Explanation of Changes

Appendix D

Title II, Part A Survey on the Use of Funds (2008-09)

Suggested Changes for OMB Clearance Package

1. State survey—Amount of funds allocated to each district being surveyed

Proposed Changes:

• Add a brief state survey to this data collection requesting the amount of Title II, Part A funds allocated to each district being surveyed.

• The survey will be pre-filled with the names of the districts being surveyed in 2008-09. Obtaining the funding amount allocated to the districts will help us verify the data provided by the districts on their uses of these funds.

• The burden on states should be minimal as these data should be readily available and the information being collected will be limited to the districts being surveyed.

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

Proposed Changes:

• Adjust question wording in order to be consistent from item to item.

• Pre-fill the amount of Title II, Part A funding allocated to each district in the sample at the bottom of question 2. This information will come from a brief survey sent to the states asking for the Title II, Part A allocation to each survey district in the state (see above). While the instructions for this question indicate that districts should not include carryover funds, we believe that many districts included carryover in their responses on the previous years’ versions of the survey. The amount of Title II, Part A funds reported by the districts on the 2006-07 survey, for example, totaled more than amount of funds allocated to the states for 2006-07. Providing the funding amount allocated to the districts will help us collect more accurate data.

3. District survey—Question 3—Number of classroom teachers funded with Title II, Part A funds.

Proposed Changes:

• Add question asking for number of classroom teachers, by grade and type, that were funded with Title II, Part A funds. Only districts that report allocating Title II, Part A funds for class size reduction will be asked to complete this question.

• This question was included in the 2002-03 version of this survey on the use of funds under Title II, Part A and including it on the 2008-09 survey will provide us with more recent data on this issue.

• There is Congressional interest in how many teachers are funded with Title II, Part A funds in order to reduce class size.

4. District survey—Question 4—Amount of funds allocated for professional development in various subject areas.

Proposed Changes:

• Was previously question 3.

• Only districts that report allocating Title II, Part A funds for professional development will be asked to complete this question.

• Provide additional clarification in the question. These clarifications were made in response to inquiries from the districts during the previous data collection.

5. District survey—Question 5—Total number of teachers and number of teachers participating in professional development.

Proposed Changes:

• Was previously question 4.

• Provide additional clarification in the question. These clarifications were made in response to inquiries from the districts during the previous data collection.

• Provide the NCLB definition of “high quality professional development” and “core academic content area.” These clarifications were made in response to inquiries from the districts during the previous data collection.

6. District survey—Question 7—Number of teachers participating in professional development on various topics and the number of sessions offered.

Proposed Change:

• Replace the previous question 5 with this question to gather data on the topics that professional development cover, the number of professional development sessions covering these topics and the number of teachers participating. The topics listed are aligned with the Department’s guidance on Improving Teacher Quality State Grants. Previously, this question asked for the number of teachers participating in professional development for various reasons (e.g., to become highly qualified, to meet state requirements). District staff members do not usually have information on the reasons why teachers participate in professional development, so responding to this question would require additional data collection on the part of the district. In addition, teachers may participate in the same professional development session for different reasons, so the previous question did not accurately collect information on the number of teachers participating in various professional development activities. It is much more likely that district staff will have access to information on the number of professional development sessions offered and the attendance at these sessions, rather than the reasons why teachers participated in professional development, thus decreasing burden on the respondents.

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