[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 51 (Tuesday, March 17, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13837-13839]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-06102]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Impact Evaluation of 
Support for Principals

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 
Support for Principals'' (18-13-37). The National Center for Education 
Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Department's Institute of 
Education Sciences (IES) awarded a contract in June 2014 to Mathematica 
Policy Research to provide evidence on principal professional 
development effectiveness.

DATES: Submit your comments on this proposed new system of records on 
or before April 16, 2015.
    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 6, 2015. This system of records will become 
effective on the later date of: (1) The expiration of the 40-day period 
for OMB review on April 15, 2015, unless OMB waives 10 days of the 40-
day review period for compelling reasons shown by the Department, or 
(2) April 16, 2015, 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 new 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: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#dcbfb3b1b1b9b2a8af9cb9b8f2bbb3aa"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5c3f3331313932282f1c3938723b332a">[email protected]</span></a>.
    You must include the phrase ``Impact Evaluation of Support for 
Principals'' 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 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.

[[Page 13838]]

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(e)(4) and (e)(11)) 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 any record about an individual that is 
maintained in a system of records from which individually identifying 
information is retrieved by a unique identifier associated with each 
individual, such as a name or Social Security number (SSN). 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 or 
makes a significant change to an established 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 intended to permit an evaluation of the probable 
effect of the proposal on the privacy rights of individuals.
    The system will contain personally identifying information on 
approximately 37,500 students, 1,200 teachers, and 100 principals from 
10 school districts and will include, but will not necessarily be 
limited to, data on: (1) For students, standardized math and English/
Language Arts test scores, age, sex, race/ethnicity, grade, eligibility 
for free/reduced-price lunches, English Learner status, individualized 
education plan status, school enrollment dates, attendance, and 
discipline records, and (2) for principals and teachers, individual 
district identifiers, school assignments, grades and subjects taught, 
and any available principal and teacher background characteristics, 
including age, sex, race/ethnicity, certifications, degrees, years of 
teaching experience, scores on licensure or certification tests, and 
teacher and principal performance ratings from district evaluation 
systems.
    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: March 12, 2015.
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 
(Department) publishes a notice of a new system of records to read as 
follows:
SYSTEM NUMBER:
18-13-37

SYSTEM NAME:
    Impact Evaluation of Support for Principals.

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, P.O. Box 2393, Princeton, NJ 
08543-2393 (contractor).

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    The system of records will include personally identifying 
information about the students, teachers, and principals who 
participate in the study. The system will contain records on 
approximately 1,200 teachers, 100 principals, and 37,500 students from 
10 school districts.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    For students, this information will include, but will not 
necessarily be limited to, standardized math and English/Language Arts 
test scores, age, sex, race/ethnicity, grade, eligibility for free/
reduced-price lunches, English Learner status, individualized education 
plan status, school enrollment dates, attendance, and discipline 
records. For principals and teachers, this information will include, 
but will not necessarily be limited to, individual district 
identifiers, school assignments, grades and subjects taught, and any 
available principal and teacher background characteristics, including 
age, sex, race/ethnicity, certifications, degrees, years of teaching 
experience, scores on licensure or certification tests, and teacher and 
principal performance ratings from district evaluation systems.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    The study is authorized under sections 171(b) and 173 of the 
Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) (20 U.S.C. 9561(b) and 
9563) and section 9601 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965, as amended (ESEA) (20 U.S.C. 7941).

PURPOSE(S):
    The information contained in the records maintained in this system 
will be used to conduct a rigorous study of the effectiveness of 
providing principals with professional development.
    The study will address the following central research question: 
What are the impacts of principals' professional development on teacher 
retention, teacher effectiveness, and student achievement? Secondary 
research questions for the study are: What are principals' professional 
development experiences? What are the impacts of principals' 
professional development on school climate and principals' and 
teachers' practices?

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 disclosures on a case-by-case basis

[[Page 13839]]

or, if the Department has complied with the computer matching 
requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (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 collection, 
reporting and publication of data by the Institute of Education 
Sciences. Any disclosure of personally identifiable information from 
student education records that were obtained from school districts must 
also comply with the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and 
Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g; 34 CFR part 99), which protects the 
privacy of student education records.
    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 will maintain records on CD-ROM, and the contractor 
(Mathematica Policy Research) will maintain data for this system on 
computers and in hard copy.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    Records in this system will be indexed and retrieved by a unique 
number assigned to each individual that will be cross-referenced by the 
individual's name on a separate list.

SAFEGUARDS:
    All physical access to the Department's site and to the site of the 
Department's contractor, where this system of records will be 
maintained, 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 will establish a similar set of procedures at its 
site to ensure confidentiality of data. The contractor is required to 
ensure that information identifying individuals is in files physically 
separated from other research data and electronic files identifying 
individuals are separated from other electronic research data files. 
The contractor will maintain security of the complete set of all master 
data files and documentation. Access to individually identifiable data 
will be strictly controlled. All information 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 be also maintained. 
Security features that protect project data will 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 and the 
contractor'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:
    Records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with the 
Department's Records Disposition Schedules (GRS 23, Item 8).

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. 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. 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. Your request must meet 
the requirements of the Department's Privacy Act regulations at 34 CFR 
5b.7, including proof of identity.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    This system will contain records on principals, teachers, and 
students participating in an impact evaluation of support for 
principals. Data will be obtained through human resource and student 
administrative records maintained by the school districts and surveys 
of principals and teachers.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.
[FR Doc. 2015-06102 Filed 3-16-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P


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