Supporting Statement Part B
Respondent Universe
All participants are required to submit information on the effect(s) of the experiment. This data collection effort is applicable to the experiments approved through this initiative. Consequently, they may provide data on one or more of the seven experiments and the demographics worksheet.
The benefit of this reporting tool is obtaining consistent data that will give us a chance to look at the effects of reform and recommend changes in Title IV program administration.
Describe the procedure for the collection of information
The reporting tool is located on the Experimental Sites website and titled “Annual Reporting Tool”. An institution may be participating in one or more of the seven approved areas relative to financial aid processes. Upon completion of the templates, the school will electronically submit them to FSA staff using the security architecture environment. The website has met all Section 508 compliance requirements.
Upon receipt of the reports, FSA will download, compile and analyze all reports. The data collection and analysis is made possible by the makeup described in the section below. Participants will address the same questions about a particular experiment thus providing uniform data.
The data will be collected annually from the participating institutions. In addition to the report items and description of how the institution conducted the experiment, there is a supplemental item section and a summary area. Thus, there will be other information that lends itself to subsets of items common to the collection effort.
Methods to Maximize Response Rate
Although the Experimental Sites Initiative requires an annual report, the report formats are user friendly. Instructions are included to tell the respondent how to navigate through the worksheets. The cells are formatted so there is no need to enter commas, dollar signs, or percentage signs. The participants have direct access to personnel in FSA for support.
Further, we will continue taking advantage of technological innovations to communicate the data collection activity to our participants. Information included on the Experimental Sites website includes a User Guide, Data Dictionaries, phone numbers and email addresses to request further information and guidance. Past response rates have reached 100 percent.
Pilot Testing
The collection instrument has been cleared previously and used successfully for six years. We will continue to review all responses to check for error patterns that might signal the participants were misinterpreting questions.
Contact Information
Warren Farr at [email protected]
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Authorised User |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-01 |