OMB Memo for Final School and Student Questionnaire

Subject: OMB Clearance on Final Versions of PISA 2009 Student and School Questionnaires

This memorandum describes changes to the PISA 2009 School Questionnaire and Student Questionnaire since the PISA 2008 field test. It also explains a small increase in the burden hours from the already approved full scale collection (1850-0755 v.7).

Main Study Questionnaires

Attached are final versions of the questionnaires for the PISA 2009 main study. These questionnaires were developed by the international consortium after reviewing data from the Field Trial. The changes from the Field Trial questionnaires are described below.

SchQ: School questionnaire: Two new items were added by the international consortium, Q12 (ability grouping of students) and Q28 (gender of respondent). A column was added to Q24 and columns 3 and 4 were relabeled, and a row (c) was added to Q25 and rows (b) and (c) were relabeled. Both of these changes were made to better reflect international versions of the items.

StQ: Student questionnaire: There are two major changes from the Field Trial questionnaire. The first is that many items and subitems that appeared on the Field Trial student questionnaires have been deleted. Four forms of the student questionnaire were used in the Field Trial and only one form will be used in the Main Study. The second change is that the questionnaire has been adapted for optical scanning, so all boxes have been changed to circles and instructions read “darken the circle” rather than “check the box.”

In addition, the following item-specific changes were made:

• Question 10: a row has been added (“kindergarten”);

• Question 15: a row has been added (“Master’s, doctoral or professional…”) to split out advanced degrees from bachelor’s degrees;

• Question 19: a row has been added (“Master’s, doctoral or professional…”) to split out advanced degrees from bachelor’s degrees;

• Question 24q: content has been changed from “An iPod or MP3 player” based on the results of the field trial;

• Question 26: revised instruction from “44 books per yard” to “15 book per foot” to make easier;

• Questions 32 and 33: expanded by the international consortium from one to three subitems to also ask about mathematics and science;

• Question 35: subitems added and deleted by international consortium;

• Question 36: subitems added by international consortium to also cover mathematics, science, and other subjects;

• Question 37: Item added by international consortium from previous PISA questionnaire.

None of the items on the questionnaires are deemed sensitive or cause any PPRA concerns.

Burden Estimates

NCES estimates for the numbers of schools and students have been slightly increased. In order to assure that the international study minimum of 150 schools are met, NCES is expecting to test in approximately 160 schools. The burden estimate changes (from the originally approved full scale numbers) are presented below.

Respondents Full Scale	Change	Sample	Expected Response Rate	Number of Respondents	Average Burden/ Response* (minutes)	Total Burden (hours)
School Administrators	Previous	176	85%	150	30	75
	NEW	188	85%	160	30	80
School Coordinators	Previous	150	100%	150	8 hrs	1,200
	NEW	160	100%	160	8 hrs.	1,280
Students	Previous	5,294	85%	4,500	35	2,625
	NEW	5,882	85%	5,000	35	2,917
TOTAL (New)	-	6,202		5,320		4,227

The total annualized cost to the government has not changed ($1,411,366 annualized for the main study for each year of a three-year performance period).

The 2008 terms of clearance for the full study (1850-0755 v.7) maintain the terms of clearance from the two prior clearances for PISA (2007 and 2005). This submission of the final PISA surveys to be used in the 2009 full scale collection complies with one of those terms. The remaining terms are addressed below:

• Results from the planned focus groups, analyses of results from the field test assessments, and any related reports that are completed

The national report “Highlights from PISA 2006: Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science and Mathematics Literacy in an International Context” was released in Dec. 2007. It can be accessed at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2006highlights.asp.

The field trial in the U.S. was successfully completed and the results were submitted to the international contractor. The results were used by the international contractor to select questionnaire items and assessment items for the main study. There has been no formal report on the U.S. results of the field trial.

• Information about any additional materials created by NCES to promote the survey as well as provide information about any "conference" or other activity that may be conducted to enhance retention in the sample over the summer

A PISA Summer Conference: “PISA Comes to Your School,” sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will be held on June 25-26, 2009 in Washington, DC. Attendees at the conference will include representatives from the U.S. schools participating in PISA 2009. The purpose of the conference is to inform school representatives about PISA, to explain how PISA results are used, and to motivate schools’ participation in the fall 2009 data collection. The PISA 06 summer conference was a big success in terms of keeping the schools' promises of their participation in the fall. We believe that PISA 2009 summer conference will serve the same purpose.

• Information about how well recruitment targets are being met

137 original schools (65.6%) have agreed to participate in the data collection in the fall 2009. The PISA collection barely meets the international requirement of 65% original schools in the study, and we expect to recruit more original schools between now and September. The percentage of the original schools (137) is calculated based on the total number of eligible schools (209) in the sample.

• Information about how well the additional quality control measures (with NCES vendors for PISA to help ensure that production errors such as the prior printing errors are not repeated) that NCES has put into place are working

According to the PISA 2009 Statement of Work, the contractor shall be familiar with the requirements of the Government Printing Office for each reproduction; all reproductions shall be done in accordance with government printing regulations and with international guidelines and carry the OMB clearance number and expiration date. Final copies of all instruments shall be ready for distribution, at a minimum, one month prior to commencement of data collection activities, for each stage of the study.

Upon receipt of printer’s galleys (or digital proofs) of the instruments, the contractor will provide one copy of the galleys (or digital proofs) for COR review and revision. Once approved, the contractor will provide one electronic and one hard copy of the final version of all instruments to the COR within one week of receipt from the printer for review.

We expect to complete the printing task in June.