Proposed Changes

Title II, Part A Survey on the Use of Funds (2006-07)

Suggested Changes for OMB Clearance Package

11/21/06

1. Front page – “Form completed by” box

Proposed Change:

• Request additional identifying information from respondents. This will allow the contractor to follow-up with respondents if additional clarification is needed.

2. Question 2—Amount of funds allocated for various activities

Proposed Changes:

• Delete the "All Federal, State and Local Funds" portion of the question. Nearly 30 percent of the respondents who completed this survey during the last school year were not able to provide Federal, state or local funding information. Deleting this portion of the question will reduce burden on the respondents.

• Provide additional clarification in the instructions and question items. These clarifications were made in response to inquiries from the districts during the previous data collection. Many districts asked the same questions, suggesting that some of the instructions and survey items were not clear.

3. Question 3—Amount of funds allocated for professional development in various subject areas.

Proposed Changes:

• Delete the "All Federal, State and Local Funds" portion of the question. Many of the respondents who completed this survey during the last school year were not able to provide Federal, state or local funding information. Deleting this portion of the question will reduce burden on the respondents.

• Provide additional clarification in the instructions. These clarifications were made in response to inquiries from the districts during the previous data collection. Many districts asked the same questions, suggesting that some of the instructions were not clear.

• Move this question up to follow the first question about the allocation of funding so that all funding questions are kept together.

4. Question 4—Total number of teachers and number of teachers participating in professional development.

Proposed Changes:

• Delete the "Not determined yet" highly qualified status category. At this point, most states should have determined the highly qualified status of the majority of their teachers. In addition, this category caused some confusion among previous respondents in that it was not clear which teachers belonged in this category. Deleting this portion of the question will reduce burden on the respondents.

• Provide additional clarification in the instructions. These clarifications were made in response to inquiries from the districts during the previous data collection. Many districts asked the same questions, suggesting that some of the instructions were not clear.

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