Incentive change MEMO

TO:	Brian Harris-Kojetin	January 4, 2007
THROUGH:	Edith McArthur
FROM:	Elvira Germino Hausken
SUBJECT:	Addendum to OMB # 1850-0750

This memo is written as an addendum to the approved OMB clearance package for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study kindergarten class 1998-1999 Phase IV (OMB control number 1850-0750) requesting approval of the plans for remunerating teachers and school coordinators for their role on the ECLS-K. In addition to completing questionnaires, teachers are asked to be data collectors, recording their observations of their eighth grade students on teacher rating scale forms. School coordinators are their school’s liaison with ECLS-K and are critical to the success of the study. While NCES will strive to persuade teachers and school coordinators of the importance of the study, NCES also recognizes that unusually high levels of burden could have an adverse impact on participation rates.

Remuneration to teachers of participating students. In our initial OMB clearance package, we estimated that, on average, teachers would spend approximately 20 minutes completing rating scale forms. This estimate was based on the assumption that each rating scale form would take approximately 10 minutes to complete and that teachers would average one to three students (10 minutes per two students per teacher equals 20 minutes or 0.33 hours). Thus, we set the remuneration amount at $25 for all teachers providing information on their ECLS-K students, regardless of the number of ECLS-K students on whom they had to report.

However, in setting this remuneration amount at $25, we underestimated the number of ECLS-K students the participating teachers would have. In the development of the original OMB clearance package, it was difficult to assess the number of students and teachers participating in the study, or the number of students that each teacher would have in their classes, given the uncertainty of the students’ mobility patterns between the 5^th and 8^th grade data collections. Without additional information, the aforementioned estimates were based on our experience with the 5^th grade data collection, which involved 12,344 students and 5,931 teachers. However, data from the current recruitment efforts show that we will have over 9,800 students and 4,200 English teachers, 2,600 Math teachers, and 2,500 Science teachers. As these numbers show, many teachers will be asked to report on more than one student.

As we approach the completion of the recruitment phase of the project, we are able to more fully assess the “clustering” of students around their English, Math, and Science teachers. As a result, we can make a more accurate estimate of the levels of burden that teachers will have, given the numbers of ECLS-K students on whom they will have to report.

Table 1 shows the “clustering” of students around their English, Math, and Science teachers. Currently, we have 4,170 English teachers in the ECLS-K Phase IV sample. Of those, 4,066 (97.5%) teachers have between 1 and 10 students for whom they are asked to report. Eighty-two teachers (2.0%) have between 11 and 15 students. This represents an additional 5 to 10 minutes of burden per student, or up to 50 minutes of additional burden for a teacher with 15 students. The burden is much greater for English teachers who have 20 or more students, where the number or students range from 20 to 43. For the English teacher who is asked to report on 43 students, this could represent from approximately 3 ½ to 7 hours of additional burden over the 2,700 (67%) English teachers who have only 1 student. The ranges of students per teacher for Math and Science teachers are smaller than that for English teachers.

Table 1. Number and percent of English, Math, and Science Teachers in ECLS-K Phase IV sample with 1-10, 11-15, 16-20, and 20 or more students.

Number of Students	Initial Remuneration Amount	Proposed Remuneration Amount	Number and Percent of Teachers by Subject Domain
			English		Math		Science
			N	Percent	N	Percent	N	Percent
1-10	$25	$25	4066	97.5%	2618	99.8%	2446	99.7%
11-15	$25	$35	82	2.0%	6	0.2%	6	0.2%
16-20	$25	$45	17	0.4%	--	--	2	0.1%
20 +	$25	$55	5	0.1%	--	--	--	--

Given the vast differences in the amount of burden, we feel that the flat $25 remuneration amount is inadequate for teachers asked to report on larger numbers of ECLS-K students. The modified remuneration amounts proposed in this addendum are also presented in Table 1. These amounts are based on the remuneration amounts used in the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002). Teachers reporting on 10 or fewer students will receive $25. Teachers will receive an additional $10 for each additional five students (approximately $2 per student). Please note that this proposed modification will apply only to 1.3% of all English, mathematics, and science teachers in the sample.

Without an appropriate remuneration for their role as data collectors, ECLS-K teachers would be subject to unusually high levels of burden. Given the unusual burden of the ECLS-K and experience in other school-based, longitudinal studies with high institutional and respondent burden, NCES knows that remuneration enhances response rates. Therefore, NCES recommends this modified remuneration as an effective tool for helping teachers understand that NCES appreciates their role as data collector.

Remuneration to school coordinators. As the primary contact at the school for the ECLS-K, the school coordinator is asked to distribute the questionnaires to the school administrator and the identified English, mathematics, and science teachers, and collect the questionnaires when they are completed. Another critical function of the school coordinator is to collect information regarding the sampled ECLS‑K students enrolled in their school, including (1) student’s enrollment status (withdrawn or currently enrolled in their school); (2) student’s grade; (3) student’s English, mathematics, or science teacher's name, classroom number, and class time; (4) information on any accommodations the student requires for the direct assessment; (5) if the student receives any special education services; and if so, (6) the primary special education teacher’s name. In addition, school coordinators will be asked to provide any possible information regarding the new (transfer) school into which withdrawn students may have enrolled.

The original OMB package did not include any remuneration for school coordinators, which was the practice in the elementary school data collection. However, we feel that this seems inadequate based on our more accurate estimates of the number of teachers in the 8^th grade sample (over 9,800 English, Math, Science, and Special Education teachers which represents a 65% increase over the number of teachers in 5^th grade). Based on the data from the recruitment phase of the project, it appears that the participating middle schools participating in the 8^th grade data collection are larger than the elementary schools participating in the 5^th grade data collection, which would also increase the burden on the school coordinators. This presents a greater burden for the school coordinators than what was estimated in the original OMB package. As a result, we propose to pay school coordinators the amount of $25 for their role in the ECLS-K and to help them understand that NCES appreciates their role as school liaison.

Revised response burden chart. Table 2 shows the respondent burden chart with the number of English, science, and mathematics teachers revised based on the most current information we have from our recruitment efforts. All other numbers in the burden chart are the same as those listed in the burden chart (A-7) in the original OMB package.

Table 2.—Revised respondent burden chart

Eighth grade followup
Respondent type	Sample N	Response rate/ selection rate	Number of respondents	Hours per instrument	Number of instruments per respondent	Total hours	Total number of instruments
Spring-Eighth Grade Main Study (Spring 2007)
Spring School Administrator Questionnaires (SQ)	2,829	0.85	2,405	0.50	1	1,203	2,405
Spring Classroom Teacher Questionnaire (TQ)	9,248	0.90	8,323
English Questionnaire	4,1703	0.90	3,753	0.25	4	3,753	15,012
Science Questionnaire	2,4543	0.90	2,209	0.25	4	2,209	8,834
Math Questionnaire	2,6243	0.90	2,362	0.25	4	2,362	9,446
Teacher Background Questionnaire	9,2483	0.90	8,323	0.167	1	1,390	8,323
Spring Special Education Teacher Questionnaire (SP)	708	0.90	637
Questionnaire A	708	0.90	637	0.083	1	53	637
Questionnaire B	708	0.90	637	0.167	2	213	1,274
Spring Student Questionnaire	12,129	0.90	10,916	0.34	1	3,711	10,916
Spring Parent Interview	12,129	0.85	10,310	0.75	1	7,732	10,310
Study Total	37,0431	NA	32,5912	NA	NA	22,626	67,158

NA Not applicable

1 Total Sample N represents the total sample size of respondents, with no duplication on the number of listed instruments each respective respondent is asked to complete.

2 Total Number of respondents represents the total number of respondents, with no duplication on the number of listed instruments each respective respondent is asked to complete.

3 Estimates are based on actual counts of English, Science, and Math teachers from Fall 2006 recruitment efforts.