by users, in part precisely because of their rarity. The data items that were suppressed pertained to race/ethnicity, gender, and subfields—all of which were of interest to policy makers, researchers, and educational institutions. The organizations and institutions that had previously relied on these data to assess progress in this most important measure of achievement and equality suddenly found themselves without a yardstick with which to measure progress. Since the elimination of the data came without warning and for reasons that were not made clear to data users, their reaction was negative.

In response to these user concerns, NSF took a number of steps: gathering information from users, reconsidering the means by which confidential data can be protected from disclosure, and securing outside review of its decisions. The workshop that is summarized in this report is one of those initiatives. The goal of the workshop was to address the appropriateness of the decisions that SRS made and to help the agency and data users consider future actions that might permit release of useful data while protecting the confidentiality of the survey responses.