HSLS Second Followup MS Collection Change Memo

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

DATE: December 1, 2016

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, OMB Liaison, NCES

FROM: Elise Christopher, HSLS:09 Project Officer, NCES

SUBJECT: High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) Second Follow-up Main Study (OMB# 1850-0852 v.24) – Extend Data Collection Period and Abbreviated Interview

The High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) Second Follow-up Main Study and 2018 Panel Maintenance request was approved by OMB in December 2015 (OMB# 1850-0852 v.17) and was most recently updated in September 2016 (OMB# 1850-0852 v.18-23). As of December 1^st, the HSLS:09 2^nd Follow-up Main Study sample member response rate is 67%. It is unlikely that response rates will go much beyond 70% if data collection ends on schedule at the end of calendar year 2016 and we make no changes to current procedures. To mitigate this lower than expected response rate, this request is to extend data collection by one month and to offer an abbreviated interview to remaining nonrespondents.

We plan to extend data collection by one month, from the originally planned end date of December 31^st, 2016, to January 31, 2017, to give additional time for field interviewing efforts to secure higher participation, and for the abbreviated interview to be implemented.

The abbreviated interview was including in the approved clearance package as an option if we need to boost response rates (OMB# 1850-0852 v.17-23), and this memo confirms that this option will be implemented in the HSLS:09 2^nd Follow-up Main Study.

Abbreviated interviews can be helpful in increasing response rates. For instance, the BPS:12/14 response rate increased by approximately 7 percentage points between the time that the abbreviated interview was offered to all pending sample members and the end of data collection (a period of about 8 weeks).

We plan to offer the abbreviated interview to all pending nonrespondents beginning December 12, 2016 and continue through the end of data collection on January 31, 2017. The content for the abbreviated interview has been approved and can be found in Appendix E of the May 2016 submission (OMB# 1850-0852 v.20). The estimated burden reported in the approved package is based upon a 90 percent response rate to the full interview. The abbreviated interviews will constitute a subset of the main study full interviews and therefore the maximum burden estimate remains unchanged.

The proposed here changes to the approved HSLS:09 2^nd Follow-up Main Study plans do not involve any changes to the estimated cost to the federal government for this study.