Change Memo

Paperwork Reduction Act Submission Supporting Statement

Annual Mandatory Collection of Elementary and Secondary

Education Data through EDFacts

September 2013

Attachment G

Change Memo

Contents

Purpose 3

Background 3

Technical Amendments 3

#1 – FIELD TESTING 4

#2 – LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENT STUDENTS AND TITLE III OF ESEA DATA GROUPS 5

Burden 7

Purpose

This document describes technical amendments proposed for the EDFacts data set. All original supporting attachments will be updated to reflect the amendments once these changes are approved.

Background

The current EDFacts data set is approved for three school years: 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16. The EDFacts data set is primarily collected through the EDFacts Submission System (ESS) and submitted by state educational agencies (SEAs). ESS is an electronic collection system that collects data at the state, local education agency (LEA), and school levels. This approach has allowed the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to have a robust set of data while also modernizing the collection approach from the SEAs.

On February 25, 2007, Final Regulations were published to amend 34 CFR part 76 governing state reporting requirements. The revised regulations allow the Secretary and ED, through the Paperwork Reduction Act clearance process, to require states to report certain information electronically. The regulations also establish that ED may take administrative action against a state for failure to submit reports in the manner prescribed by the Secretary. This is intended to significantly reduce reporting burden and to streamline data collections currently required by ED by bringing elementary and secondary education data in through the Annual Mandatory Collection of Elementary and Secondary Education Data for EDFacts (1875-0240). The failure to submit EDFacts data constitutes a failure to comply substantially with the law applicable to the funds provided by the federal government.

ED is currently collecting the SY 2012-13 and SY 2013-14 data.

Technical Amendments

This section discusses the requested technical amendments to the EDFacts data set. The burden associated with these technical amendments is discussed in a separate section at the end of this memo. ED is requesting two technical amendments:

• For SY 2013-14, ED is requesting the addition of permitted values to two categories: Participation Status (MS) and Participation Status (RLA) to allow states to identify students who are participating in the field test in lieu of taking the state test.

• For SY 2014-15, ED is requesting amendments to revise the reporting period for Data Group (DG) 678: LEP Enrolled Table and DG648: Title III LEP Students Served Table, and collect DG678 by two additional category sets (racial ethnic status and disability status). We expect to discontinue the collection of the related DG123: LEP Students in LEP program table after SY 2014-15.

Details on these requests are organized below by content section of the data set. The technical amendment changes are highlighted in red font in the tables below.

#1 – Field-Testing

During SY 2013–14, some states will be field-testing new assessments in reading/language arts and mathematics. To support an SEA that would like to avoid double testing students during that field test, the Department will consider requests for a one-year waiver to allow schools that are participating in the field test to administer, for purposes of meeting the assessment requirements in ESEA section 1111(b)(3), only one reading/language arts and one mathematics assessment in 2013–2014 to any individual student — either the current State assessment or the field test. We do not anticipate that states will request waivers related to field testing in science, but we want to allow for this Department policy option if needed.

In order to maintain data quality, we would like to add the permitted value to keep a record of the field test participants, effective with the SY 2013-14 collection.¹

Category Name: Participation Status (MS)		Steward: EDFacts
Definition	An indication of whether students participated in mathematics or science assessments.
Permitted Values - Revised
	Participated – alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards Participated – alternate assessment based on grade-level achievement standards Participated – alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards Participated – regular assessment based on grade-level achievement standards with accommodations Participated – regular assessment based on grade-level achievement standards without accommodations Did not participate Medical exemption Participated in field test of regular assessment – NEW! Participated in field test of alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards – NEW! Participated in field test of alternate assessment based on grade-level achievement standards – NEW!
Data Groups
	588 Assessment participation in mathematics table 590 Assessment participation in science table 763 Assessment participation in mathematics table – Flex 765 Assessment participation in science table - Flex

Category Name: Participation Status (RLA)		Steward: EDFacts
Definition	An indication of whether students participated in reading /language arts assessments.
Permitted Values Revised
	Participated – alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards Participated – alternate assessment based on grade-level achievement standards Participated – alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards Participated – regular assessment based on grade-level achievement standards with accommodations Participated – regular assessment based on grade-level achievement standards without accommodations Participated – English language proficiency assessment Did not participate Medical exemption Participated in field test of regular assessment – NEW! Participated in field test of alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards – NEW! Participated in field test of alternate assessment based on grade-level achievement standards – NEW!
Data Groups
	589 Assessment participation in reading/language arts table 764 Assessment participation in reading/language arts table - Flex

#2 – LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENT STUDENTS AND TITLE III OF ESEA DATA GROUPS

Revising the reporting periods for DG678 and DG648 from a school-year cumulative count to an October 1 count will enable comparisons with the Common Core of Data’s membership count of all students enrolled, which is also an October 1 count. As a result, the Department will be able to generate better statistics on the LEP student population.

The revisions to the DG678 count of all LEP students enrolled will also allow the data group to be used for two purposes, the Consolidated State Performance Report (CSPR) and Common Core of Data (CCD). Currently, DG678 is used for the CSPR, while DG123 (LEP students in LEP program) is used in the CCD because it is currently the only available October 1 count of LEP students. However DG123 does not collect a count of the full LEP population; it is limited to those LEP students that are enrolled in LEP programs. By making DG678 an October 1 count, the same data group can be used for both the CSPR and CCD, ensuring more consistency across the Department’s publications and providing the CCD with a more complete count of the LEP student population.

The Department plans to continue collecting DG123 during SY 2014-15 in order to assess the comparability of DG123 to the revised DG678 collection. The Department anticipates that it will be able to discontinue the DG123 EDFacts collection after SY 2014-15. Similar data on LEP students in LEP programs will continue to be collected by the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Discontinuing the EDFacts collection of DG123 will reduce state burden by eliminating a collection that was duplicative of the CRDC.

The racial ethnic and disability status categories have been added to DG678 in order to provide subgroup data that was previously only available through the DG123 collection, which the Department now plans to discontinue.

Group Name: LEP enrolled table				DG: 678
Definition Revised	The unduplicated number of LEP students enrolled in an elementary or secondary school at any time during the school year.
Permitted Values	Integer
Reporting Period Revised	School YearOctober 1
Reporting Levels	School 	LEA 	State 
Education Unit Total	
File Specification #	141
CATEGORY SET	DESCRIPTION
Category Set A	Grade Level (Basic w/13)
Category Set B	Language (Native)
Category Set C New	Racial Ethnic
Category Set D New	Disability Status (Only)
STEWARD: OESE/Title III

FS116 / DG648: Title III LEP Students Served Table

• Revise reporting period from school year (cumulative) to October 1

Group Name: Title III LEP students served table				DG: 648
Definition	The unduplicated number of limited English proficient (LEP) students served by an English language instruction educational program supported with Title III of ESEA funds.
Permitted Values	Integer
Reporting Period Revised	School YearOctober 1
Reporting Levels	School 	LEA 	State 
Education Unit Total	
Comment	Report only for LEAs with ESEA Title III programs.
File Specification #	116
CATEGORY SET	DESCRIPTION
Category Set A	Grade Level (Basic w/13)
STEWARD: OESE/Title III

Burden

Based on conversations with states (the data suppliers) at the recent EDFacts coordinators meeting at the STATS-DC Summer Data Conference in July 2013, these technical amendments will pose no or minimal additional burden to states. The addition of the permitted value related to the field testing participation simply allows states another option under which to report students.

Likewise, we do not anticipate additional burden related to the LEP changes in SY 2014-15, and we expect a slight decrease in burden related to these changes for SY 2015-16 when we anticipate discontinuing the collection of DG123. The October 1 collection date coincides with the requirements of other data groups, so states already have a data collection process established for this reporting period. The reporting period change may reduce burden by removing the requirement that states report all LEP students enrolled at any point during the school year.

The addition of the racial ethnic and disability status categories should result in minimal burden, as those category sets were already included in DG123.

1 There are two categories for participation status because English language proficiency assessments are allowed for reading / language arts but not for mathematics or science assessments.