OMB83C Change Memo

DATE: November 18, 2015

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

FROM: Sheila Thompson, NCES

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, NCES

RE: Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2016) Main Study Questionnaire Update Change Request (OMB 1850-0645 v.10)

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 is coordinated by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and in the U.S. administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Since its inception in 2001, PIRLS has continued to assess students every five years (2001, 2006, 2011, 2016). It is typically administered in more than 40 countries and provides data for internationally benchmarking U.S. performance in fourth-grade reading. PIRLS also collects background information on students, parents, teachers, schools, curricula, and official education policies. Each successive round of participation in PIRLS provides trend information about U.S. 4th-grade students’ knowledge and abilities in reading relative to other countries, and about the cultural environments, teaching practices, curriculum goals, and institutional arrangements that are associated with student achievement, and how these change over time in different countries. PIRLS 2016 includes an innovative new assessment of online reading, ePIRLS, which is designed to help countries understand how successful they are in preparing fourth-grade students to read, comprehend, and interpret online information. The PIRLS 2016 Main Study data collection, scheduled to take place between March and May 2016, was approved in November 2015 (OMB 1850-0645 v.9).

This request is to revise three items in the PIRLS 2016 Main Study Teacher Questionnaire (TQ) and School Questionnaire (SQ) to make them consistent with each other (added or deleted wording is shown in blue below), namely TQ item 4e, SQ item 23b, and a response option in SQ item 22. This revision does not change the approved respondent burden or the cost to the federal government. This is the only anticipated change to the approved PIRLS 2016 Main Study data collection.

Survey	Item	Approved wording	Revised wording
TQ	4e	What is the highest level of formal education you have completed? e) Completed a Master’s degree or professional degree (MD, DDS, lawyer, minister)	What is the highest level of formal education you have completed? e) Completed a Master’s degree, postgraduate certificate program (e.g., teaching), or professional degree (e.g., law, medicine, dentistry)
SQ	22	What is the highest level of formal education you have completed? Completed an academic Master’s degree, postgraduate certificate program (e.g., teaching) or first professional degree (e.g., law, medicine, dentistry)	What is the highest level of formal education you have completed? Completed a Master’s degree, postgraduate certificate program (e.g., teaching), or professional degree (e.g., law, medicine, dentistry)
SQ	23b	Do you hold any of the following professional qualifications in educational leadership? b) An academic Master’s degree, postgraduate certificate program (e.g., teaching) or first professional degree (e.g., law, medicine, dentistry)	Do you hold any of the following professional qualifications in educational leadership? b) A Master’s degree, postgraduate certificate program (e.g., teaching), or professional degree (e.g., law, medicine, dentistry)