Department of Education November 15, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 Early Reading First National Evaluation (18-13-08). The system will contain information about participants in the Early Reading First program (Title I, Part B, Subpart 2, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA)), as well as about children attending preschools that applied for but did not receive Early Reading First program funds. The evaluation obtained a sample of sites from the universe of applicants that applied for Early Reading First (ERF) grants that were awarded in 2003. The treatment group consists of 28 grantees that received ERF funds. The comparison group consists of 37 applicants that did not receive ERF funds and that received average scores from peer reviewers in the interval below the average score of the lowest-scoring funded application. A random sample of three to five preschool classrooms was selected from each ERF grantee in the treatment group and each unfunded applicant site in the comparison group. In each site, up to 33 children were randomly selected from those whose parents have given consent for them to participate in the study. Specific data collection activities will include direct in-person assessments of children, telephone surveys of parents, self- administered teacher surveys and teacher ratings of children, self- administered preschool director surveys, informal grantee director in- depth interviews, classroom observations, and extraction of records on children. Information collected will include the following: Names; addresses; demographic information such as race/ethnicity, age, educational background, and family income for children in the sample and their parents; preschool staff answers to interview questions; children's results from early literacy and language assessments; and teacher reports of children's social and emotional outcomes.