Changes Memo

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

DATE: August 28, 2019

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela, NCES

FROM: Elise Christopher, NCES

SUBJECT: High School and Beyond 2020 (HS&B:20) Base-Year Full-Scale Study Recruitment and Field Test Reinterview Change Request (OMB# 1850-0944 v.4).

The High School and Beyond 2020 study (HS&B:20) will be the sixth in a series of longitudinal studies at the high school level conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. HS&B:20 will follow a nationally representative sample of ninth grade students from the start of high school in the fall of 2020 to the spring of 2024 when most will be in twelfth grade. A field test will be conducted one year prior to the full-scale study. The study sample will be freshened in 2024 to create a nationally representative sample of twelfth-grader students. A high school transcript collection and additional follow-up data collections beyond high school are also planned. The NCES secondary longitudinal studies examine issues such as students’ readiness for high school; the risk factors associated with dropping out of high school; high school completion; the transition into postsecondary education and access/choice of institution; the shift from school to work; and the pipeline into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). They inform education policy by tracking long-term trends and elucidating relationships among student, family, and school characteristics and experiences. HS&B:20 will follow the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study of 2017/18 (MGLS:2017) which followed the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011), thereby allowing for the study of all transitions from elementary school through high school and into higher education and/or the workforce. HS&B:20 will include surveys of students, parents, students’ math teachers, counselors, and administrators, plus a student assessment in mathematics and reading and a brief hearing and vision test. The HS&B:20 Base-Year Full-Scale study (BYFS) will begin in the fall of 2020. The request to conduct the HS&B:20 Base-Year Field Test (BYFT) and the BYFS sampling and state, school district, school, and parent recruitment activities, both scheduled to begin in the fall of 2019, was last approved in August 2019 (OMB# 1850-0944 v.1-3). These activities include collecting student rosters and selecting the BYFS sample. This request is to provide updated information about and to add communication materials regarding the parent reinterview survey. Approval for the base-year full scale study data collection will be requested in a separate submission in early 2020.

The requested here changes do not affect the approved total cost to the federal government for conducting this study, but they do increase the overall estimated respondent burden time by 4 hours (from 35,635 to 35,639 total hours).

About 50 randomly selected parents will complete an abbreviated reinterview to allow for the reliability analysis of critical items in the instrument. The request approved in August 2019 (OMB# 1850-0944 v.3) referenced the field test parent reinterview but updates were necessary to: (1) correct the reinterview burden time estimate from 5 to 10 minutes per response; (2) add text to the end of the parent survey notifying applicable parents that they have been selected for reinterview; and (3) provide the emails asking each selected parent to complete the reinterview.

The edits made to the last approved HS&B:20 clearance documents to reflect the changes requested in this submission are listed below. Text marked in red font below reflects the additions and deletions that were made.

Part A

In the justification, A.1 section (p.2) the following text was added:

The latest revision to this submission is to update the burden estimate and provide notification text and communication for the parent reinterview.

In Section A.12 table 2, under “Base-Year Field Test Data Collection” (p.15), the “Students' parents (9th gr., reinterview)” burden estimate changed from 5 to 10 minutes per response, and resulted in a change in the HS&B:20 Base-Year Field Test Recruitment and Data Collection and Base-Year Full-Scale Study Recruitment total burden hours estimate from 35,635 to 35,639 total hours.

Part B

The following text was revised in section B.3 (Parent Recruitment, p.15):

In addition to the parent questionnaire, a random sample of about 50 parents will be asked to participate in an abbreviated reinterview.

Part C – No changes

Appendix A

The following new materials were added in Appendix A:

1. Appendix A11.4c. Parent Data Collection Reinterview Email – Web (New) – page 80

2. Appendix A11.4cd Parent Data Collection Reinterview Email – CATI (New) – page 81

Appendix B

Right above the Table of Contents, the following text was provided (p.i):

** The contents of this document were approved in August 2019 (OMB #1850-0944 v.3). The only changes made for this (v.4) submission are an addition of text at the end of the parent questionnaire in Appendix B3 to notify parents of selection for reinterview, if applicable. **

The following text was added to the end of the Parent Questionnaire (English only) to notify parents who had been randomly selected for the reinterview (p.157).

**If Selected for Reinterview**

[if usermode = "web"]
You have been randomly selected for participation in a quality control interview. We would like you to return to this web site in about three weeks to repeat a small number of questions. The purpose of this second 10-minute interview is to determine how well our questions collect reliable information. We will contact you when it is time to return for the short reinterview. If your contact information is not right or is incomplete, please fix it. What is the best way to reach you?

[else]  // CATI mode
You have been randomly selected for participation in a quality control interview. We would like to contact you in about three weeks to repeat a small number of questions. The purpose of this second 10-minute interview is to determine how well our questions collect reliable information. If your contact information is not right or is incomplete, please fix it. What is the best number at which to reach you?

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