Explanation of Change

Appendix D

Title II, Part A Survey on the Use of Funds (2011-12)

Suggested Changes for OMB Clearance Package

1. District survey—Question 4—Amount of funds allocated for professional development by subject area

Proposed Changes:

• Add four new subject areas (foreign languages, fine arts, special education, English as a second language).

• In previous years, the Department has received questions about the use of Title II, Part A funds for professional development in specific subject areas. The four areas listed above were often inquired about, but were not included in the survey as separate subject areas. Many districts would include these subjects in the “other” category, but would combine these subjects into one category rather than listing them separately. Thus, the Department could not respond to inquiries about these specific subjects. Adding these four new subjects would allow the Department to have access to specific information about the use of Title II, Part A funds for professional development in these subject areas.

• This change will not increase burden as many districts reported on these subjects in prior years in the “other” category, but will now be able to report on these subject areas separately.

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

Proposed Changes:

• Delete highly qualified status options (highly qualified, not highly qualified). Only ask for number of teachers in core content areas and number of core content area teachers participating in any high quality professional development.

• This question has been simplified to no longer distinguish between professional development provided to highly qualified teachers and not highly qualified teachers. Given the high percentage of highly qualified teachers nationally (96 percent in the 2008-09 school year), most teachers would be included in the “highly qualified” category, which would not yield a useful distinction between the two groups.

• Simplifying this question will reduce burden on the districts as they will no longer need to cross-reference their highly qualified teacher records with their professional development records.

3. District survey—Question 6—Number of teachers participating in professional development by duration/type of professional development.

Proposed Change:

• Add two new types of professional development during the school day (professional development provided by professional development coaches, half-day workshops (2-5 hours)).

• The two new types of professional development are being added to accommodate the types of professional development provisions that the Department has seen during the course of program monitoring. In addition, districts responding to this survey in past years have requested that additional professional development types be added to this question so that they can more accurately report on their professional development activities.

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