individuals is in files physically separated from other 
research data. They will maintain security of the complete set of all 
master data files and documentation. Access to individually 
identifiable data will be strictly controlled. At each site all data 
will be kept in locked file cabinets during nonworking hours, and work 
on hard-copy 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 MDRC, P/PV, or Survey Research 
Management system only to access 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; e-mail passwords that authorize the user to 
access mail services; and additional security features that the network 
administrators establish for projects as needed. The contractor and 
subcontractor employees who maintain (collect, maintain, use, or 
disseminate) data in this system must comply with the requirements of 
the confidentiality standards in section 183 of the ESRA (20 U.S.C. 
9573).

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    Records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with the 
Department of Education's Records Disposition Schedules, Part 3, Items 
2b and 5a.

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.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
    If you wish to determine whether a record exists regarding you in 
the system of records, contact the systems manager. Your request must 
meet the requirements of regulations at 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
    If you wish to gain access to your record in the system of records, 
contact the system manager. Your request must meet the requirements of 
regulations at 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of identity.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:
    If you wish to contest the content of a record regarding you in the 
system of records, contact the system manager. Your request must meet 
the requirements of regulations at 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    The system will include information obtained from the students, 
including names, demographic information such as race/ethnicity, age, 
gender, and educational background, and their

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results on standardized achievement tests. The system will also include 
responses to survey questions from the students and from the teachers 
of these students. These surveys will request information about the 
teachers' backgrounds, professional experience, and training, as well 
as information about the academic interventions. The student surveys 
will request information about the students' participation in after-
school activities and other supplemental reading and math activities. 
This system also consists of information obtained from the student's 
school, such as data about the student's attendance and academic 
history.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

[FR Doc. 05-12226 Filed 6-20-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P