Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records-Impact Evaluation of a School-based Violence Prevention Program, 57930-57932 [E6-16172]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 190 (Monday, October 2, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57930-57932]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-16172]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Impact Evaluation of a 
School-based Violence Prevention Program

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 (the Department) publishes 
this notice of a new system of records entitled ``Impact Evaluation of 
a School-based Violence Prevention Program,'' 18-13-15. The purpose of 
the impact evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of a violence 
prevention program comprised of two violence prevention interventions 
for middle schools using a rigorous research design. Currently, there 
is lack of rigorous research concerning school-based violence 
prevention in middle schools. The Department's contractor, RTI 
International (RTI), selected the violence prevention interventions to 
be evaluated through an open competition with advisement from a panel 
of experts in the field of violence prevention. RTI selected the 
Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RiPP) and Best Behavior 
interventions and combined the two approaches into a single violence 
prevention program with two components: (1) A curriculum-based model to 
facilitate students' social competency, problem solving, and self-
control skills, and (2) a whole-school model that targets school 
practices and policies usually through classroom management or teaching 
strategies, or through systemic reorganization and modification of 
school management, disciplinary policies, and enforcement procedures. 
The RiPP intervention will provide the curriculum-based component of 
the program , and the Best Behavior intervention will provide the 
whole-school component of the program.
    The system will contain information about students, teachers, and 
other school staff members in schools that are randomly assigned either 
to implement the violence prevention program or not to implement the 
program. The sample will consist of approximately 20,000 students and 
approximately 3,000 teachers and other school staff members drawn from 
approximately 40 schools over 3 years. Each of the 40 schools that 
participate in the study will be randomly assigned either to receive 
the violence prevention program or not to receive the program so that 
approximately 20 schools are in each study condition. At each school, 
sixth graders will be surveyed in the 2006-2007 school year, seventh 
graders in the 2007-2008 school year, and eighth graders in the 2008-
2009 school year. The teacher survey will be administered to a random 
sample of 24 teachers (stratified by grade) at each of the middle 
schools participating in the study. Teachers will complete the survey 
in spring of 2007, 2008, and 2009, with a new random sample of teachers 
selected each year. Other school staff members will be interviewed 
about victimization and their experiences implementing the program.
    The system of records will include students' names, demographic 
information (such as date of birth and race/ethnicity), self-reported 
attitudes about violence and feelings of safety, self-reported 
victimization, and self-reported violent and delinquent behaviors. The 
system also will include information from school records such as 
records of students' attendance, suspensions, expulsions, and school 
policy violations. The system also will include teachers' and other 
school staff members' self-reported victimization at school as well as 
their experiences with training and technical assistance related to 
their schools' violence prevention efforts.

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 described in this notice on or before 
November 1, 2006.
    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 Acting Administrator of the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) on September 27, 2006. This system of records will become 
effective at the later date of: (1) The expiration of the 40 day period 
for OMB review on November 6, 2006 or (2) November 1, 2006, 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 of this 
system of records 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 
20208-0001. Telephone: (202) 208-7083. If you prefer to send comments 
through the Internet, use the following address: comments@ed.gov.
    You must include the term ``Violence Prevention Impact Study'' 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 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 will 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-

[[Page 57931]]

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 under 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 
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 identifiable information 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, OMB, the Chair of the Senate 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the Chair 
of the House Committee on Government Reform, whenever the agency 
publishes a new or altered system of records.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other documents of this 
Department that are published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: 
https://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 CFR is available on 
GPO Access at: https://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/.


    Dated: August 15, 2006.
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 
(Department), publishes a notice of a new system of records to read as 
follows:
18-13-15

SYSTEM NAME:
    Impact Evaluation of a School-based Violence Prevention Program.

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 20208-0001.
    (2) RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle 
Park, NC 12194.
    (3) Tanglewood Research, Inc., 7017 Albert Pick Road, Suite D, 
Greensboro, NC 27409.
    (4) Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), 1516 
Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    This system contains records on students, school teachers, and 
other school staff members who are participating in the Impact 
Evaluation of a School-based Violence Prevention Program. The purpose 
of the impact evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of a 
violence prevention program for middle schools using a rigorous 
research design. Currently, there is lack of rigorous research 
concerning school-based violence prevention in middle schools. Through 
an open competition with advisement from a panel of experts in the 
field of violence prevention, the Department's contractor, RTI, 
selected two violence prevention interventions and combined them into a 
single program for the purpose of this evaluation. The program has the 
following two components: (1) A curriculum-based model to facilitate 
students' social competency, problem solving, and self-control skills, 
and (2) a whole-school model that targets school practices and policies 
usually through classroom management or teaching strategies, or through 
systemic reorganization and modification of school management, 
disciplinary policies, and enforcement procedures. The RiPP 
intervention will provide the curriculum-based component of the program 
and the Best Behavior intervention will provide the whole-school 
component of the program.
    The study sample consists of approximately 20,000 students and 
approximately 3,000 teachers and other school staff members drawn from 
approximately 40 middle schools over 3 years. Participation of 
students, teachers, and other school staff members in the evaluation is 
voluntary.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    The system includes students' names, demographic information (such 
as date of birth and race/ethnicity), self-reported attitudes about 
violence and feelings of safety, self-reported victimization, and self-
reported violent and delinquent behaviors. The system also will include 
information from school records such as records of students' 
attendance, suspensions, expulsions, and school policy violations. The 
system also will include teachers' and other staff members' self-
reported victimization at school as well as their experiences with 
training and technical assistance related to their schools' violence 
prevention efforts.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    The evaluation being conducted is authorized under sections 
4111(a)(2)(A) and 4122(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (ESEA) (20 
U.S.C. 7111(a)(2)(A) and 7132(a)), which limits the amount of funds 
available for program evaluation to $2,000,000 during each fiscal year. 
Implementation of the violence prevention program being evaluated is 
authorized under section 4121(a)(2) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 7131(a)(2)). 
The evaluation is also authorized under sections 171(b) and 173 of the 
Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) (20 U.S.C. 9561(b) and 
9563).

PURPOSE(S):
    The information in this system will be used for the following 
purposes: (1) To support an impact evaluation of a violence prevention 
program for middle schools; and (2) to provide information for 
improvement of programs within the Department's Office of Safe and 
Drug-free Schools.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSE 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

[[Page 57932]]

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 the Institute of Education 
Sciences (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 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 
student, each teacher or other school staff member that is cross-
referenced by the individual's name on a separate list. A list of names 
of the students whose parents have consented to their participation in 
the impact evaluation, as well as a list of names of participating 
teachers and other school staff members will be entered into a 
Microsoft Access database for purposes of tracking over the three years 
of the study.

SAFEGUARDS:
    All physical access to the Department's site, and the site 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 Department's contractor, RTI, and its subcontractors, 
Tanglewood and PIRE, have established a set of procedures to ensure 
confidentiality of data. The systems of RTI, Tanglewood, and PIRE 
ensure that information identifying individuals is in files physically 
separated from other research data. RTI and its subcontractors will 
maintain security of the complete set of all master data files and 
documentation. Access to individually identifiable data will be 
strictly controlled. 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 
also will be maintained. Security features that protect project data 
include: Password-protected accounts that authorize users to use the 
system of records 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; e-mail passwords that authorize the user to 
access mail services; and additional security features that the network 
administrator establishes 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's Records Disposition Schedules in Part 3 (Research Projects 
and Management Study Records) and Part 14 (Electronic Records).

SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS:
    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 20208-0001.

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 in 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 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, contact the system manager. Your request must meet 
the requirements of regulations in 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    The system includes students' names, demographic information (such 
as date of birth and race/ethnicity), self-reported attitudes about 
violence and feelings of safety, self-reported victimization, and self-
reported violent and delinquent behaviors. The system also will include 
information from school records such as records of students' 
attendance, suspensions, expulsions, and school policy violations. The 
system also will include teachers' and other school staff members' 
self-reported victimization at school as well as their experiences with 
training and technical assistance related to the violence prevention 
program.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

 [FR Doc. E6-16172 Filed 9-29-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P