OMB83C Change Memo v23b

U NITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

National Center for Education Statistics

April 10, 2018

MEMORANDUM

To: Robert Siviniski, OMB

From: Maura Spiegelman, NCES

Through: Kashka Kubzdela, NCES

Re: 2017–18 National Teacher And Principal Survey (NTPS 2017-18) Public School Teacher Envelopes Change Request (OMB# 1850-0598 v.23)

The National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), conducted biennially by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is a system of related questionnaires that provides descriptive data on the context of elementary and secondary education. Redesigned from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) with a focus on flexibility, timeliness, and integration with other ED data, the NTPS system allows for school, principal, and teacher characteristics to be analyzed in relation to one another. NTPS is an in-depth, nationally representative survey of first through twelfth grade public and private school teachers, principals, and schools. Kindergarten teachers in schools with at least a first grade are also surveyed. NTPS utilizes core content and a series of rotating modules to allow timely collection of important education trends as well as trend analysis. Topics covered include characteristics of teachers, principals, schools, teacher training opportunities, retention, retirement, hiring, and shortages. NTPS 2017-18 was approved in June 2017 with the latest change request approved in March 2018 (OMB# 1850-0598 v.18-22). This request is to add a statement to the outside of the envelopes sent to sampled public school teachers containing the Third Reminder Teacher Letter in order to increase their response rate (Appendix A, p. 104).

By adding additional persuasive messaging to the envelopes and sharing data that was collected during the 2015-16 NTPS, we believe that teachers will be more likely to open the envelopes, read the enclosed materials, and complete the 2017-18 NTPS public school teacher questionnaire.

The following message will be added to the envelope:

• Public school teachers provided an average of 27 hours of instruction to students during a typical week in the 2015-16 school year. What about you?

This change does not affect the estimated response burden or the total cost to the federal government.

Appendix A – Communication Materials

We added the text demarcated below in burgundy font to “Targeted Reminder E-mail with NTPS Video” on page 104 and information about the statement on the envelope to the summary table on page 32, as follows:

(p.104)

Third Reminder Teacher Letter

NTPS-18L

[Note: The outside of the envelope sent to sampled public school teachers will feature a statement designed to increase their response rate (“Public school teachers spent an average of 53 hours per week on teaching and school-related activities during the 2015-16 school year. What about you?”).]

(p.32)

	Data Collection Activity/Operation	Correspondence Identifier(s)	Description
Third Reminder Teacher Letter		NTPS-18L	Letter reminds the teacher to complete the paper Teacher Questionnaire. The outside of the envelope sent to sampled public school teachers will feature a statement designed to increase their response rate (“Public school teachers spent an average of 53 hours per week on teaching and school-related activities during the 2015-16 school year. What about you?”).

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