0420-0513 Educator Match - Teacher Survey

Peace Corps—Office of Domestic Programs

Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools

Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form and Teacher Survey

OMB Approval Number: 0420-0513

Supporting Statement

Peace Corps—Office of Domestic Programs

Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools

Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form and Teacher Survey

OMB Approval Number: 0420-0513

Supporting Statement

Section A: Justification

1. The Peace Corps’ Office of Domestic Programs builds awareness of the continuing benefits that former Peace Corps Volunteers bring back to the United States after their service. The Office of Domestic Programs comprises Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools, the Masters International program, the Fellows/USA graduate fellowship program, Returned Volunteer Services, and Peace Corps Week. The Office of Domestic Programs’ activities and publications support section 2 of the Peace Corps Act, which states that one of the agency’s missions is to “promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.” Coverdell World Wise Schools was established in 1989 in order to bring the cross-cultural experience of Peace Corps Volunteers into the classrooms of the United States. Within the purview of Coverdell World Wise Schools, the Correspondence Match program connects an educator with a Peace Corps Volunteer serving overseas. The correspondence between the Volunteer, the educator, and his or her students is used to foster classroom activities and learning experiences relating to the Volunteer’s country of service and the Peace Corps. In order to participate in the program and be matched with a Volunteer, the educator must complete the Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form. The Teacher Survey collects information on currently enrolled Correspondence Match teachers and how they are using World Wise Schools resources in their classrooms.

2. The Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form is the first point of contact with the participating educator. It is Coverdell World Wise Schools’ fundamental source of information from educators. Information to be collected includes educator name, school name, school address (including street number, city, state, and zip code), school phone, home phone, e-mail address, grade taught, subject area taught, number of students to participate in the program, educators’ preferences (including specific Volunteer name and country of service and geographic region of service), composition of school student body, description of school, and permission to release information. Respondents include educators interested in promoting global education in the classroom. The information is used to make a suitable match between the educator and a Peace Corps Volunteer. The information will be collected by mail. The information will be collected annually on a continuous basis and with permission may be shared in aggregate or, with express permission from the educator, in detail with the media, Congress, returned Volunteer groups, educational institutions, and other government agencies.

The Teacher Survey collects information on how Correspondence Match teachers use Coverdell World Wise Schools resources and therefore informs Coverdell World Wise Schools’ ability to craft its resources to its users’ needs. Coverdell World Wise Schools has not conducted a survey with any of its users since 1999. Information to be collected includes number of years in teaching, professional development opportunities desired, classroom access to internet, school’s promotion of international or cross-cultural curricula, desire to join the Peace Corps, desire to receive Peace Corps materials; number of Peace Corps Volunteers with whom the educator has corresponded, frequency of correspondence, form of correspondence, duration of correspondence, pedagogical implementation of correspondence, student benefit from correspondence; classroom visit(s) by returned Peace Corps Volunteer(s), method of locating returned Peace Corps Volunteer speakers, learning objectives for speech, materials used by speaker, desire to have future speakers; use of Coverdell World Wise Schools website, frequency of use, method of discovery of website, materials from website used, evaluation of website; use of Coverdell World Wise Schools e-newsletter, frequency of use, evaluation of e-newsletter; use of Coverdell World Wise Schools publications, subject areas of interest, frequency of use of publications, types of publications which are useful, degree of publication modification necessary for use, evaluation of publications, desire for different kinds of materials; ways in which Coverdell World Wise Schools can improve, contact with Coverdell World Wise Schools, impression of staff, press coverage, interest in receiving press coverage, desire to share indications of program participation, and desire to be contacted by Coverdell World Wise Schools. Respondents include Correspondence Match participants. The information is used to improve the quality of Coverdell World Wise Schools and better serve the needs of the educators themselves. The information will be collected through an electronic survey. The information will be collected once under this authorization and with permission may be shared with the media, Congress, returned Volunteer groups, educational institutions, and other government agencies.

3. Currently there is no accessible information technology available that would reduce the collection burden for the Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form. The Teacher Survey will use an electronic survey method in order to reduce the collection burden.

4. Peace Corps has reviewed this enrollment form and survey in order to avoid and identify duplications. This survey has not been performed in eight years.

5. The collection of information does not impact small businesses or other small entities.

6. This information cannot be collected less frequently than annually, nor does similar information exist, since each year a substantially different groups of educators may participate in the program.

7. There are no special circumstances. Collection will be conducted in a consistent manner with CFR 1320.6 guidelines.

   1. The collections do not require respondents to report information to the agency more often than quarterly.

   2. The collections do not require respondents to prepare a written response in fewer than 30 days after receipt.

   3. The collections do not require respondents to submit more than an original or facsimile copy of the form.

   4. The collections do not require respondents to retain records for more than three years.

   5. The Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form is not designed to produce valid and reliable results that can be generalized to the universe of study. Due to the small size of the statistical universe of Correspondence Match teachers (4,000 educators), the Teacher Survey will look at the entire statistical universe and will not sample.

   6. The collections do not require the use of a statistical data classification that has not been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget.

   7. The collections do not include a pledge of confidentiality.

   8. The collections do not require respondents to submit proprietary trade secrets or other confidential information.

8. This 60 day notice was published in the Federal Register on 6/4/2007. There have been no public comments received in response to this notice.

9. There has been no decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents.

10. There is no assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents. We are frequently requested by Congress for lists of participating teachers’ names for the program. We release the names of those teachers who have given us permission to do so.

11. Neither the enrollment form nor the survey contain any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, etc.

EDUCATOR FORM TEACHER SURVEY

12. Number of Respondents: 10,000 3,000

Frequency of Response: 1 1

Completion Time: x 10 minutes x 15 minutes

Total Annual Hour Burden: 1667 hours 750 hours

Please note that for the Teacher Survey, there will be an estimated 3,000 respondents, as that is the number of teachers who are matched at any given time during the fiscal year. While an online format should ensure a high rate of response, Coverdell World Wise Schools hopes to attain a 40 – 50% response rate. However, as responses will be analyzed and used by Coverdell World Wise Schools only and will not be reported, the optimal response rate is flexible. This survey will be sent out online once during the OMB approval period for the survey.

13. Cost estimate to the respondent: Enrollment Form—$0.00 The enrollment form features postage-paid indicia. Teacher Survey—$0.00 The survey will be online.

EDUCATOR FORM TEACHER SURVEY

14. Printing: $5,000 Online Survey Service: $350

Postage: +$4100 ($0.41 x 10,000)

Cost to the Federal Government (2006): $9100 $350

15. For the Correspondence Match Educator Enrollment Form the increase in postage rates has caused the change in cost. For the Teacher Survey the move from mailable, printed forms to an online survey has generated the reduction in cost. In terms of time burden, adding the Teacher Survey responses to the educator form will increase the total time burden by 750 hours, for a total of 2417 hours during the OMB approval period.

15. Coverdell World Wise Schools does not intend to publish the enrollment information or the survey information. Collection of information for the Correspondence Match Enrollment Form does not employ statistical methods. The enrollment form is intended for continuous use.

15. The agency plans to display the expiration date for Office of Management and Budget approval of the information collection on all instruments.

15. The agency is able to certify compliance with all provisions under Item 19 of OMB Form 83-I.

Section B: Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

1. The collection of information for the Correspondence Match Enrollment Form and Teacher Survey do not employ statistical methods.

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