H. R. 6—518
(3) TEMPORARY STAFF.—The Commissioner may utilize tem-
porary staff, including employees of Federal, State, or local
agencies or instrumentalities (including local educational agen-
cies), and employees of private organizations to assist the Cen-
ter in performing the Center’s responsibilities, but only if such
temporary staff are sworn to observe the limitations imposed
by this section.
(4) INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS.—No collection of informa-
tion or data acquisition activity undertaken by the Center
shall be subject to any review, coordination, or approval proce-
dure except as required by the Director of the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget under the rules and regulations established
pursuant to chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, except
such collection of information or data acquisition activity may
be subject to review or coordination if the Commissioner deter-
mines that such review or coordination is beneficial.
(5) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this section—
(A) the term ‘‘individually identifiable information’’
means any record, response form, completed survey, or
aggregation thereof from which information about particu-
lar individuals may be revealed; and
(B) the term ‘‘report’’ means a response provided by
or about an individual to an inquiry from the Center and
does not include a statistical aggregation from which
individually identifiable information cannot be revealed.
(6) VIOLATIONS.—Any person who uses any data provided
by the Center, in conjunction with any other information or
technique, to identify any individual student, teacher, adminis-
trator, or other individual and who knowingly discloses, pub-
lishes, or uses such data for a purpose other than a statistical
purpose, or who otherwise violates subparagraph (A) or (B)
of subsection (a)(2), shall be found guilty of a class E felony
and imprisoned for not more than five years, or fined as speci-
fied in section 3571 of title 18, United States Code, or both.
(7) ACCESS TO REPORTS OR RECORDS.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall restrict the right of the Secretary, the Comptroller
General of the United States, the Director of the Congressional
Budget Office, and the Librarian of Congress, to gain access
to any reports or other records, including information identify-
ing individuals, in the Center’s possession, except that the
same restrictions on disclosure that apply under paragraphs
(1) and (6) shall apply to such individuals.
SEC. 409. DISSEMINATION.
(a) GENERAL REQUESTS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Center may furnish transcripts or
copies of tables and other statistical records and make special
statistical compilations and surveys for State and local officials,
public and private organizations, and individuals.
(2) COMPILATIONS.—The Center shall provide State and
local educational agencies opportunities to suggest the develop-
ment of particular compilations of statistics, surveys, and analy-
ses that would assist those educational agencies.
(b) CONGRESSIONAL REQUESTS.—The Center shall furnish such
special statistical compilations and surveys as the Congress may
request.
H. R. 6—519
(c) JOINT STATISTICAL PROJECTS.—The Secretary may engage
in joint statistical projects related to the purposes of this title,
or other statistical purposes authorized by law, with nonprofit
organizations or agencies, and the cost of such projects shall be
shared equitably as determined by the Secretary.
(d) FEES.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Statistical compilations and surveys
under this section, other than those carried out pursuant to
subsections (b) and (c), may be made subject to the payment
of the actual or estimated cost of such work.
(2) FUNDS RECEIVED.—All funds received in payment for
work or services described in this subsection may be used
to pay directly the costs of such work or services, to repay
appropriations that initially bore all or part of such costs,
or to refund excess sums when necessary.
(e) ACCESS.—
(1) OTHER AGENCIES.—The Center shall, consistent with
section 408, cooperate with other Federal agencies having a
need for educational data in providing access to educational
data received by the Center.
(2) INTERESTED PARTIES.—The Center shall, in accordance
with such terms and conditions as the Secretary may prescribe,
provide all interested parties, including public and private agen-
cies and individuals, direct access to data collected by the
Center for the purposes of research and acquiring statistical
information.
SEC. 410. COOPERATIVE EDUCATION STATISTICS SYSTEMS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commissioner may establish one or more
national cooperative education statistics systems for the purpose
of producing and maintaining, with the cooperation of the States,
comparable and uniform information and data on elementary and
secondary education, postsecondary education, and libraries, that
are useful for policymaking at the Federal, State, and local levels.
In carrying out this section, the Commissioner may provide tech-
nical assistance, and make grants and enter into contracts and
cooperative agreements.
(b) MODEL DATA SYSTEM.—The Commissioner, working through
the cooperative education statistics system, shall study, design,
and pilot a model data system that will yield information about
spending for administration at the school and local education agency
levels.
SEC. 411. NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Commissioner shall, with the advice
of the National Assessment Governing Board established under
section 412, and with the technical assistance of the Advisory
Council established under section 407, carry out, through grants,
contracts, or cooperative agreements with one or more qualified
organizations, or consortia thereof, a National Assessment of Edu-
cational Progress (hereafter in this title referred to as the ‘‘National
Assessment’’).
(b) PURPOSE; STATE ASSESSMENTS.—
(1) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the National Assessment
is to provide a fair and accurate presentation of educational
achievement in reading, writing, and the other subjects included
in the third National Education Goal, regarding student
achievement and citizenship. The Commissioner, in carrying
H. R. 6—520
out the National Assessment, shall use sampling techniques
that produce data that are representative on a national and
regional basis, and on a State basis pursuant to paragraph
(2). In addition, the Commissioner shall—
(A) collect and report data on a periodic basis, but
at least once every two years, on students at ages 9, 13,
and 17 and in grades 4, 8, and 12 in public and private
schools;
(B) report achievement data on a basis that ensures
valid and reliable trend reporting;
(C) include information on special groups, including,
whenever feasible, information collected, cross-tabulated,
analyzed, and reported by sex, race or ethnicity and socio-
economic status; and
(D) ensure that achievement data are made available
on a timely basis following official reporting, in a manner
that facilitates further analysis.
(2) STATE
ASSESSMENTS.—(A)(i) The Commissioner, in
carrying out the National Assessment, may conduct State
assessments of student achievement in grades 4, 8, and 12.
(ii) Each such State assessment, in each subject area and
at each grade level, shall be conducted on a developmental
basis until the Commissioner determines, as the result of an
evaluation required by subsection (f), that such assessment
produces high quality data that are valid and reliable.
(B)(i) States wishing to participate in State assessments
shall enter into an agreement with the Secretary pursuant
to subsection (d)(2).
(ii) Such agreement shall contain information sufficient
to give States full information about the process for consensus
decisionmaking on objectives to be tested, and the standards
for sampling, test administration, test security, data collection,
validation, and reporting.
(C) A participating State shall review and give permission
for the release of results from any test of its students adminis-
tered as a part of a State assessment prior to the release
of such data. Refusal by a State to release its data shall
not restrict the release of data from other States that have
approved the release of such data.
(3) PROHIBITED DATA.—In carrying out the National Assess-
ment, the Commissioner shall not collect any data that are
not directly related to the appraisal of educational performance,
achievement, and traditional demographic reporting variables,
or to the fair and accurate presentation of such information.
(4) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—In carrying out the National
Assessment, the Commissioner may provide technical assist-
ance to States, localities, and other parties.
(c) ACCESS.—
(1) PUBLIC ACCESS.—Except as provided in paragraph (2),
the public shall have access to all data, questions, and test
instruments of the National Assessment.
(2) PERSONALLY
IDENTIFIABLE
INFORMATION.—(A) The
Commissioner shall ensure that all personally identifiable
information about students, their educational performance, and
their families, and that information with respect to individual
schools, remains confidential, in accordance with section 552a
of title 5, United States Code.
H. R. 6—521
(B) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the
Commissioner may decline to make available to the public
for a period, not to exceed ten years after initial use, cognitive
questions that the Commissioner intends to reuse in the future.
(d) PARTICIPATION.—
(1) NATIONAL AND REGIONAL.—Participation in the national
and regional assessments by State and local educational agen-
cies shall be voluntary.
(2) STATE.—Participation in assessments made on a State
basis shall be voluntary. The Commissioner shall enter into
an agreement with any State that desires to carry out an
assessment for the State under this subsection. Each such
agreement shall contain provisions designed to ensure that
the State will—
(A) participate in the assessment; and
(B) pay from non-Federal sources the non-Federal
share of such participation.
(3) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—(A) For each fiscal year, the non-
Federal share for the purpose of paragraph (2)(B) shall be—
(i) the cost of conducting the assessment at the school
level for all public schools in the State sample;
(ii) the cost of coordination within the State; and
(iii) other reasonable costs specified by the Secretary
in the agreement described in paragraph (2), such as the
cost of analyzing and reporting the data.
(B) The non-Federal share of payments under this para-
graph may be in cash or in kind, fairly valued.
(C) The agreement described in paragraph (2) shall describe
the manner in which the costs of administering the assessment
to private nonprofit schools included in the State sample will
be met.
(e) STUDENT PERFORMANCE LEVELS.—
(1) PERFORMANCE
LEVELS.—The National Assessment
Governing Board, established under section 412, shall develop
appropriate student performance levels for each age and grade
in each subject area to be tested under the National Assess-
ment.
(2) DEVELOPMENT OF LEVELS.—(A) Such levels shall be—
(i) devised through a national consensus approach,
providing for active participation of teachers, curriculum
specialists, local school administrators, parents, and con-
cerned members of the general public;
(ii) used on a developmental basis until the Commis-
sioner determines, as the result of an evaluation under
subsection (f), that such levels are reasonable, valid, and
informative to the public; and
(iii) updated as appropriate.
(B) In using such levels on a developmental basis, the
Commissioner and the Board shall ensure that reports that
use such levels do so in a manner that makes clear the devel-
opmental status of such levels.
(3) REPORTING.—After determining that such levels are
reasonable, valid, and informative to the public, as the result
of an evaluation under subsection (f), the Commissioner shall
use such levels or other methods or indicators for reporting
results of the National Assessment and State assessments.
(f) REVIEW OF NATIONAL AND STATE ASSESSMENTS.—