Department of Education; Institute of Education Sciences; Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Evaluation of Moving High-Performing Teachers to Low-Performing Schools; Notice of a new system of records [IES]

FR Doc E9-6445[Federal Register: March 24, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 55)]
[Notices]               
[Page 12345-12347]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24mr09-51]
 


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

 
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Evaluation of Moving 
High-Performing Teachers to Low-Performing Schools

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 ``Evaluation of Moving High-
Performing Teachers to Low-Performing Schools'' (18-13-21). The 
National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the 
Department's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) commissioned this 
evaluation. It will be conducted under a contract that IES awarded in 
September 2007.
    The central research question that the study will address is: What 
impacts on student achievement do high-performing teachers have when 
they are placed in low-performing schools?
    The system will contain elementary and middle school student 
records and teacher information for approximately 10 school districts.
    The evaluation will target 10 school districts where linked 
student-teacher school records, including test score data, are 
available for the last four years for all enrolled students. The system 
of records will include elementary and middle school student test score 
records, student demographic data, and their teachers' demographic data 
and teaching experience. Across the 10 school districts, data will be 
collected on approximately 200 teachers and 3680 students in their 
classrooms.
    The system of records will include personally identifying 
information about the students in the participating teacher classrooms, 
including demographic information such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, 
and educational background; and scores on State reading and mathematics 
achievement tests. The system of records will also include personally 
identifying information about teachers participating in the evaluation, 
including demographic information such as race, ethnicity, gender, and 
educational background; and teaching experience.

DATES: The Department seeks comment on the 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 referenced in this notice on or before April 
23, 2009.
    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 March 19, 2009. This system of records will become 
effective at the later date of--(1) the expiration of the 40-day period 
for OMB review on April 28, 2009 or (2) April 23, 2009, 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 to Dr. 
Audrey Pendleton, Acting 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 comments through the Internet, 
use the following address: comments@ed.gov.
    You must include the term ``Evaluation of Moving High-Performing 
Teachers to Low-Performing Schools'' in the subject line of the 
electronic message.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all comments 
about this notice at the U.S. Department of Education in Room 502D, 555 
New Jersey Avenue, NW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8 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. Audrey Pendleton. Telephone: (202) 
208-7078. 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

[[Page 12346]]

format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on 
request to the contact person listed in this paragraph.

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 Privacy Act are contained in part 5b of title 34 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR).
    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.''
    The Privacy Act requires each agency to publish a notice of a 
system of records in the Federal Register and to prepare and send a 
report to OMB whenever the agency publishes a new system of records. 
Each agency is also required to send copies of the report to the Chair 
of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
and the Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government 
Reform. These reports are inc1uded to permit an evaluation of the 
probable effect of the proposal on the privacy rights of individuals.

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/index.html.
    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: March 19, 2009.
Sue Betka,
Acting 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:
18-13-21

System Name:
    Evaluation of Moving High-Performing Teachers to Low-Performing 
Schools.

Security Classification:
    None.

System Location:
    (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 502E, 
Washington, DC 20208-0001.
    (2) Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., 600 Maryland Avenue, SW., 
Suite 550, Washington, DC 20024-2512 (contractor).
    (3) Optimal Solutions Group, 8100 Professional Place, Suite 312, 
Hyattsville, MD 20785-2229 (subcontractor).
    (4) The New Teacher Project, 186 Joralemon Street, Suite 300, 
Brooklyn, NY 11201-4326 (subcontractor).

Categories of Individuals Covered by the System:
    This system contains records on elementary and middle school 
students and teachers in approximately 10 school districts 
participating in an evaluation of the impact on improving student 
achievement of placing high-performing teachers in low-performing 
schools. In these 10 school districts, data will be collected on 
approximately 200 teachers and 3680 students in their classrooms.

Categories of Records in the System:
    The evaluation will contain information about 10 school districts 
where linked student-teacher school records, including test score data, 
are available for the last four years for all enrolled students. The 
system of records will include personally identifying information about 
elementary and middle school students participating in the evaluation, 
including demographic information such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, 
educational background, English language proficiency, disability 
status, eligibility for school lunch programs and mobility status; and 
scores on State reading and mathematics achievement tests. The system 
of records will also include personally identifying information about 
teachers participating in the evaluation, including demographic 
information such as race, ethnicity, and educational background; and 
teaching experience.

Authority for Maintenance of the System:
    The evaluation 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 9601(a) 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. 7941(a)). The grant programs that are the 
subject of this evaluation are authorized under Part A of Title II of 
the ESEA, as amended by the NCLB (20 U.S.C. 6601-51).

Purpose(s):
    The central purpose and reason why the Department is establishing 
this system of records is to evaluate the impact on improving student 
achievement of high-performing teachers who are placed in low-
performing schools. We seek to study the following additional research 
questions that are important for policymaking:
    (1) What is the overlap between high-performing teachers and low-
performing schools? In other words, how serious is the unequal 
distribution of teacher talent?
    (2) How responsive to incentives are high-performing teachers?
    (3) What factors influence career decisions of high-performing 
teachers?
    (4) Who fills teaching vacancies in low-performing schools in the 
absence of incentives for high-performing teachers to move to low-
performing schools?

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 identifying information from a record in 
this system must also comply with the requirements of section

[[Page 12347]]

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.
    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 shall require the contractor to maintain 
Privacy Act safeguards as required under 5 U.S.C. 552a(m) with respect 
to the records in the system.

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 
(Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.) and subcontractors (Optimal 
Solutions Group and the New Teacher Project) maintain data for this 
system on computers and in hard copy.

Retrievability:
    Records in this system are indexed and retrieved 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 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 similar sets of procedures at their sites to ensure 
confidentiality of data. Their systems are required to ensure that 
information identifying individuals is in files physically separated 
from other research data. 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 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 and subcontractors' systems 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 contractor's and subcontractors' 
employees who ``maintain'' (collect, maintain, use, or disseminate) 
data in this system shall 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's Records Disposition Schedules (ED/RDS, Part 3, Item 2b and 
Part 3, Item 5a).

System Manager and Address:
    Acting 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 502E, 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 Procedure:
    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 Procedure:
    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 the regulations at 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of 
identity.

Record Source Categories:
    This system contains records on elementary and middle school 
students and teachers in school districts participating in an 
evaluation of the impact on student achievement of high-performing 
teachers who are placed in low-performing schools. Districts have 
databases (school records) that contain all the student information 
that the Department will use. As part of the evaluation, a district is 
providing the Department's contractor with data files that contain the 
information on each student assigned to a teacher participating in the 
evaluation. Data collected from teachers will be collected from surveys 
that they fill out.

Exemptions Claimed for the System:
    None.

[FR Doc. E9-6445 Filed 3-23-09; 8:45 am]

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