83 FR 28209 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 117 (June 18, 2018)

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 Departmentalized Instruction in Elementary Schools (18-13-44).'' This system contains individually identifying information provided by individuals and school districts that participate in the impact evaluation. The information in this system will be used to conduct a rigorous study comparing the effectiveness of elementary school teachers specializing in one subject to the more traditional approach of teaching all subjects.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 117 (Monday, June 18, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28209-28211]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13052]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket ID ED-2018-IES-0082]


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of a new system of records.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 
Departmentalized Instruction in Elementary Schools (18-13-44).'' This 
system contains individually identifying information provided by 
individuals and school districts that participate in the impact 
evaluation. The information in this system will be used to conduct a 
rigorous study comparing the effectiveness of elementary school 
teachers specializing in one subject to the more traditional approach 
of teaching all subjects.

DATES: Submit your comments on this new system of records notice on or 
before July 18, 2018.
    This new system of records will become applicable upon publication 
in the Federal Register on June 18, 2018, unless the new system of 
records notice needs to be changed as a result of public comment. The 
routine uses listed under ``ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE 
SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES OF USERS AND PURPOSES OF SUCH USES'' will 
become applicable on July 18, 2018, unless the new system of records 
notice needs to be changed as a result of public comment. The 
Department will publish any significant changes to the system of 
records or routine uses that result from public comment.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal 
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. We will not 
accept comments submitted by fax or by email or those submitted after 
the comment period. To ensure that we do not receive duplicate copies, 
please submit your comments only once. In addition, please include the 
Docket ID at the top of your comments.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to 
submit your comments electronically. Information on using 
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, 
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site 
under the ``Help'' tab.
     Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery: If you 
mail or deliver your comments about this new system of records, address 
them to: Teresa Cahalan, SORN coordinator, Institute of Education 
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Potomac Center Plaza, 550 12th 
Street SW, Room 4126, Washington, DC 20202.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments 
received from members of the public available for public viewing in 
their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include 
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly 
available.
    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: Teresa Cahalan, SORN coordinator, 
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Potomac 
Center Plaza, 550 12th Street SW, Room 4126, Washington, DC 20202 or by 
email at [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), you may call the Federal Relay Service, toll free, at 
1-800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The information in this system will be used 
to conduct a rigorous study of the effectiveness of departmentalizing 
instruction (where each teacher specializes in teaching one subject to 
multiple classes of students) in elementary schools to inform effective 
teacher and school improvement strategies.
    The study will address the following central research questions: 
What is the impact of departmentalization in grades 4 and 5 on teacher 
practices and student achievement? Do the impacts of 
departmentalization differ based on whether principals have access to 
teacher effectiveness scores when assigning teachers to subjects? 
Secondary research questions for the study are: How do schools 
structure departmentalization? What challenges and benefits do 
principals and teachers perceive in switching to departmentalization? 
How do principals' actual assignment of teachers to subjects compare 
with assignments based solely on baseline teacher effectiveness scores?
    Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this 
document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, 
audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the person listed under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official editions of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations for free via the Federal Digital System at: 
www.thefederalregister.org/fdsys. At this site, you can view this document, as well as 
all other documents of the Department published in the Federal 
Register, in text or 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 13, 2018.
Mark Schneider,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Commissioner of the 
National Center for Education Research, Delegated the Duties of the 
Director of the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department 
of Education (Department) publishes a notice of a new system of records 
to read as follows:
SYSTEM NAME AND NUMBER
    Impact Evaluation of Departmentalized Instruction in Elementary 
Schools (18-13-44).

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    Unclassified.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    Mathematica Policy Research, P.O. Box 2393, Princeton, NJ 08543-
2393.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S):
    Project's contracting officer representative, Institute of 
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education,

[[Page 28210]]

Potomac Center Plaza, 550 12th Street SW, Room 4104, Washington, DC 
20202.

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 8601 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (20 U.S.C. 7981).

PURPOSE(S) OF THE SYSTEM:
    The information in this system will be used to conduct a rigorous 
study comparing the effectiveness of departmentalizing instruction in 
elementary grades (where each teacher specializes in teaching one 
subject to multiple classes of students) to the more traditional 
approach to instruction where each teacher teaches all subjects to a 
single class of students.
    The study will address the following central research questions: 
What is the impact of departmentalization in grades 4 and 5 on student 
achievement and teacher practices? Do the impacts of 
departmentalization differ based on whether principals have access to 
teacher effectiveness scores when assigning teachers to subjects? 
Secondary research questions for the study are: How do schools 
structure departmentalization? What challenges and benefits do 
principals and teachers perceive in switching to departmentalization? 
How do principals' actual assignment of teachers to subjects compare 
with assignments based solely on baseline teacher effectiveness scores?

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    The system of records will include individually identifying 
information about teachers who participate in the study and their 
students. The system will contain records on approximately 1,200 
teachers and 26,400 students from up to 200 schools in 12 school 
districts.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    For teachers, this information will include, but will not 
necessarily be limited to, teacher name, videos of classroom practice 
collected by the study team, background characteristics, teaching 
experience, time spent on instruction, planning, and professional 
development, satisfaction and confidence in teaching, opportunities to 
coordinate with other teachers, baseline teacher effectiveness scores 
(i.e., ratings of teachers' contribution to their students' 
standardized math and English/Language Arts test scores in the year 
prior to the implementation of departmentalization for the study, as 
calculated by the school district or by the study team using the 
student data described below), and ratings of teaching practice 
assigned by the study team using the videos of classroom practice. 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, and individualized education plan 
status.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Data in this system will be obtained through: Human resource and 
student education records maintained by the school districts; videos of 
classroom practice; ratings of teaching practice conducted by the study 
team using the videos; and surveys of teachers administered by the 
study team.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    The Department may disclose information 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. 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 (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. 1232g; 34 CFR 
part 99), which protects the privacy of student education records.
    (1) Teacher Identification Disclosure. In order for the Department 
to link teacher data that the Department maintains as part of this 
study to the education records of that teacher's students maintained by 
the participating school districts for purposes consistent with the 
conduct of the study, the Department may disclose to each participating 
school district the identities of teachers from that school district 
who are participating in this study.
    (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. As part of such a 
contract, the Department will require the contractor to agree to 
maintain safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of the 
records in the system.
    (3) Research Disclosure. The Director of the Institute of Education 
Sciences may disclose information from this system of records to 
qualified researchers solely for the purpose of carrying out specific 
research that is compatible with the purpose(s) of this system of 
records. The classroom videos will not be included in disclosures of 
records that are made under this routine use. The researcher must agree 
to safeguards, consistent with section 183(c) of the ESRA (20 U.S.C. 
9573(c)), to protect the security and confidentiality of the records 
disclosed from this system. When personally identifiable information 
from a student's education record will be disclosed to the researcher, 
under FERPA (20 U.S.C. 1232g(b) and 34 CFR 99.31), the researcher also 
must agree to comply with the requirements in the applicable FERPA 
exception to consent.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORAGE OF RECORDS:
    Records in this system of records are maintained in a secure, 
password-protected electronic system.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR RETRIEVAL OF RECORDS:
    Records in this system will be indexed and retrieved by a unique 
number assigned to each teacher that will be cross-referenced by the 
individual's name on a separate list.
    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).

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF RECORDS:
    The Department shall submit a retention and disposition schedule 
that covers the records contained in this system to the National 
Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for review. The records will 
not be destroyed until such a time as NARA approves said schedule.

ADMINISTRATIVE, TECHNICAL, AND PHYSICAL SAFEGUARDS:
    Security protocols for this system of records meet all required 
security standards. The contractor is required to

[[Page 28211]]

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 also will be 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 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).

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
    If you wish to request access to your records, you must contact the 
system manager at the address listed under SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS. 
Your request must provide necessary particulars, such as your full 
name, address, telephone number, and any other identifying information 
requested by the Department, to distinguish between individuals with 
the same name. Your request must meet the requirements of regulations 
in 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, you must contact the system manager. Requests must 
contain your full name, address, and telephone number. Your request 
must meet the requirements of the regulations in 34 CFR 5b.7.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES:
    If you wish to inquire whether a record exists regarding you in 
this system, you should contact the system manager at the address 
listed above. Your request must provide necessary particulars, such as 
your full name, address, telephone number, and any other identifying 
information requested by the Department to distinguish between 
individuals with the same name. Your request must meet the requirements 
of the Department's Privacy Act regulations at 34 CFR 5b.5, including 
proof of identity.

EXEMPTIONS PROMULGATED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

HISTORY:
    None.

[FR Doc. 2018-13052 Filed 6-15-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P