Appendix C: Second Follow-up Data Elements
2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study: (B&B:08/09)
Supporting Statement
Request for OMB Review (SF83i)
Reinstatement with Change of Previously Approved
Collection (OMB # 1850-0729)
Submitted by
National Center for Education Statistics
U.S. Department of Education
October 5, 2007
This document supports the clearance of the 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:08/09), the first follow-up study of baccalaureate recipients identified as part of the 2008 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08). The primary purpose of the B&B series of studies is to focus on the value of obtaining a bachelor’s degree, and to track the paths of recent graduates into employment and additional education.
This submission requests reinstatement of the previously obtained clearance for the 2003 cycle of the B&B (OMB No. 1850-0729). Following the field test study in 2008, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will provide the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with a copy of the field test report methodology and summarize any changes planned for the full-scale data collection, including changes to estimated response burden. As with previous B&B submissions, we are requesting clearance for data elements and procedures, including a component which collects the postsecondary transcripts of sample members.
Since initial submission of the clearance package, OMB has asked clarification questions of NCES. Those questions and their responses are presented as appendixes H and I in this document.
Contents
Preface iii
List of Tables vii
A. Justification 1
1. Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary 1
a. Purpose of this Submission 1
b. Legislative Authorization 1
c. Prior B&B Studies 2
d. Prior Related Studies 5
e. Prior and Related Transcript Studies 6
f. Study Design for B&B:08/09 7
2. Purpose and Uses of the Data 8
3. Use of Information Technology 11
a. Transcript and Course Catalog Data Collection 11
b. Student Interviews 12
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication 12
5. Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses 13
6. Frequency of Data Collection 13
7. Special Circumstances of Data Collection 13
8. Consultants Outside the Agency 13
9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents 14
10. Assurance of Confidentiality 15
11. Sensitive Questions 17
12. Estimates of Response Burden 17
13. Estimates of Cost 19
14. Costs to Federal Government 19
15. Reasons for Changes in Response Burden and Costs 20
16. Publication Plans and Time Schedule 22
17. Approval to Not Display Expiration Date for OMB Approval 23
18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions 23
B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods 25
1. Respondent Universe 25
2. Statistical Methodology 25
a. Field Test Design 25
b. Full-scale Design 26
3. Methods for Maximizing Response Rates 27
a. Institution Contacting 27
b. Transcript Collection Training 28
c. Collection of Student Data from Transcripts 29
d. Student Locating 33
e. Student Data Collection: Self-Administered Web, CATI, and CAPI 35
4. Tests of Procedures and Methods 40
a. Visibility of Mailout Materials 41
b. Use of Cell Phone Calling and Texting 41
c. Use of Prepaid Incentives 42
d. Incentives during Production Interviewing 42
e. Experimental Testing 42
5. Reviewing Statisticians and Individuals Responsible for Designing and Conducting the Study 46
6. Other Contractors’ Staff Responsible for Conducting the Study 46
C. Overview of Analysis Topics and Survey Items 47
References 59
Appendixes
A. Studies Addressing Issues Relevant to NCES’ Postsecondary Longitudinal and Sample Surveys Studies Program A-1
B. Technical Review Panel Contact List B-1
C. Confidentiality C-1
D. Letters and Contacting Materials D-1
E. Sample Design for the 2008 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08) E-1
F. Endorsing Associations for B&B:08/09 F-1
G. Linkages to Extant Data Sources G-1
H. Responses to OMB Questions Concerning BB:08/09 H-1
I. Response to OMB Questions dated January 25, 2008 I-1
Table Page
1. Chronology of NPSAS and its longitudinal components 6
2. Estimated burden on B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale respondents 18
3a. Estimated costs to students for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale implementations 19
3b. Estimated costs to institutions for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale implementations 19
4. Individual and total costs to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale implementations 20
5. Contract costs for B&B:08/09 21
6. Operational schedule for B&B:08/09 23
7. Distribution of the B&B:08/09 field test sample by NPSAS:08 field test response status and B&B eligibility 27
8. Detectable differences for field test experiment hypotheses 45
9. Data elements 47
List of Exhibits
1. Informed Consent Script for the B&B Interview 41
2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study
(B&B:08/09)
This document supports the clearance of selected data elements, materials, and procedures under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 5 CFR 1320, as amended, for the field test and full scale data collections to be conducted for the 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:08/09). B&B:08/09 is being conducted by RTI International1 and its subcontractor, MPR Associates, under contract to the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (Contract Number ED-05-CO-0033). This submission requests clearance for both the field test and full-scale data collections for B&B:08/09. Specific differences between the two collections are highlighted in this document when needed for clarity.
B&B:08/09 will be the third cohort of the B&B series and the second to gather college transcript data on such a longitudinal sample. The first cohort was identified in NPSAS:93, and consisted of students who received their bachelor’s degree in academic year 1992–93. NPSAS:93 provided the base-year data, and students were interviewed in an initial follow-up in 1994; this follow-up also included a collection of transcript data. The 1993 cohort was surveyed again in 1997 and 2003. The field test collections for each study were conducted in the years preceding the main study—1992 for NPSAS:93, 1993 for B&B:93/94, 1996 for B&B:93/97, and 2002 for B&B:93/03. The first and only transcript collection to date was conducted as part of B&B:93/94. The second cohort was selected from the NPSAS:2000 which became the base year for a single follow-up in spring 2001, with the NPSAS:2000 field test conducted in 1999 and the B&B:00/01 field test conducted in 2000.
Previous publications related to or based on data from NPSAS or its longitudinal spin-offs are listed in appendix A. Appendix B lists the proposed Technical Review Panel (TRP) for the study. A sample of the confidentiality pledge and affidavit of nondisclosure completed by all project staff having access to individually identifying data are provided in appendix C, along with documents related to other security measures that will be implemented. Introductory letters to institutions regarding the collection of transcripts and to students requesting updated contact information and announcing the start of data collection are found in appendix D. Appendix E provides a summary of the sample design for the field test and full-scale of NPSAS:08, the base year study. A list of endorsing institutions and associations supporting B&B is provided in appendix F, and a summary of the linkages to extant data sources is provided in appendix G.
The B&B longitudinal series is sponsored by NCES, within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in close consultation with other offices and organizations within and outside the U.S. Department of Education (ED). NPSAS is authorized under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-279, Title 1 Part C), which requires NCES to:
“collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistical data related to education in the United States and in other nations, including:
(1) collecting, acquiring, compiling... and disseminating full and complete statistics on the condition and progress of education, at the preschool, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels in the United States, including data on—
(E) educational access to and opportunity for postsecondary education, including data on financial aid to postsecondary students;”
Section 183 of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 further states that:
“all collection, maintenance, use, and wide dissemination of data by the Institute, including each office, board, committee, and Center of the Institute, shall conform with the requirements of section 552A of title 5, United States Code [which protects the confidentiality rights of individual respondents with regard to the data collected, reported, and published under this title].” (Section 183)
As noted in the previous section, B&B:08/09 will be the third cohort of bachelor’s degree recipients selected from a NPSAS base-year sample for longitudinal study by NCES. Two previous B&B cohorts have been studied. The B&B:93 cohort was reinterviewed in 1994, 1997, and 2003. Graduates from 1999–2000 were reinterviewed in 2001 for B&B:00/01. Like B&B:93, the B&B:08 series of studies will include a transcript collection and a second follow-up 4 years following degree completion. This section summarizes the major analyses conducted in the previous two cohorts.
NPSAS:93, which served as the base-year data collection study for B&B:93/03, collected detailed information on a nationally representative cross-section of students enrolled in postsecondary education. Data were collected from students, institutions, and parents on students’ demographic backgrounds, enrollment characteristics, work experiences, and financing (with particular emphasis on the use of financial aid). Seniors graduating in 1992–93 were asked additional questions about their plans for the future, such as whether they intended to attend graduate school and whether they planned to enter the teaching profession.
The first follow-up for this first B&B cohort took place in 1994, approximately 1 year after participants earned their bachelor’s degree. Major topics covered in this wave of data collection were the cohort members’ work experiences, including job search activities, employment, and job training; postbaccalaureate education; family formation; and financial information such as loan debt and income. In short, the first follow-up study provided critical policy information for decisionmakers and researchers about the early impacts of bachelor’s degrees on recent graduates. Research using the data from the 1994 follow-up showed that most of the college graduates were employed, 87 percent overall and 73 percent full-time. One-quarter of the sample (27 percent) had enrolled for further education, and 17 percent were enrolled at the graduate level, with many combining school and work (McCormick and Horn, 1996).
The first follow-up data laid the groundwork for studying graduates’ entry into teaching at the elementary and secondary levels. Data collected in 1994 allowed the examination of the characteristics, undergraduate education, and early employment experiences of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients who were in the “teacher pipeline.” For example, Henke, Geis, and Giambattista (1996) contrasted these important B&B:93 subpopulations to consider the future of the teaching force in the U.S., including graduates who had prepared to teach but never did, those who taught but were not formally prepared to do so, and those who reported that they were considering teaching.
The second follow-up (B&B:93/97) was conducted 4 years after bachelor’s degree completion. Detailed information about graduate and first-professional enrollment was collected at this stage, including what degrees graduates had pursued and in what fields, the timing of enrollment, enrollment intensity and duration, how graduates combined enrollment and work, methods of financing graduate education, and completion of graduate degrees. By 1997, more of the 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients had enrolled in graduate education (30 percent had enrolled, up from 17 percent in 1994), and some had earned graduate or first-professional degrees (12 percent). Information on employment experiences was also collected, such as the number of jobs the sample members had held, their occupations, their experience with unemployment, their salaries and benefits, and their satisfaction with various aspects of their jobs. In 1997, 89 percent were employed, about the same as in 1994 (McCormick, Nuñez, Shah, and Choy, 1999).
The second follow-up allowed further study of those in the teacher pipeline. Data indicated, for example, that while about one-quarter of graduates had prepared to teach, taught, or were considering teaching in 1994, about one-third had done so by 1997 (Henke, Chen, and Geis, 2000). Furthermore, compared with graduates in other occupations in April 1994, graduates who were teaching at that time were among the most likely to work in the same occupation 3 years later in April 1997 (Henke and Zahn, 2001). However, research into the relationship of salaries and job experiences to major field of study demonstrated the relatively low salaries and salary increases over time for those who majored in education (Horn and Zahn, 2001).
In addition, the second follow-up data collection enabled further exploration of the relationships among postbaccalaureate education, employment, and family formation. Analyses of these data revealed that marriage was negatively related to graduate enrollment for women but not for men (Clune, Nuñez, and Choy, 2001) and that debt burden no longer constituted a major obstacle to graduate enrollment as it had in 1994, nor did it affect family formation or other steps toward financial security (Choy, 2000b). Employment experiences were varied; in 1997, about two-thirds (68 percent) of employed 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients, who were not enrolled for further study, worked full time for someone else in one professional job (Bradburn and Berger, 2002). In addition, 5 percent were self-employed, 5 percent were employed part time, and 7 percent worked in multiple jobs. In all, 15 percent reported working in at least one of these three types of alternative working arrangements.
The third follow-up study for B&B:93/03 was a landmark 10-year follow-up of the 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients. With the final 2003 follow-up came reports extending previous analyses of key issues in the population such as their financial status, especially as it relates to undergraduate borrowing. The disposition of 1992–93 graduates’ student loan debt in 2003 was detailed in a report on the borrowing patterns of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients and the repayment by 2003 of undergraduate Stafford loans for those who had no additional degree enrollment (Choy and Li, 2006). About one-half (51 percent) of all graduates borrowed to help pay for their undergraduate education, at an average of $10,200 from all sources. Among graduates with no additional degree enrollment, 74 percent had repaid all of their undergraduate loans by 2003. Of the 26 percent still repaying their loans, the median debt burden (monthly payment divided by monthly income) in 2003 was 3.3 percent. Among Stafford loan borrowers (39 percent of the group), 5 percent had a deferment, 12 percent had a period of forbearance, and 10 percent defaulted at some point. Students did not tend to have immediate repayment problems; the average length of time between graduation and the first deferment, forbearance, or default was 4 to 5 years. For many, the problems were temporary, with 45 percent of defaulters able to re-enter repayment later. In addition, most of those who deferred or had periods of forbearance were able to recover financially and did not default.
Because the 2003 interview afforded a 10-year perspective, data were able to investigate how other parts of the graduates’ lives unfolded in subsequent years in more detail. For example, graduate education could not be studied as well with earlier follow-ups, because insufficient time had elapsed for many to have completed graduate education. By 2003, some 40 percent of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients had enrolled in a master’s, first-professional, or doctor’s degree program, including 25 percent who had completed such a degree, 6 percent who were currently enrolled, and 9 percent who had enrolled in a graduate program but left before completion (Bradburn, Nevill, and Cataldi, 2006). On average, most students waited 2 to 3 years to enroll for the first time in a graduate degree program, and among those who enrolled between 1993 and 2003, about 62 percent had earned at least one graduate degree by 2003 (Nevill and Chen, 2007). Master’s degree students took an average of 3 years to complete their degree, first-professional students took about 4 years, and doctoral students took more than 5 years. Rates of persistence and completion were higher among students who entered graduate school immediately after earning a bachelor’s degree, who attended full time and enrolled continuously, and who enrolled in multiple graduate degree programs (Nevill and Chen, 2007).
Finally, the 2003 data permits greater exploration into how K–12 teachers’ careers progressed over the 10-year span (Alt and Henke, 2007). Through spring 2003, one-fifth (20 percent) of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients had taught in an elementary or secondary school. Approximately 11 percent of these graduates were teaching when interviewed in 2003, and another 9 percent had taught at some point but were not teaching at the time of the interview. This report compares current and former teachers among this cohort on demographic and academic characteristics, and contrasts these groups with graduates who never taught. Characteristics of teaching jobs as well as teacher job satisfaction are also described.
The more recent B&B cohort who completed the bachelor’s degree in 1999–2000 was followed up in 2001. About one-half (49 percent) of the students who completed a bachelor’s degree in 1999–2000, did so by age 22, and the majority of them (57 percent) were women (Bradburn, Berger, Li, Peter, and Rooney, 2003). Overall, 65 percent graduated from public institutions and one-third (33 percent) graduated from private not-for-profit institutions. The remaining 2 percent received a bachelor’s degree from private for-profit institutions.
Data from the B&B:00/01 cohort allowed comparisons of how key issues, such as time to degree completion, had changed between the two cohorts. Compared with 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients, 1999–2000 college graduates were less likely to enroll in college within 1 year of finishing high school (83 vs. 90 percent; Bradburn et al., 2003). Upon enrollment, compared with 1992–93 bachelor’s degree completers, the 1999–2000 cohort was more likely to complete the degree in 4 years or less (39 vs. 35 percent) and less likely to take 4 to 5 years between postsecondary entry and graduation (24 vs. 28 percent).
Changes in financial aid between the two previous B&B cohorts were examined in a report using the 1994 and 2001 first follow-ups to compare the borrowing patterns of 1992–93 and 1999–2000 bachelor’s degree recipients (Choy and Li, 2005). The report described repayment situations and resulting debt burdens (monthly loan payments as a percentage of monthly salary income) a year after graduation. Members of the earlier cohort finished their undergraduate borrowing before the changes in the Stafford loan program were implemented, most members of the later cohort would have done all of their borrowing under the new rules. The major finding of the analysis was that although both the percentage of graduates who had borrowed for their undergraduate education and the average total amount borrowed (adjusting for inflation) increased, the median debt burden a year after graduating was about the same for both cohorts.
Similarly, among 1999–2000 college graduates as of 2001, a report discussing teaching in elementary and secondary schools, preparing to teach at the elementary/secondary level, and considering teaching included a comparison with the previous B&B cohort (Henke, Peter, Li, and Geis, 2005). The analyses indicated that 12 percent of graduates had taught in an elementary/secondary school in the year following graduation and that teaching was more common among women, among graduates who received their degrees from public institutions and from non-doctorate-granting institutions, and among graduates with higher cumulative undergraduate GPAs but lower college entrance examination scores. The proportion of graduates who had taught within a year of receiving a bachelor’s degree increased slightly, from 10 to 12 percent, between graduates who received their degrees in 1992–93 and 1999–2000, respectively.
The history of longitudinal postsecondary education studies at NCES spans several decades. Starting in 1972 with the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), NCES began providing longitudinal data to education policymakers and researchers that linked educational experiences with later outcomes such as early labor market experiences and postsecondary education enrollment and attainment. The NLS-72 cohort of high school seniors was surveyed five times between 1972 and 1986, and a wide variety of data were collected, including data on students’ family background, schools attended, labor force participation, family formation, and job satisfaction. NLS-72 was followed by two other decade-long education longitudinal studies—the High School and Beyond Study (HS&B) and National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88)—that expanded the age and grade range of sample members and greatly increased the policy relevance of the study findings. These high school cohort studies differ in design from postsecondary studies like B&B because, while the former follow an age cohort, the postsecondary studies follow a cohort created from all students enrolled in a particular academic year, irrespective of age.
The Postsecondary Studies Division (PSD) of NCES houses the Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies and Sample Surveys (PLSSS) program, which collects data from students—regardless of their ages—enrolled for postsecondary education at specific points in time. The foundational study of the PLSSS program is the cross-sectional National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), conducted every 3 to 4 years since 1986–87. NPSAS is the only periodic, nationally representative survey of student financial aid. There is no other single national database containing student level records for students receiving aid from all of the numerous and disparate programs funded by the federal government, the states, postsecondary institutions, employers, and private organizations. NPSAS data allow for the continued evaluation of trends regarding financial aid and postsecondary enrollment. This information is critical to the development of government policy regarding higher education. The NPSAS studies reflect the changes made in government guidelines for financial aid eligibility and availability, and provide a good measure of the effect of those changes. NPSAS also provides the basis for two longitudinal components in alternate administrations: the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS) and Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B). BPS follows a cohort of students just starting their academic careers; this group has been followed up from the 1990, 1996, and 2004 NPSAS base years.
The chronology of the previous administrations of the NPSAS study and its associated longitudinal components is presented in table 1. Like the first B&B, a second follow-up is planned for the latest cohort, and postsecondary transcript data will be collected. These facets were not a part of B&B:00/01. For all studies, full-scale data collection was preceded by a field test data collection 1 year earlier in order to test methods and procedures planned for the full-scale data collection.
Table 1. Chronology of NPSAS and its longitudinal components
Base year |
First follow-up |
Second follow-up |
Third follow-up |
NPSAS:90 |
BPS:90/92 |
BPS:90/94 |
— |
NPSAS:93 |
B&B:93/941 |
B&B:93/97 |
B&B:93/03 |
NPSAS:96 |
BPS:96/98 |
BPS:96/01 |
— |
NPSAS:2000 |
B&B:2000/01 |
— |
— |
NPSAS:04 |
BPS:04/06 |
BPS:04/09 |
— |
NPSAS:08 |
B&B:08/091 |
B&B:08/12 |
— |
— Not applicable.
1 Includes transcript study
NOTE: NPSAS = National Postsecondary Student Aid Study; BPS = Beginning Postsecondary Students; B&B = Baccalaureate and Beyond.
Since the inception of NPSAS and its related BPS and B&B longitudinal components, the data collection techniques and sources used for these studies have improved and expanded over time. NPSAS:93 introduced the computer-assisted data entry (CADE) system, allowing institutions to enter data from student records directly into electronic files. NPSAS:96 made more use of electronic data files to supplement the survey information from CADE and CATI. NPSAS:04 introduced a web-based student interview that allowed both self-administration and interviewer-administration via CATI. This multi-mode approach to data collection has increased flexibility and convenience for study participants and reduced burden.
As indicated above, both the field test and full-scale data collections for B&B:08/09 will include a transcript study in which postsecondary transcripts will be requested from the institution awarding the bachelor’s degree. As official institutional records, transcripts are consistently much more reliable sources of academic records and performance—such as grades, coursework by subject area, degree or program completion status, and major—than students’ self-reports. The last B&B study which conducted a transcript study was B&B:93/94. In addition, in 2000, the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88/2000) collected college transcripts for members of the cohort who had pursued any level of postsecondary education. B&B remains the only transcript collection containing the complete undergraduate transcripts for all students in the sample. The transcript collection for B&B:08/09 will provide a much-needed update to information on the course of study of today’s baccalaureate recipients. The combination of the college transcripts and other study data collected through interviews, file matching, and record abstraction will provide researchers with an important link between academic performance and outcomes.
The B&B:08/09 field test sample will consist of students who were eligible to participate in the field test of NPSAS:08 and completed requirements for a bachelor’s degree during the 2006–07 academic year at postsecondary institutions in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico. Similarly, the full-scale sample will consist of students eligible to participate in the NPSAS:08 full-scale study who completed requirements for the bachelor’s degree during the 2007–08 academic year at US institutions. The B&B:08/09 first follow-up study for which clearance is requested will involve two data collection components. First, a transcript collection will collect postsecondary transcripts from each of the NPSAS institutions where sample members completed their program requirements. To facilitate subsequent course coding, institution catalogues will be collected for the academic years 2003–04 through 2006–07 for the field test and 2004–05 through 2007–08 for the full-scale, the academic years during which sample members were most likely to be enrolled. Expert coders at RTI will key and code data provided by the transcripts.
Second, students will be interviewed using a web-based interview. Interviews will be conducted in phases: the first phase—the early response period—will allow sample members to complete a self-administered interview or conduct a telephone interview if needed. Interviews completed during this first phase, which covers the first 4 weeks following notification about the study, will be eligible for a monetary incentive (see section B.4 for a discussion of proposed experiments to evaluate the impact of various incentives.) During the second phase—production interviewing—outbound calls will be made by call center staff to sample members who did not complete the interview during the first 4 weeks of data collection. An experiment proposed for the field test data collection will evaluate the impact of offering a monetary incentive during the second phase of data collection. When necessary, the final nonresponse conversion phase of interviewing will allow specially-trained interviewers to target sample members who refused to participate in the interview or were difficult to locate. These sample members will be eligible for a monetary incentive for interview completion. A component of the nonresponse conversion phase utilizes field interviewing staff to conduct a portion of the interviews reaching this phase, with sample members clustered in geographic regions. All interviews completed via computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) will be offered an incentive.
Additional data for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale student samples will be obtained from a variety of extant data sources. Student financial aid data will come from Central Processing System (CPS), which houses and processes data contained in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms; these data will be obtained through file matching/ downloading with this system. Data will also be obtained from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), Pell loan and grant files, and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). As part of data collection, these files will be used to assist the process for eligibility determination. The files will also be included directly or as derived variables in producing the final study data file. A description of matching procedures and the security measures in place for the linkages to extant data sources is provided in appendix G.
The B&B studies are charged with collecting information on several special topics. As part of the NPSAS collection of studies, B&B describes the contemporary bachelor’s degree recipient, with a focus on education finances, and illustrates how they relate to subsequent employment and education paths. NPSAS:08 will establish the base-year cohort for a B&B series of studies following college graduates. A follow-up survey will be conducted 1 year later (B&B:08/09), the study for which this clearance is requested, and another follow-up is planned for 2012 (B&B:08/12). The financial focus of the B&B:08 series will be on the accumulated debt burden and overall financial health of recent college graduates and how that financial status relates to their education and employment trajectories.
Second, the B&B series of studies is key to understanding the educational paths of all types of bachelor’s degree recipients. These studies will include both traditional-age and older postsecondary students, whose educational options and choices often diverge considerably. Societal and economic changes have encouraged greater participation in postsecondary education for all individuals. As a result, greater numbers of enrollees are found among those who did not enter postsecondary education directly from high school, who have been in the workforce, or who have started families. Thus, there is increasing diversity in backgrounds, aspirations, expectations, and benefits experienced by these individuals with regard to postsecondary education. The B&B:08 series will afford the opportunity to summarize the undergraduate paths taken by the graduates, particularly the time taken to complete the bachelor’s degree and what factors may relate to that outcome. Because B&B follows graduates several years after college completion, it also permits analyses of those who continue their education beyond the baccalaureate and, again, the relationship of undergraduate paths to subsequent decisions.
Labor market outcomes of bachelor’s degree recipients are another essential component of the B&B studies. Both overall labor market outcomes (and their relationship to undergraduate histories) and those of specific subgroups of graduates are of interest. B&B has a specific mandate to collect information on recent college graduates as prospective members of the kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) teaching pool. The B&B:08 series will describe the bachelor’s cohort in terms of the teacher “pipeline”: the preparations graduates have made for teaching and, for those who have entered teaching, essential information about their experiences during their first year as teachers. This examination of employment trajectories includes comparisons of teachers with other occupations as well as labor market outcomes for the cohort as a whole.
In each of these areas, specific questions to be addressed in the 1-year follow-up of graduates, B&B:08/09, are below.
Debt and finances
How much do bachelor’s degree recipients owe on undergraduate student loans 1 year after college? What is the status of the loans?
If in repayment, what are the monthly payments? Are parents helping to repay the loan?
Has student loan debt influenced career or graduate school plans?
Do graduates consider the loans a worthwhile investment in their future? Would it have been possible to complete college in the same period of time without the loans?
What is their total household income?
Do they own a home or a car?
What are their monthly payments for housing, auto loans, and credit cards?
What is the total debt burden (monthly payments as percent of income) including student loans?
Are graduates living at home with parents, alone, or with others? Are they married or living with a partner? Do they have any children or other dependents?
Undergraduate history/time to bachelor’s degree
How long did college completers wait between high school and first entering postsecondary education? How long do they take from first entering postsecondary education to completing a bachelor’s degree?
What events in their undergraduate enrollment histories have taken place, such as transfers, part-time attendance, and stopout periods? What type of institution was first attended? How does time to degree relate to undergraduate enrollment history? How do further education, employment, family formation, and other trajectories relate to undergraduate enrollment history?
How does time to degree relate to undergraduate demographic factors, such as gender, family income, age at beginning postsecondary education, parental education levels, and racial/ethnic background? How do further education, employment, family formation, and other trajectories relate to undergraduate demographic factors?
How is time to degree related to academic preparation as measured by college entrance examination scores, advanced placement tests, and remedial courses in college? How do further education, employment, family formation, and other trajectories relate to undergraduate academic factors?
How is time to degree related to the combination of loans, grants, and employment during the undergraduate years? How do further education, employment, family formation, and other trajectories relate to undergraduate financial factors?
Graduate school
What percentage of recent college graduates apply to graduate or first-professional schools, and what percentage actually enroll within 1 year of completing a bachelor’s degree? What factors are associated with graduate school enrollment?
What are their reasons for continuing their education?
Of those who apply, what percentage are accepted? Of those accepted, what percentage actually enroll?
What institutions do they attend and why?
What types of programs do they pursue?
How are they financing their graduate/first-professional education?
How are graduate/first-professional enrollment patterns related to demographic characteristics, undergraduate enrollment histories, undergraduate academic performance, and financial factors?
Among those not attending graduate school, what are their reasons for delaying graduate/first-professional education or not planning to attend at all?
What percentage are continuing education in undergraduate, vocational, or nondegree programs?
Are continuing students aware of Lifelong Learning tax credits and has this influenced their pursuit of further education?
Labor market outcomes
What type of careers are recent college graduates planning and how successful are they in obtaining jobs leading to future careers within 1 year of graduation?
How frequently do they use temporary employment agencies and rely on part-time employment?
How successful are liberal arts majors in finding career-related employment compared to those majoring in business and more applied fields of study?
What was their employment status in the month of April, after graduation, compared to previous B&B cohorts (1992–93 graduates and 2000–2001 graduates)?
What are the characteristics of the most recent job held at the time of the interview?
What percentage are employed full-time and part-time, in temporary or permanent positions?
What is the annual salary?
What percentage have participated in job-related training programs?
K–12 teaching
What were the experiences of recent college graduates who are in the elementary/secondary schoolteacher “pipeline,” (i.e., those who were trained, certified, or considered teaching as a career)?
What percentage applied for and were accepted for teaching positions?
What were the reasons for not applying or not accepting teaching positions?
Do those who entered teaching feel that they were well prepared?
What type of teaching position did they hold during the first year, and how effective was the school in assisting them?
With which aspects of teaching during the first year were they satisfied or dissatisfied?
Answers to these and other questions are vital if policymakers at the local, state, and national levels are to respond adequately to the changing environment of postsecondary education. As appendix A indicates, since inception, the B&B series data have been used extensively to explore PSD program issues and resulted in numerous NCES publications.
As a first step in the transcript collection, RTI will collect course catalogues from NPSAS institutions enrolling B&B:08 cohort members for the academic years 2003–04 to 2006–07 for the field test sample and 2004-05 to 2007-08 for the full-scale sample. To the extent that the catalogues are available from an online source—College Source Online—we will obtain catalogues electronically. Any institutions whose catalogues cannot be obtained in that manner will be asked to provide the course catalogues directly to RTI.
Transcripts will be requested for the B&B:08 field test and full-scale cohorts from the institutions from which they were sampled as part of NPSAS:08. A complete transcript will be requested for each sample member, as well as the complete transcripts for transfer schools attended to the extent this information is available. Several methods will be used for obtaining the transcript data including:
Asking institution staff to upload electronic transcripts for sampled students to a secure B&B:08/09 study website;
Asking institution staff to send electronic transcripts for sampled students by secure File Transfer Protocol;
Asking institution staff to send electronic transcripts via e-mail with encrypted attachments;
Obtaining transcripts directly using a dedicated server at the University of Texas at Austin (described in more detail below) for those institutions participating in the program.
Only as a last resort will institution staff be asked to transmit transcripts to a secure fax that is housed in a locked room at RTI (after sending a confirmed test page).
The fourth collection method listed above is a relatively new process. Approximately 200 institutions currently send and receive academic transcripts in standardized electronic formats via a dedicated server at the University of Texas at Austin. The server now supports Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and XML formats. Nine (6 percent) of the field test institutions and 70 (6 percent) of the likely full scale institutions are registered with the server. In addition, 14 of the field test institutions and approximately 60 of the likely full scale institutions are in the test phase with the server, which means that they are preparing and testing using the server but not currently using it to send data.
After collecting the transcripts and catalogues, data from the transcripts will be keyed, when needed, and the courses coded. Courses will be coded using the most recent version of The College Course Map (CCM). The taxonomy for coding transcripts will be modeled on those used in other postsecondary studies, specifically the NELS:88 and B&B:93 postsecondary transcript collections. A careful review of these taxonomies will be carried out, and refinements made as necessary, to address changes in course-taking and to adapt to the shifting fields and programs within higher education.
In addition to the transcript collection, B&B:08/09 will include a web-based interview with eligible sample members. The interview will be administered using three data collection modes. During the first 4 weeks of data collection, a self-administered interview will be available for respondents with computer access. If the self-administered interview is not completed, those cases will be eligible for interview using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). And finally, in order to interview sample members who did not complete either the self-administered or CATI interview, field interviewers will attempt to interview nonrespondents in the field, using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CAPI). Although administered in multiple modes, the instruments used for interviewing will contain the same question wording, item order and logic, and range/consistency checks.
The multimode approach planned for B&B:08/09 offers several advantages which keep participant burden at a minimum while ensuring collection of high quality data. First, the wording and presentation of subsequent interview questions can be tailored to reflect answers already received in the interview, as well as information collected from other sources and preloaded for use during the interview. Second, on-line help screens will be available to provide respondents with more in-depth explanations of questions and examples of the categories of answers listed. Both self-administered respondents and CATI and CAPI interviewers will have access to the same help screens. Finally, regardless of mode, respondents will be able to complete a portion of the interview and return to complete the interview at a later time, rather than requiring the interview to be completed in a single session.
In the planning and conduct of the B&B study series, NCES has consulted with university researchers, other federal and nonfederal experts, and relevant groups and associations to improve the focus of the B&B study series and to ensure that B&B avoids duplication of effort with similar studies. NCES routinely consults with staff in the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education, the National Science Foundation, the American Council on Education, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education to confirm that the data to be collected for the B&B study are not available from any other sources. Further, these consultations provide methodological insights from the results of other longitudinal postsecondary student studies conducted by NCES and other federal agencies and nonfederal sources, and assure that the data collected through B&B will meet the needs of the federal government and other relevant organizations.
The student survey for B&B:08/09 does not involve small businesses or entities. However, some small businesses (for-profit schools) and other small public and private schools will be contacted as part of the B&B:08/09 transcript collections. RTI will attempt to minimize the intrusion and burden to these schools by working closely with a school-appointed coordinator (e.g., the registrar), before the data collection effort, to identify the format in which records are kept and transmitted. Course catalogues will be collected from a public online resource, as available, to minimize burden. To accommodate any constraints imposed by record-keeping systems, schools will be offered alternative methods of providing the requested transcripts described in section B.3.a.
A new B&B cohort has been created every 8 years since the first set of studies were initiated with NPSAS:93. The B&B:08 cohort is the third baccalaureate cohort and the second to gather college transcript data. The current B&B study, B&B:08/09, will be conducted 1 year after the base-year NPSAS:08 data collection and a second follow-up will be conducted 4 years later in 2012 (B&B:08/12).
The NPSAS and its longitudinal follow up studies, BPS and B&B, are conducted, first, to reflect the large-scale and rapid changes in federal policy concerning postsecondary student aid—eligibility restrictions change, size of grant and loan amounts fluctuate, and the balance between various aid options changes dramatically. A recurring study is essential to helping predict future costs for financial aid because loan programs create continued obligations for the federal government as long as the loans are being repaid. Second, these repeated surveys can capture the changing nature of the postsecondary environment. With the longitudinal design of the NPSAS survey and B&B follow-ups, representative national samples of degree-receiving postsecondary students with similar base-year characteristics may be compared over time to determine the effects of changes in federal policy and programs.
No special circumstances of data collection are anticipated.
Recognizing the significance of the B&B:08/09 data collection, several strategies have been incorporated into the project work plan that allow for the critical review and acquisition of comments relating to project activities, interim and final products, and projected and actual outcomes. These strategies include consultations with persons and organizations both internal and external to NCES, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), and the federal government.
Previous B&B implementations have benefited from a standing federal review panel composed of staff from many federal offices, including ED’s Office of Postsecondary Education, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Budget Office. Some members of this panel also belong to the Technical Review Panel (TRP) for NPSAS:08. The membership of the TRP (see appendix B) represents a broad spectrum of the postsecondary community. The nonfederal members serve as expert reviewers on the technical aspects of the study design, data collection procedures, and instrument design, especially item content and format. The TRP reviewed the draft data elements during their meeting in September 2007 and the revised data elements presented in section C reflect this review.
For the transcript collection described above, institutions will be reimbursed for the cost of preparing and sending transcripts at the institution’s standard rate. If additional costs are incurred by the institutions, RTI will reimburse such expenses to the extent that they are reasonable and properly documented.
In an effort to maximize student interview response rates, the use of incentives is proposed to encourage early response using the self-administered web survey and to limit nonresponse bias through refusal conversion. Sample members are likely to have already received an incentive through the base-year, NPSAS:08, data collection. Experiments manipulating the incentive payment distribution method and amounts will be included in the field test data collection to evaluate the effectiveness of offering specific types of prepaid incentives during the early response period. Three incentive groups are proposed for comparison during this early response phase: a promised incentive of $35, a $5 prepaid check followed by a $30 check, and $5 prepaid in cash followed by a $30 check. The Tests of Procedures and Methods section of this document (section B.4) discusses this experiment in detail. The incentive offers have been increased by $5 over the NPSAS:08 base-year incentive amount to recognize students’ ongoing commitment to B&B as a longitudinal study.
Once the 4-week early response phase ends, telephone interviewers will begin making outgoing calls to the remaining sample in the production interviewing phase. During this second period of data collection, we propose to conduct an experiment to evaluate whether paying an incentive has a positive effect on response rates, data quality, and data collection costs. Prior to data collection, the sample will be randomly divided into two groups: one group will be eligible for $0 for completing an interview and the other group will be eligible for $20. While paying an incentive usually improves response rates compared to no incentive, it is questionable whether paying a $20 incentive will improve response rates and reduce nonresponse bias to a level worth the additional financial cost for data collection. As part of the BPS:04/06 field test data collection, RTI found a small but significant increase in response rates during the production phase among those offered the $20. A total of 22 percent of sample members eligible for the $20 response incentive completed the interview. In contrast, a 16 percent response rate was attained for sample members who were not eligible for an incentive (z = 2.66; p < .05). We plan to evaluate the production interviewing incentive again in the field test for B&B:08/09 so that we may continue to monitor response rates and data quality relative to the costs involved in obtaining a completed interview.
In the final, nonresponse conversion phase of data collection, a $35 incentive paid by check will be offered to sample members who refused to be interviewed during the early response and production interviewing phases or who could not be contacted. Field interviewing (CAPI) will be conducted with a subset of nonrespondents last located in geographic areas with the highest concentrations of sample members. A $35 incentive also paid by check will be offered to respondents who complete the in-person interview.
In addition to the proposed experiments, we plan to offer a $20 differential to sample members who were base-year (NPSAS:08) nonrespondents. Consistent with the ELS:2002 first follow-up, we intend to offer previous round nonrespondents a higher incentive payment than other sample members. Prior round nonrespondents are typically more difficult to include in the follow-up study, yet they play a vital analytic role in B&B:08/09.
Paying incentives is expected to encourage respondents to participate early, primarily via self-administration on the web, and to encourage nonresponding sample members to participate in the study. The use of incentives provides significant advantages to the government in terms of increased overall response rates and timely data collection. In addition, the use of incentives can also result in decreased data collection costs.
NCES assures participating individuals and institutions that any data collected under B&B and related programs shall be in total conformity with NCES’s standards for protecting the privacy of individuals.
B&B:08/09 is authorized under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (Public Law [P.L.] 107-279, Title 1 Part C), which requires NCES to:
“collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistical data related to education in the United States and in other nations, including:
(1) collecting, acquiring, compiling... and disseminating full and complete statistics on the condition and progress of education, at the preschool, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels in the United States, including data on—
(E) educational access to and opportunity for postsecondary education, including data on financial aid to postsecondary students;”
Section 183 of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 further states that:
"all collection, maintenance, use, and wide dissemination of data by the Institute, including each office, board, committee, and Center of the Institute, shall conform with the requirements of section 552A of title 5, United States Code [which protects the confidentiality rights of individual respondents with regard to the data collected, reported, and published under this title].” (Section 183)
The assurance of confidentiality plan for the B&B:08/09 was developed by NCES and the RTI jointly. B&B:08/09 will conform totally to federal regulations, specifically the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (5 USC 522a), Privacy Act Regulations [34 CFR Part 5b], Section 506(d) of the General Education Provisions Act, as amended by the Hawkins-Stafford Amendments of 1988 [P.L. 100-297], and NCES Standards and Policies, which denote four separate laws to protect the confidentiality of individually identifiable information collected by NCES: the Privacy Act of 1974, the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, the USA Patriot Act of 2001, and the E-Government Act of 2002.
The plan for maintaining confidentiality includes notarized nondisclosure affidavits obtained from all personnel who will have access to individual identifiers (copies of the agreement and affidavit are provided in appendix C). Also, personnel training will cover several topics, including the meaning of confidentiality; controlled and protected access to computer files under the control of a single data base manager; built-in safeguards concerning status monitoring and receipt control systems; and a secure, staffed, in-house computing facility.
Furthermore, the Department has established a policy, OM:5-101 (last updated July, 7, 2005), regarding the personnel security screening requirements for all contractor employees and their subcontractors. The contractor must comply with these personnel security screening requirements throughout the life of the contract. There are several requirements that the contractor must meet for each employee working on the contract for 30 days or more. Among these requirements are that each person working on the contract be assigned a position risk level. The risk levels are high, moderate, and low based upon the level of harm that a person in the position can cause to the Department’s interests. Each person working on the contract must complete the requirements for a “Contractor Security Screening.” Depending on the risk level assigned to each person’s position, a follow-up background investigation by the Department will occur. Materials related to these security features are provided in appendix C.
All data transferred for the B&B study will be transmitted through a secure server at NCES. The system requires that both parties to the transfer be registered users of the NCES Members Site and also that their Members Site privileges be set to allow use of the new service. This service is designed for the secure transfer of electronic files containing personally identifying information (i.e., data protected under the Privacy Act or otherwise posing risk of disclosure).
This secure server has been used successfully and without incident on the NPSAS:08 and BPS:04/06 studies, currently being conducted for NCES by RTI. Procedures have been put into place for using the server to transfer confidential data. The system requires that both parties to the transfer be registered users of the NCES Members Site and that their Members Site privileges be set to allow use of the secure data transfer service. These privileges are set up and carefully controlled by NCES’ Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This service has been designed by ED/NCES specifically for the secure transfer of electronic files containing personally identifying information (i.e., data protected under the Privacy Act or otherwise posing risk of disclosure) and can be used for NCES-to-Contractor, Contractor-to-Subcontractor, Subcontractor-to-Contractor, and Contractor-to-Other-Agency data transfers. The party uploading the information onto the secure server at NCES is responsible for deleting the file(s) after the successful transfer has been confirmed. Data transfers using this system will include notification to IES, the NCES CTO, and the NCES Deputy Commissioner as well as the NCES project officer. The notification will include the names and affiliations of the parties in the data exchange/transfer and the nature and approximate size of the data to be transferred.
We will use this electronic system for submitting data containing potentially identifying information (such as SSNs, names and dates of birth of our sample members) along with their survey ID (not the same ID that is available on the restricted-use data). As an additional precaution, we will use WinZip (at least version 10), with the highest level of encryption available (currently FIPS approved 256-bit AES encryption) and a strong password to further protect the file.
Additionally, RTI maintains a standing Committee on Human Subjects to ensure that all Institute surveys of human populations comply with applicable regulations concerning informed consent, confidentiality, and protection of privacy. This group serves as the Institute’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) as required by law (45 CFR #46). RTI policy requires that the IRB independently review and approve the study design, instruments, and procedures, and monitor the study annually to ensure that sample members’ rights are fully protected.
Study notification materials sent to students and institutions (see appendix D) will describe the voluntary nature of the B&B:08/09 survey and convey the extent to which respondent identifiers and all responses will be kept confidential. Similarly, the scripts to be read by interviewing staff will be very specific in the assurances made to respondents and contacts.
The B&B:08/09 student interview contains items about earnings, assets and debts, and marital and family status. Federal regulations governing the administration of these questions, which might be viewed as “sensitive” due to personal or private information, require (a) clear documentation of the need for such information as it relates to the primary purpose of the study, and (b) provisions to respondents which clearly inform them of the voluntary nature of participation in the study, and (c) assurances of confidential treatment of responses.
The collection of data related to income, earnings, assets, and indebtedness is central to understanding key policy issues driving this study. One issue concerns access to and successful completion of postsecondary education. Information about financial assets and liabilities can play an important role in explaining whether one starts and finishes the postsecondary program of one’s choice, and whether and at what level financial aid should be made available. In addition, information about income, earnings, and assets are vital labor force variables and provide important indicators of the rate of return of educational experiences to the respondent.
The collection of information about marital and family status also facilitates the exploration of key policy issues. Social and economic support provided by spouses can play an important role in promoting the postsecondary education of respondents and the development of successful careers. On the other hand, having a large number of dependents (with or without, but particularly without, partner support) can be a significant restraint on attainment. The information gathered in these areas will allow researchers to assess levels of support and dependency and will allow policy analysts to make inferences about what types of social policies might be useful to remedy problems that are detected.
Several procedures have been implemented to provide assurances to respondents about the voluntary nature of participation in the study and the confidential treatment of survey responses. A discussion of these procedures appears in section A, item 10, above.
B&B:08/09 will involve two data collection activities: the collection of postsecondary transcripts for sampled students and a self-administered, telephone, or in-person interview of sampled students. The field test administration of B&B:08/09 will also include a reinterview with a randomly selected subset of 182 respondents. The burden estimates, estimates of costs to respondents, and estimates of costs to the responding institutions for each data collection activity are provided in tables 2, 3a and 3b, respectively.
The response time for participating institutions is expected to vary depending on the number of sampled students who attend the institution and the method selected for transmitting the transcripts. Institutions will be offered five different methods for providing responses, including:
uploading electronic transcripts to a secure study website;
sending electronic transcripts by secure File Transfer Protocol;
sending electronic transcripts via e-mail with encrypted attachments;
sending electronic transcripts via a dedicated server at the University of Texas at Austin; and
(as a last resort) transmitting transcripts via a secure fax that is housed in a locked room at RTI after a test submission of nonsensitive data confirms that the institution has the correct fax number.
Table 2. Estimated burden on B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale respondents
Data collection activity |
Sample |
Expected eligible |
Percent expected response rate |
Number of respondents |
Average time burden per response1 |
Range of response times |
Total time burden (hours) |
Field test |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transcript collection |
140 |
140 |
92 |
129 |
2 hrs. |
0.5 to 3 hrs. |
258 |
Student interview |
1,819 |
1,455 |
80 |
1,164 |
30 min. |
15 to 50 min. |
582 |
Student reinterview |
182 |
182 |
80 |
146 |
10 min. |
5 to 15 min. |
24 |
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
864 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Full-scale |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transcript collection |
1,100 |
1,100 |
92 |
1,012 |
3 hrs. |
.5 to 20 hrs. |
3,036 |
Student interview |
23,600 |
21,200 |
90 |
19,100 |
30 min. |
10 to 45 min. |
9,550 |
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
12,586 |
1 Transcript time is specified by institution not by student. The higher burden per response for the full-scale is due to the greater number of transcripts to be processed by each institution.
NOTE: B&B:08/09 = 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study.
Table 3a. Estimated costs to students for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale implementations
Data collection activity |
Sample |
Response rate (percent) |
Number of respondents |
Average burden (time) |
Total burden (time) |
Rate per hour ($) |
Total cost ($) |
Student interview |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Field test |
1,819 |
80 |
1,164 |
30 min. |
582 hrs. |
10 |
5,820 |
Full scale |
20,700 |
90 |
17,172 |
30 min. |
8,586 hrs. |
10 |
85,860 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Student reinterview |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Field test |
182 |
80 |
146 |
10 min. |
24 hrs. |
10 |
240 |
NOTE: B&B:08/09 = 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study.
Table 3b. Estimated costs to institutions for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale implementations
Data collection activity |
Sample |
Response rate (percent) |
Number of respondents |
Average transcripts per school |
Rate per transcript ($) |
Average cost per school ($) |
Total cost ($) |
Field test |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transcript collection |
140 |
92 |
129 |
13 |
5 |
65 |
8,385 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Full-scale |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transcript collection |
1,260 |
92 |
1,159 |
23 |
5 |
115 |
133,285 |
NOTE: B&B:08/09 = 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study.
There are no capital, startup, or operating costs to institution or student respondents for participation in the project. No equipment, printing, or postage charges will be incurred.
A summary of estimated costs to the federal government for B&B:08/09, shown in table 4, are categorized by field test, full-scale study, and total costs. Included in the contract estimates are all staff time, reproduction, postage, and telephone costs associated with the management, data collection, analysis, and reporting for which clearance is requested. A more detailed breakdown of contract costs is provided in table 5.
Table 4. Individual and total costs to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale implementations
Costs to NCES |
Amount (in $) |
B&B:08/09 Field Test |
|
Salaries and expenses |
100,000 |
Contract costs |
1,689,252 |
Total |
1,789,252 |
|
|
B&B:08/09 Full-scale Study |
|
Salaries and expenses |
300,000 |
Contract costs |
9,496,803 |
Total |
9,796,803 |
|
|
Total costs |
|
Salaries and expenses |
400,000 |
Contract costs |
11,186,055 |
Total |
11,586,055 |
NOTE: B&B:08/09 = 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study.
Projected estimates for response burden and costs for B&B:08/09 are based on experiences from B&B:93/03 and more recent studies, including NPSAS:04 and BPS:04/06. Institutional response burden for transcript collection is difficult to estimate due to the anticipated variation in response times. However, the figures presented in tables 2 and 3 are believed to portray an accurate assessment of the estimated time required for participation.
Certain assumptions guide the estimates for response burden. We assume that each institution will need approximately 2 hours to prepare and review instructions prior to performing transcript collection. Then, we are assuming an average of approximately 5 minutes per transaction. It is expected that institution response burden in the field test will be lower than in the full scale study because we are accounting for the reduced sample size (averaging approximately 13 students per institution). In the full-scale study, we are anticipating an average of 23 students per institution.
Estimated response burden for students is based on extensive timing analysis conducted in previous B&B interviews.
Table 5. Contract costs for B&B:08/09
Study area and task management |
Budgeted amount (in $) |
|
Total |
$11,186,055 |
|
110 |
Post award conference |
23,711 |
120 |
Schedules |
50,196 |
130 |
Monthly reports |
273,733 |
140 |
Integrated monitoring system |
512,145 |
150 |
Technical review panels |
381,133 |
Field test (FT) |
|
|
210 |
Sampling |
50,896 |
220 |
FT RIMG/OMB forms clearance |
62,612 |
231 |
Instrumentation |
674,594 |
232 |
Tracing |
96,374 |
234 |
Training for help desk/CATI/CAPI data collection |
170,687 |
236 |
Web/CATI/CAPI data collection |
323,257 |
237 |
Data processing |
241,329 |
240 |
Methodology report |
161,335 |
Full-scale (FS) data collection |
|
|
313 |
FS student sample design and selection |
39,923 |
320 |
FS RIMG/OMB forms clearance |
50,878 |
331 |
Instrumentation |
573,708 |
332 |
Tracing |
459,340 |
334 |
Training for help desk/CATI/CAPI data collection |
350,445 |
336 |
Web/CATI/CAPI data collection |
2,362,166 |
337 |
Data processing |
378,562 |
338 |
Weighting, imputations & nonresponse bias analysis |
234,331 |
339 |
Data disclosure planning and prevention |
60,745 |
340 |
Methodology report |
194,991 |
Descriptive reporting |
|
|
410 |
ED tabulations |
263,739 |
420 |
Data analysis system |
119,394 |
430 |
Additional special tabulations |
84,570 |
440 |
Descriptive reports |
188,489 |
450 |
Respond to information requests |
26,782 |
460 |
Final technical memo |
14,017 |
Transcript collection |
|
|
510 |
FT collection of catalogues and student transcripts |
193,538 |
520 |
Transcript keying and coding |
278,189 |
530 |
Produce FT electronic data files |
76,599 |
540 |
FS collection of catalogues and student transcripts |
550,641 |
550 |
Transcript keying and coding |
1,557,723 |
560 |
Produce FS electronic data files |
105,283 |
NOTE: Costs presented here do not include base or award fee. CATI = computer assisted telephone interview; CAPI = computer assisted personal interview.
The formal contract for B&B:08/09 requires the following reports, publications, or other public information releases:
descriptive summaries of significant findings for dissemination to a broad audience;
a detailed methodological report describing all aspects of the full-scale study design and data collection procedures (a working paper detailing the methodological findings from the field test will also be produced);
complete data files and documentation for research data users in the form of both a restricted-use electronic codebook (ECB), and a public-use Data Analysis System (DAS);
special tabulations of issues of interest to the higher education community, as determined by NCES.
The operational schedule for the B&B:08/09 field test and full-scale study is shown in table 6.
Table 6. Operational schedule for B&B:08/09
Activity |
Start date |
End date |
Field test |
|
|
Select student sample |
8/1/2007 |
11/30/2007 |
Contact institutions to request transcripts |
3/1/2008 |
6/9/2008 |
Collect student transcripts |
3/1/2008 |
6/30/2008 |
Student data collection |
|
|
Self-administered web interviews |
7/8/2008 |
10/24/2008 |
Conduct telephone interviews of students |
7/31/2008 |
10/24/2008 |
CAPI data collection |
9/15/2008 |
10/24/2008 |
Process data, construct data files |
7/8/2008 |
12/23/2008 |
Prepare field test report |
8/1/2008 |
6/8/2009 |
|
|
|
Full-scale |
|
|
Select student sample |
8/11/2008 |
12/19/2008 |
Contacts with institutions to request transcripts |
9/1/2008 |
6/1/2009 |
Collect student transcripts |
10/22/2008 |
6/5/2009 |
Student data collection |
|
|
Self-administered web interviews |
7/7/2009 |
2/22/2010 |
Conduct telephone interviews of students |
7/29/2009 |
2/22/2010 |
CAPI data collection |
11/20/2009 |
2/22/2010 |
Process data, construct data files |
7/8/2009 |
9/8/2010 |
Prepare reports |
8/30/2009 |
12/8/2011 |
The expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection will be displayed on data collection instruments and materials. No special exception to this request is requested.
There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in the Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions of OMB Form 83-i.
1 RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute.
Supporting
Statement Request for OMB Review (SF83i) C-
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Chapter 2 |
| Author | elyjak |
| Last Modified By | Edith.McArthur |
| File Modified | 2008-02-07 |
| File Created | 2008-02-07 |