discussion of NCES consultation with Bureau of Justice Statistics

From NCES Project Officer Eugene Owen, June 28, 2013

Following is a note summarizing NCES' contact with BJS about the PIAAC prison study and the SPI.  Our consultation is ongoing and we plan on keeping in touch and coordinating throughout the life of the PIAAC prison study.

PIAAC National Supplement consultation with Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)

In Early April, 2013, Chris Chapman, Acting Associate Commissioner of the unit at NCES that runs PIAAC contacted Bill Sabol, Acting Director of BJS. The purpose of the communication was to initiate steps needed to coordinate data collection activities in the event that PIAAC inmate data collections were going to be underway at the same time BJS was fielding data collections from and about inmates. Based on the initial discussions, NCES and BJS set up meetings between the PIAAC project team and project teams at BJS who oversee inmate related data collections. Eugene Owen and Stephen Provasnik (leads on PIAAC) talked with Lauren Glaze and Daniela Golinelli at BJS in mid-April. BJS explained that their study would be in the field in the spring of 2014, but had not finalized the exact data collection schedule. Given the PIAAC collection schedule, it is highly likely the collection work will be completed before the BJS data collection gets under way. Further mitigating against possible overlap is the PIAAC sample size. Because so few prisons will be contacted for PIAAC, it is unlikely that the PIAAC collection would be conducted in the same prison simultaneously under study by BJS. To ensure that overlap does not occur, once PIAAC samples are drawn, NCES will share the samples and draft contact schedules with BJS. NCES and BJS have also shared the PIAAC prison and Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI) instruments with each other for review and comment. Reviews were constructive in terms confirming that content overlap was minimal, and that where there was content overlap that consistent data across the studies would be collected (e.g., common definitions of racial and ethnic background). No changes were made to the PIAAC prison instrument as a result of the reviews.

Subsequent to these initial contacts, the BJS project staff asked questions about sampling procedures for PIAAC. These were answered by the NCES contractor overseeing the study's sample design. In June 2013, PIAAC and BJS exchanged information about attendance and presentations at upcoming meetings and conferences related to prison and corrections officials. In early July, NCES will send proposed procedures for contacting prisons for the PIAAC study and ask for comment and advice about procedures and protocols. Shortly thereafter PIAAC will provide BJS with the sample of prisons selected for the PIAAC prison study in 2014. As schedules for interviewing in prisons is developed for PIAAC, later in the year, those schedules will be shared and coordinated with BJS staff conducting the Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI), 2014.