OMB83C Change Memo v14

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

DATE: May 15, 2018

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, OMB Liaison, NCES

FROM: Tracy Hunt-White, Team Lead, Postsecondary Longitudinal and Sample Surveys, NCES

Ted Socha, B&B:08/18 Project Officer, NCES

SUBJECT: 2008/18 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:08/18) Instruments Change Request (OMB# 1850-0729 v.14)

The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education, examines students’ education and work experiences after they complete a bachelor’s degree, with a special emphasis on the experiences of K-12 school teachers. The B&B-eligible cohort is initially identified in the National Postsecondary Study Aid Study (NPSAS). The first cohort (B&B:93) was identified in NPSAS:93, and consisted of students who received their bachelor’s degree in the 1992–93 academic year. The second cohort (B&B:2000) was selected from the NPSAS:2000, and the third cohort (B&B:08) was selected from NPSAS:2008, which became the base year for follow-up interviews in 2009 and 2012. The B&B:08/18 data collection is the third and final follow-up for the third cohort of the B&B series (OMB# 1850-0729). The fourth cohort of baccalaureate recipients (B&B:16/17), identified in NPSAS:2016, entered full-scale data collection in 2017 (OMB# 1850-0926). The B&B:08/18 field test was conducted in 2017. The request to conduct the B&B:08/18 full-scale data collection from July 2018 through March 2019, to collect data from B&B:08 sample members after they were first surveyed 10 years earlier, was approved in April 2018 (OMB# 1850-0729 v.13).

This request is to make minor revisions to approved contacting materials, to add an item to the approved full survey instrument, and to add several items to the abbreviated and mini survey instruments. This request does not introduce changes to the estimated respondent burden or the costs to the federal government. Revisions were made to Appendices E (Sample Member Communication Materials) and F (Interview Facsimile). The requested changes are summarized below.

Contacting Materials

The following minor edits were made in Appendix E to Sample Member Communication Materials:

• Approved versions of letters, postcards, and emails included fills for a second major. Upon further review of the data, it was determined that we had only 2,000 sample members with a second major, and of those, only 1,300 sample members would have two unique major fills for the contact materials. In addition, 300 of those 1,300 sample members responded to a panel maintenance contact which included only a single major. Because the response to the panel maintenance request was so high using just a single major, a second major does not seem necessary and was removed. This revision was made to all emails, letters, and postcards that included the fill for major tailoring.

• Made the following additional edits based on feedback provided on the 2016-17 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/17):

  • Updated office number in the contact address in Paperwork Reduction Act statement because B&B project officer moved to a different office.

  • Removed excessive use of exclamation marks from emails, letters, and postcards.

  • Removed potentially confusing text surrounding the boost and flash offers from all applicable letters, emails, and text messages. The revised version will just mention the total incentive amount rather than describing the base incentive amount, the boost amount, and the total amount.

Boost text revision:

[IF INCENTIVE ELIGIBLE AND BOOST: <<In addition to your $<<Inc_amount>>, you’re now also getting $<<Boost_Inc>>, for a total ofAnd, when you complete the survey, you’ll receive $<<total_incentive>>.>>]

Flash text revision:

Act now, «fname». You’ll receive $<<Total_Incentive> for completing your BB survey until <<Early_compend_flash_date >>! AFTER <<Early_compend_flash_date>>, you’ll receive $<<Inc_amount>> /<<Inc_amount+Boost_inc>>. Take advantage now: [bitly LINK]

IF BITLY LINK UNAVAILABLE: Act now, «fname».  You’ll receive $<<Total_incentive>> for completing your BB survey until <<Early_compend_flash_date >>! AFTER <<Early_compend_flash_date >>, you’ll receive $<<Inc_amount>> // <<Inc_amount+Boost_inc>>. Take advantage now: surveys.nces.ed.gov/bb/

• Updated OMB expiration date to 4/30/2021 in Draft Website Text (pp. E-10 and E-12).

• Draft Website Text, 72% corrected to 77% (p. E-12).

• Changed “personal experience” to “experiences” (p. E-13).

Experiences text revision:

B&B is interested in your personal experiences since you graduated from college during the 2007-08 school year.

• Corrected fill to reference Inc_amount rather than Total_incentive (p. E-21).

• Corrected Incentive Eligibility table to reference the end flash date rather than start flash date (p. E-20)

• Made “degree” plural (p. E-25).

• Updated phone numbers to Source and Signatory table (p. E-33).

• Added the “major” to fill text (p. E-33).

• Changed colon to period (p. E-35).

• Added comma (p. E-48).

• Revised awkward text (p. E-51).

Text revision:

The survey takesIt will take about «time» mins.minutes to complete a survey about your experiences since graduating in 2007-08<< with your bachelor’s degree in [major]>>.

• Added text for the applicable incentive offer on Reminder Postcard 5 (p. E-78).

• Removed "personal experiences" to minimize any confusion regarding the types of questions included in the survey (p. E-108).

Experiences text revision:

This survey is being conducted to better understand the education, employment, and financial, and personal experiences and issues facing college graduates ten years after earning their bachelor's degrees.

See attachment 1 below for a tabular view of the above described changes to the contacting materials.

Student Interview Items

As noted in Appendix F, the full-scale study will implement abbreviated and mini versions of the survey in addition to the full survey. This request is to add items to the abbreviated and mini interview protocol. These items were approved for inclusion in the full survey but were not originally included in the abbreviated and mini surveys. In addition, an item to collect occupation job duties is proposed for the full and abbreviated interviews (not to be included in the mini interview).

SOGI Items

Given the increased interest at the federal level and in the research/policy community on the data collection of sexual orientation and gender identity, three items approved for the full interview will also be administered in the abbreviated and mini interviews. These additions will allow for the collection of SOGI data from all respondents. Based on the field test timing analysis, the addition of these three items will add about 20 seconds per abbreviated and mini respondent. Given this, the burden associated with collecting these items in the abbreviated and mini interviews is minimal and will not have an impact on overall estimated survey timing.

The following items from the full interview were added to the abbreviated and mini interview (see page F-8):

B18FSEX - Sex assigned at birth

B18FGENDERID - Gender identity

B18FLGBTQ - Sexual orientation

Occupation Job Duties Item

As it currently operates, the predictive occupation coder requires a respondent to provide a job title to code an occupation using the O*NET-SOC code structure. We propose to add a field to collect job duties to the full and abbreviated survey instruments (not the mini survey). The job duties field will only be collected when respondents do not fully code their occupation with a 6-digit O*NET-SOC code. The job duties information will improve the accuracy of post-data collection coding by allowing respondents to provide additional context about their work. Occupation job duties have been collected in previously approved surveys, including NPSAS:16 full-scale (OMB# 1850-0666) and BPS:12/17 full-scale (OMB# 1850-0631). The burden associated with collecting this item in the full and abbreviated interviews for a subset of respondents is minimal and will not have an impact on overall estimated average survey timing.

The following item was added to the full interview and the abbreviated interview (see page F-43):

B18DJDUTY01 - Occupation: job duties

Item Wording

As a(n) [job title at employer], what [are / were] your job duties?

Job duties

Help Text

In the text box, enter words or phrases describing the primary tasks you perform and responsibilities you have for this job.

For example, the job duties of a registered nurse would include “care for patients and maintain medical records.”

To reflect the addition of this item, the following line was added to the table:

Variable name	Variable label	Change Add (A) Revise (R) Drop (D)	Rationale	Abbrev	Mini
B18DJDUTY01	Occupation: job duties	A	Per review of FT data, added to enable more accurate post-data collection coding of occupation.	X

Attachment 1

Changes to full-scale contacting materials

Contact Material	Page in FS package	Change	Reason for change
Letters	Multiple pages	Update office number cited in PRA statement to Room 4018.	Project officer moved to a different office location. This change was only necessary on letters.
Letters, postcards, emails	Multiple pages	Remove fill for second major	Majority of sample members have a single major. Experience with Panel maintenance was successful with the use of a single major. Hence, second major added unnecessary complexity to contacting material.
Letters, postcards, emails, texts	Multiple pages	Remove excessive exclamation points	To remove excessive exclamation points.
Letters, postcards, emails texts	Multiple pages and removed from tables on E-20 and E-48	Simplify boost incentive language	To simplify contacting material to avoid confusion about the total incentive amount.
Draft Website Text	E-10 and E-12	Update OMB expiration date to 4/30/2021	To correct expiration date.
Draft Website Text	E-12	Changed percentage from 72% to 77%	To correct error.
Mini Survey Letter	E-25	Made “degree” plural	To correct error.
Flash Announcement E-mail	E-33	Revised source and signatory table to update phone number for two project staff	Update information.
Reminder Postcard 5	E-78	Added text for incentive offer	Provide additional information.
B&B:08/18 Consent Text	E-109	Removed phrase “personal choices” to minimize any confusion about content of the survey	To reduce confusion about the content of survey.