OMB change memo

M e m o r a n d u m February 6, 2013

TO: Shelly Martinez, Office of Management and Budget

FROM: Elise Christopher, National Center for Education Statistics

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, National Center for Education Statistics

RE: Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 Third Follow-up Financial Aid Feasibility Study (ELS:2002 FAFS) Change Request (OMB# 1850-0652 v.12)

After careful consideration of the ELS:2002 FAFS web data entry application and the planned design, NCES has concluded that the burden placed on institutions exceeds the benefit accrued by the Center. As such, we request permission to modify the study design which amends the ELS:2002 Third Follow-up Financial Aid Feasibility Study¹.

The approved plan calls for all sampled institutions to provide nine years of student records data, 2004-05 through 2012-13. Instead, we would like to purposively assign institutions into one of four partially-overlapping groups, each providing data spanning only three years: a) 2004-05 through 2006-07, b) 2006-07 through 2008-09, c) 2008-09 through 2010-11, and d) 2010-11 through 2012-13. NCES recognizes that student enrollment is likely to peak in the early years of the proposed time period and taper off over time. As a result, we have examined enrollment data from ELS:2002 third follow-up, as well as prior rounds, to identify how many students each sampled institution enrolled during each study year, driving optimal group assignment. This change reduces burden on individual institutions, retains the ability to chart changes in data quality over time, and can identify institutional challenges associated with providing multiple years of data for each student.

In addition to classifying institutions by the 9 strata outlined in the approved package, they will also be stratified by time as discussed above. To ensure that we have sufficient information for ELS:2002 FAFS, given the reduced per-institution burden, we will select 480 institutions to yield 400 participating institutions, up from the 359 selected and 300 participating in the original design. With the revised design, the overall burden is still reduced. Revised institutional response targets by stratum are shown in Revised Exhibit B-1.

The 3,355 institutions will first be assigned to one of four time periods and 120 institutions will be sampled from each time period for a total of 480 sampled institutions. Institutions within each time period will be stratified into the nine sector-derived strata described previously and institutions will be sampled from each of the nine strata within the time period. As explained originally, an additional stratification will be implemented that classifies institutions by a measure of compliance burden. Based on prior or current attendance of ELS:2002 third follow-up sample members, institutions will be classified, within time period and within the 9 sector-derived strata, as “high burden” (e.g., the number of ELS:2002 sample members in attendance is higher than the median) or “low burden” (e.g., the number of ELS:2002 sample members in attendance is lower than the median) members.

Revised Exhibit B-2 reports the number of sampled institutions by stratum, the estimated student sample per stratum, the expected number of participating institutions, and the expected student sample per stratum among participating institutions. With this additional stratification by burden status, there will be 18 sampling strata in each time period. A minimum of 6 (120/18 rounded down) institutions will be sampled from each of the 18 strata. It is possible that there will not be a sufficient number of “high” or “low” burden institutions within a given institutional stratum to support the proposed sampling design. In such an event, the second level of stratification will not be applied to institutions in the corresponding stratum.

Revised Exhibit B-1. ELS:2002 institution sample sizes and yield

Institutional Stratum	Number of Institutions2	Expected Yield	Adjustment Factors3	Number to Sample
Total	3,355	400	1.20	480
Public
2-year or less	847	64	1.14	74
4-year non-doctorate-granting	293	44	1.13	50
4-year doctorate-granting	323	47	1.13	54
Private
Nonprofit less-than-4-year	68	22	1.40	32
Nonprofit 4-year non-doctorate-granting	537	51	1.17	60
Nonprofit 4-year doctorate-granting	376	45	1.20	54
For-profit less-than-2-year	288	39	1.33	52
For-profit 2-year	310	46	1.17	54
For-profit 4-year	313	42	1.17	50

Revised Exhibit B-2. ELS:2002 phase 1 burden estimates

Institutional Stratum	Number of Institutions to Sample	Estimated Student Sample Size	Expected Institution Yield	Expected Student Yield
Total	480	1,716	400	1,461
Public
2-year or less	74	341	64	294
4-year non-doctorate-granting	50	205	44	180
4-year doctorate-granting	54	523	47	455
Private
Nonprofit less-than-4-year	32	43	22	29
Nonprofit 4-year non-doctorate-granting	60	128	51	108
Nonprofit 4-year doctorate-granting	54	193	45	160
For-profit less-than-2-year	52	80	39	60
For-profit 2-year	54	95	46	80
For-profit 4-year	50	108	42	90

All ELS:2002 third follow-up sample members who attend, or attended, one or more of the sampled institutions during the time period assigned to an institution– as identified by the sample members themselves – comprise the student sample. We estimate a total of 1,716 students to be represented by the 480 sampled institutions. The 1,716 is calculated by simulating the sampling design and estimating the number of students using a simulated sample of 480 institutions. The calculation of the 1,461 student yield is carried out by assuming that the number of students attending each participating institution in a given stratum is equal to the average number of students attending the sampled institutions in the same stratum. For a given stratum, the average number of students is estimated by dividing the student sample size associated with the simulated sampled institutions and dividing by the number of simulated sampled institutions.

In addition to sampling design changes, we request to add a few items to the FAFS collection which will allow us to gather feedback from data providers about their ability and potential willingness to engage in the task of providing multiple years of student-level data. Included in this memo (Appendix 1) is a table of the approved FAFS data elements with the new items highlighted in yellow. Also highlighted are a few additional items that were recently added. The Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and SMART Grant are two Federal Aid programs that are no longer offered, however since we are collecting financial aid data for past years, they need to be included. We also added checkbox items to each financial aid type (federal, state, institution, graduate, government/private) such that a user can quickly and easily indicate that a student had none of that type of aid.

The effect of the proposed approach on burden can be illustrated by tallying up the student-years (i.e., number of students enrolled multiplied by the number of years enrolled) for which we are requesting data. Considering the proposed sample of institutions, the revised approach will involve requesting data for less than half (43%) of the student-years we would have requested using the approved approach (2,200 versus 5,130). The average number of student-years by institution with the revised approach is 5, down from 11 with the original approach.

The revised burden estimate is provided in Revised Exhibit A-3. We have also revised the combined burden estimate accordingly, which reflects the burden of participation in ELS:2002 FAFS as well as the ELS:2002 Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS).

The operational schedule for the ELS:2002 third follow-up financial aid feasibility study and PETS will be modified slightly. Below is the revised schedule (Exhibit A-7). The begin and end dates for phase 1 of PETS and FAFS will shift about 4 to 5 weeks due to this change.

Revised Exhibit A.7 Operational schedule for ELS:2002 transcript collection and financial aid feasibility study collection

Activity	Start date	End date
Collect and code student transcripts (PETS)
Phase 1	3/6/2013	6/28/2013
Phase 2 and 3	8/15/2013	3/14/2014
Collect student financial aid records (FAFS)
Feasibility study (concurrent with Phase 1 of Transcript study)	3/6/2013	6/28/2013

No modifications to the communication materials are needed. This change request does not affect the total cost to the government for the ELS:2002/12 study.

Approved burden:

Exhibit A-3. Estimated burden on institutions for ELS:2002 FAFS and PETS

	Anticipated # of institutions	Estimated # of participating institutions	Average time burden per response1	Estimated # of responses	Total time burden (hours)
Financial Aid Feasibility Study	359	300	3.3 hrs	300	990
Postsecondary Transcript collection Phase 1	359	300	0.5 hrs	300	150
Combined burden			3.8 hrs		1,140
Phase 2 and 3 Transcript collection	2,827	2,484	0.5 hrs	2,484	1,242
Total Burden		2,784		3,084	2,382

¹ Time is specified by institution not by student.

NOTE: ELS:2002= Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 Third Follow-up.

Revised burden (changes noted in blue):

Revised Exhibit A-3. Estimated burden on institutions for ELS:2002 FAFS and PETS

	Anticipated # of institutions	Estimated # of participating institutions	Average time burden per response1	Range of response times	Total time burden (hours)
Financial Aid Feasibility Study	480	400	2.0 hrs	0.8 to 6.7 hrs	800
Postsecondary Transcript collection Phase 1	480	400	0.5 hrs	0.5 to 5 hrs	200
Combined burden			2.5 hrs		1,000
Phase 2 and 3 Transcript collection	2,706	2,381	0.5 hrs	0.5 to 5 hrs	1,191
Total Burden		2,781		3,181	2,191

¹ Time is specified by institution not by student.

NOTE: ELS:2002= Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 Third Follow-up.

Since the approval of the ELS:2002 Third Follow-up 2012 Full Scale study (OMB# 1850-0652 v.8), the ELS:2002) Third Follow-up Postsecondary Transcripts (ELS:2002 PETS) and Financial Aid Feasibility Study (ELS:2002 FAFS) was also approved on October 29, 2012 (OMB# 1850-0652 v.10). The total burden for PETS and FAFS was originally estimated to be 2,784 respondents, 3,084 responses, and 2,382 annual burden hours (see Exhibit A-3 above). The December 21, 2012, approval of an abbreviated questionnaire for the ELS:2002 Third Follow-up 2012 Full Scale study, resulted in the total estimated burden for the 10 minute Third Follow-up interviews plus ELS:2002 PETS and ELS:2002 FAFS to be 5,364 respondents (2,580+2,784), 5,664 responses (2,580+3,084), and 2,812 annual burden hours (430+2,382). This submission revises the estimated burden to 5,361 respondents (2,580+2,781), 5,761 responses (2,580+3,181), and 2,621 annual burden hours (430+2,191).

Appendix 1

Revised ELS:2002 FAFS Data Elements

Revised Exhibit C-1. ELS:2002 FAFS Data Elements

NPSAS:12 Student Records Data Elements	Whether Collected for ELS:2002 FAFS
Institution Level Information
Length of time that institution maintains student financial aid information (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)	Added for feasibility study: important in evaluating how far back financial aid information may be available
Length of time that institution maintains student enrollment information (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)	Added for feasibility study: important in evaluating how far back enrollment information may be available
Length of time that institution maintains student budget information (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)	Added for feasibility study: important in evaluating how far back budget information may be available
Length of time that institution maintains student tuition information (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)	Added for feasibility study: important in evaluating how far back tuition information may be available
Length of time that institution maintains student degree information (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)	Added for feasibility study: important in evaluating how far back degree information may be available
Contact Information
Permanent Contact Information
Address 1	Last known address
Address 2
City
State
ZIP
Country (if not USA)
E-Mail
Phone
International Phone
Local Contact Information
Address 1	Do not include - only collect one address
Address 2
City
State
ZIP
Campus E-Mail
Phone
Cell Phone
Permanent resident of <school state>?
Parent's Contact Information
First Name	Do not include - only collect one address
Middle Name
Last Name
Suffix
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
ZIP
Country (if not USA)
E-Mail
Phone
Cell Phone
International Phone
Other Contact Information
First Name	Do not include - only collect one address
Middle Name
Last Name
Suffix
Relationship to Student
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
ZIP
Country (if not USA)
E-Mail
Phone
Cell Phone
Additional Contact
First Name	Do not include
Middle Name
Last Name
Suffix
Phone
Relationship to Student
Student Info and Budget
Personal Information
First Name	Provide this information up front to the institutions in order to accurately identify the students.
Middle Name
Last Name
Suffix
DOB Month
DOB Year
Social Security Number
Gender
Driver's License
License Number	Do not include
License State	Do not include
Marital Status (Maiden and spouse name only applicable for married students)
Marital Status	Collect last-known
Maiden Name	Do not include
Spouse First Name	Do not include
Spouse Middle Name	Do not include
Spouse Last Name	Do not include
High School Information
Degree Type	Do not include
Degree Year	Do not include
Ethnicity and Race (For Race, select all that apply)
Ethnicity	Do not include
White	Do not include
African-American or Black	Do not include
Asian	Do not include
American Indian or Alaska Native	Do not include
Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	Do not include
Citizenship Status
Citizenship	Collect last-known
Veteran Status
Veteran of U.S. Armed Forces?	Collect last-known
ISIR
Last name from ISIR	Do not include
Social Security Number from ISIR	Do not include
Budget
Local residence	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
Tuition/fees
Books/supplies
Room and board
Health insurance
Transportation
Computer technology
All other expenses
Total cost of attendance
Budget period
Enrollment
Degree Program and Progress
Degree Program	Collect primary degree program, separately for each academic year student attended institution
Associate’s Type (Only applicable if degree program is Associate's)	Do not include
Master’s Type (Only applicable if degree program is Master's)	Do not include
Doctoral Type (Only applicable if degree program is Doctoral)	Do not include
Class Level	Collect primary level, separately for each academic year student attended institution
Expected to complete degree requirements by 6/30/2012?	Do not include
Cumulative (unweighted) GPA	Do not include
Baccalaureate Degree (Only applicable for graduate students)
Received baccalaureate degree?	Do not include
Month Received (mm)	Do not include
Year Received (yyyy)	Do not include
Major (Only complete one)
CIP code	Do not include
Current Major	Do not include
Undeclared	Do not include
Initial Enrollment
First Enrolled at this Institution Month (mm)	Include
First Enrolled at this Institution Year (yyyy)	Include
First-time Beginning Student?	Do not include
Transferred Credits from Another Institution?	Do not include
Last date of enrollment at this institution Month (mm) - NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12	Added for ELS:2002 FAFS: Enrollment end-date crucial for determining context/coverage for aid information
Last date of enrollment at this institution Year (yyyy) - NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12	Added for ELS:2002 FAFS: Enrollment end-date crucial for determining context/coverage for aid information
Number of Required Clock Hours (Only applicable for clock hour programs)
For Program	Do not include
Per Week	Do not include
Tuition Charged
Total Tuition and mandatory fees charged	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution Credit/clock hour information provides important context for tuition/aid information for given year.
Residency for Tuition Purposes
Total Credit Hours Billed - NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12
Total Clock Hours Billed - NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12
Enrollment status & Number of hours enrolled per term
[Term Name 1 (Start Date – End Date)]	Collect full-time/part-time status (for purposes of awarding financial aid) separately for each academic year student attended institution. Include an option for "not enrolled" for each year.
Hours [Term 1]
[Term Name 2 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 2]
[Term Name 3 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 3]
[Term Name 4 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 4]
[Term Name 5 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 5]
[Term Name 6 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 6]
[Term Name 7 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 7]
[Term Name 8 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 8]
[Term Name 9 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 9]
[Term Name 10 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 10]
[Term Name 11 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 11]
[Term Name 12 (Start Date – End Date)]
Hours [Term 12]
Placement Tests
[Placement Test 1]	Do not include
[Placement Test 1] Month (mm)	Do not include
[Placement Test 1] Year (yyyy)	Do not include
[Placement Test 1] Score	Do not include
[Placement Test 2]	Do not include
[Placement Test 2] Month (mm)	Do not include
[Placement Test 2] Year (yyyy)	Do not include
[Placement Test 2] Score	Do not include
[Placement Test 3]	Do not include
[Placement Test 3] Month (mm)	Do not include
[Placement Test 3] Year (yyyy)	Do not include
[Placement Test 3] Score	Do not include
[Placement Test 4]	Do not include
[Placement Test 4] Month (mm)	Do not include
[Placement Test 4] Year (yyyy)	Do not include
[Placement Test 4] Score	Do not include
[Placement Test 5]	Do not include
[Placement Test 5] Month (mm)	Do not include
[Placement Test 5] Year (yyyy)	Do not include
[Placement Test 5] Score	Do not include
Aid Awarded
Satisfactory Academic Progress Status - NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12	Added in order to evaluate if we can get this information for BPS (important for persistence). Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
Federal Aid – amounts
This student had no Federal Aid for [enrollment year]
Pell grant	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution. Disbursed work-study amount added in order to see if it’s possible to get this data. Would be useful for BPS and NPSAS.
Subsidized Stafford loan
Unsubsidized Stafford loan
Parent PLUS loan
Graduate PLUS loan
Federal TEACH grant
Academic Competitiveness grant (ACG)
SMART grant
Perkins loan
Federal SEOG grant
Federal work-study – award amount
Federal work-study – disbursed amount- NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12
Iraq & Afghanistan Service grant
Veteran benefits
Federal health professions loan
Federal health professions disadvantaged loan
State Aid amounts - preloaded with the most common programs for that state
This student had no State Aid for [enrollment year]
[State aid program 1]	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
[State aid program 2]
[State aid program 3]
[State aid program 4]
[State aid program 5]
[State aid program 6]
[State aid program 7]
[State aid program 8]
[State aid program 9]
[State aid program 10]
[State aid program 11]
[State aid program 12]
Institution Aid amounts – specific programs collected at a student-level from institution
This student had no Institution Aid for [enrollment year]
Institution aid 1 name	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
Institution aid 1 type
Institution aid 1 amount
Institution aid 2 name
Institution aid 2 type
Institution aid 2 amount
Institution aid 3 name
[Institution aid 3 type
Institution aid 3 amount
Institution aid 4 name
Institution aid 4 type
Institution aid 4 amount
Institution aid 5 name
Institution aid 5 type
Institution aid 5 amount
Graduate Aid - amounts(Only applicable for graduate students)
This student had no Graduate Aid for [enrollment year]
Graduate fellowship/scholarship	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
Graduate Federal fellowship
Graduate Federal traineeship
Graduate teaching assistantship/stipend
Graduate research assistantship/stipend
Other graduate assistants/tutors/readers stipends
Graduate student tuition waivers
Graduate faculty/staff tuition waivers
Graduate institutional work study
Graduate institutional loan
Government/Private Aid – amounts
This student had no Government/Private Aid for [enrollment year]
Scholarships/grants from private organizations	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
Employer paid tuition
ROTC/armed forces grants
WIA/job training/vocational rehabilitation
Bureau of Indian Affairs grants
Scholarships/grants from outside state agency
Private loans
DC tuition assistance grant
Other/Specify Aid
Other aid 1 name	Collect separately for each academic year student attended institution
Other aid 1 type
Other aid 1 source
Other aid 1 amount
Other aid 2 name
Other aid 2 type
Other aid 2 source
Other aid 2 amount
Other aid 3 name
Other aid 3 type
Other aid 3 source
Other aid 3 amount
Other aid 4 name
Other aid 4 type
Other aid 4 source
Other aid 4 amount
Other aid 5 name
Other aid 5 type
Other aid 5 source
Other aid 5 amount
Institution Debriefing
About how many hours did it take you to provide the requested student information? (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)	Added for feasibility study: important in evaluating institutional burden
If you had been asked to provide information about individual students for more than three academic years, would you have been willing to complete the request? (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)
[If willing to provide information for more than three years:] How many additional academic years of individual student information would you have been willing to provide? (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)
What could we have done to make completing this request easier for you or your institution? (NEW ITEM FOR ELS:2002/12)

1 Originally approved on October 29, 2012 (OMB# 1850-0652 v.10).

2 The number of institutions is derived from postsecondary enrollment information provided by sample members as of the second follow-up and during the third follow-up as of January 15, 2013.

3 Adjustment factors are derived from NPSAS:08 institutional eligibility rates, institutional agreement-to-participate rates, and institutional student record abstraction rates. For purposes of sample size calculation, the average overall eligibility rate was assumed to be 95%. The average institution agreement-to-participate rate was assumed to be 88%. The average rate at which participating institutions provide record abstraction data was assumed to be 98%.