Justification

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Volume I

Supporting Statement

Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) Integrated Data Product Documentation Customer Feedback (IDPF) 2018

OMB# 1880-0542

September 2018

Contents

1 Submittal-Related Information 1

2 Background and Study Rationale 1

3 Recruitment and Data Collection 1

4 Consultations outside the agency 2

5 Justification for Sensitive Questions 2

6 Paying Respondents 2

7 Assurance of Confidentiality 2

8 Estimate of Hourly burden 2

9 Cost to federal government 2

10 Project Schedule 2

1. Submittal-Related Information

This material is being submitted under the generic U.S. Department of Education clearance agreement (OMB# 1880-0542), which provides for the Department to conduct surveys and other studies regarding customer satisfaction.

2. Background and Study Rationale

The Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) is a Federal interagency committee dedicated to improving the quality of Federal statistics. The FCSM was created by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to inform and advise OMB and the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP) on methodological and statistical issues that affect the quality of Federal data. As part of an initiative to improve information made available to the public about how federal statistical agencies integrate data from multiple sources into single data products, FCSM is seeking to collect information from current users of such data products about the utility of the available data documentation. Such information is essential to understanding user experiences and to improving the documentation. Results from the survey will be combined with information provided by the agencies about the content of the documentation they make available and the resources that go into producing it. The combined information will be summarized in an internal government report to ICSP.

This request to conduct the FCSM Integrated Data Product Documentation Customer Feedback (IDPF) survey in 2018 is being made under 1880-0542 because (1) the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is contributing to, and will benefit directly from, the data collection effort. One of the products on which respondents will be asked to provide feedback is NCES’ National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). Additionally, respondents will be asked for feedback on products provided by: (2) the Economic Research Service (ERS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), (3) the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce, (4) the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF), (5) the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) within the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and (6) the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS) within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Two versions of the IDPF survey will be used to ask respondents for feedback on data product documentation. One will be for researchers who either directly use raw data in the integrated data product or need detailed technical information about the product for their research activities. The other will be for highly informed consumers who use results based on one of the integrated data products and need information on how the product was developed to interpret the information it provides.

Agencies can add their own items at the end of the IDPF survey that are specific to their chosen data product. These agency specific items will go to no more than 9 respondents who are not federal government employees.

3. Recruitment and Data Collection

The agencies listed in section 2 will provide lists of individuals who have used the integrated data product chosen by the agency. Identified data users will receive an e-mail from the agency indicating that they were selected to provide feedback on the documentation of the agency’s chosen product and that their participation is voluntary. The email will ask each data user to look for an invitation from the General Services Administration (GSA) to participate in the IDPF survey. GSA will then send an email invitation with details about the IDPF survey and with a live link and user-specific login information necessary to access the IDPF survey. GSA will follow-up with reminder emails and a telephone reminder prompt (though the survey will not be administered over the phone). Once logged in, users will access the IDPF survey provided in Volume II of this request along with any product-specific questions. The results of the IDPF survey will be used internally by NCES and the other FCSM member agencies as part of a broader review of agencies’ documentation for integrated data products. The review will result in a report to ICSP to guide internal deliberations regarding the content and format of documentation developed for integrated data products.

4. Consultations outside the agency

NCES has been consulting with FCSM, the agencies listed in section 2, GSA, and Grant Thornton LLP. All listed organizations have had input on questionnaire content and will review the IDPF survey results. GSA and Grant Thornton will administer data collection and prepare a summary of results under guidance from NCES and FCSM.

5. Justification for Sensitive Questions

No sensitive questions are included in the IDPF survey.

6. Paying Respondents

No incentives will be offered to the data users selected for participation in the IDPF survey.

7. Assurance of Confidentiality

Given that the IDPF survey requests users’ feedback on a federal product and does not ask for any personally identifiable or sensitive information, no pledge of confidentiality will be cited to its respondents. However, during recruitment, respondents will be notified that their participation is voluntary and that the study report and other summaries of the IDPF survey’s results will not identify which respondents provided which specific responses.

8. Estimate of Hourly burden

We estimate that approximately 150 data users will complete an IDPF survey. Table 1 provides the response burden estimate.

Table 1. Estimate of Response Burden

Respondent	Task	Number of respondents	Number of responses	Hours per respondent	Total response hours
Survey participant	Completion of survey	150	150	0.5	75

9. Cost to federal government

The estimated cost to federal government for this project, including IDPF survey programming and results analyses, is $5,000.

10. Project Schedule

Table 2 provides the overall project schedule.

Table 2. Schedule

Event	Date
IDPF survey goes live	October 1, 2018
Analysis of survey results	December 2018 -January 2019