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The federal government generates and increasingly saves a large and growing fraction of its records in electronic form. In 1998, the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) launched its Electronic Archives (ERA) program to create a system to preserve and provide access to federal electronic records. To assist in this project, NARA asked the NRC to conduct a two-phase study to provide advice as it develops the ERA program. The first two reports (phase one) provided recommendations on design, engineering, and related issues facing the program. This report (phase two) focuses on longer term, more strategic issues including technology trends that will shape the ERA system, archival processes of the ERA, and future evolution of the system. It also provides an assessment of technical and design issues associated with record integrity and authenticity.

\"We cannot discount the risk, in light of the lessons of our own history, that at some point in the future, high-level government officials will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private information is there for the plucking. Americans must never make the mistake of wholly 'trusting' our public officials.\"--The NSA Report This is the official report that is helping shape the international debate about the unprecedented surveillance activities of the National Security Agency. Commissioned by President Obama following disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden, and written by a preeminent group of intelligence and legal experts, the report examines the extent of NSA programs and calls for dozens of urgent and practical reforms. The result is a blueprint showing how the government can reaffirm its commitment to privacy and civil liberties--without compromising national security.

How federal management reforms have impacted the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. The consequences of governmental reform are not always intended. In this book, Suzanne J. Piotrowski examines how federal management reforms associated with the National Performance Review have affected, and are still affecting, implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. The intersection of the New Public Management movement and the implementation of the U.S. federal government's transparency policy is, she argues, a clear example of unforeseen outcomes. Particular attention is paid to performance management, customer service, and contracting out initiatives, as well as to unintended consequences and their future implications for public administration scholars, practitioners, and reformers.

Implementation of a National Assessment of Educational Achievement focuses on the practical tasks involved in running a large-scale national assessment program. It has four parts. Part I provides an overview of the tasks involved – how the essential activities of an assessment are organized and implemented, the personnel and resources that are required, and the tasks that follow the collection of data. In Part II, a methodology for selecting a sample of students that will be representative of students in the education system is presented. Principles underlying sampling are described, as well as step-by-step procedures that can be implemented in nearly any national assessment. An accompanying CD contains supporting data files.Part III describes procedures for cleaning and managing data collected in a national assessment, essential elements of a quality assurance process. It also describes how to export and import data, that is, make data available in a format that is appropriate for users of statistical software such as Access, SPSS, WesVar, and Excel. The primary objective of this section is to enable the national assessment team develop and implement a systematic set of procedures to help ensure that the assessment data are accurate and reliable. Following sampling, test administration, data entry, and cleaning, the next step is to prepare data for analysis.In Part IV, a series of important pre-analysis steps, including producing estimates, computing and using survey weights, and computing estimates are described. The section dealing with the computation of estimates describes how they and their sampling errors are computed from simple and complex samples. Finally, a range of special topics, including nonresponse and issues relating to over-and under-size schools, is addressed.