30 Day Response to Public Comment

Public Comments Received During the 30-day Comment Period

March 2021

Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023)
Study Delay Change Request

ED-2021-SCC-0024 Comments on FR Doc # 2021-03302

Document: ED-2021-SCC-0024-0001

Name: Tiffany Burkes

I am submitting a comment regarding the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) program by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Department of Education (ED). ED is proposing a change to a currently approved information collection. The proposal of the extension due to the pandemic. According to the NCES, the program provides important information about children’s knowledge, skills, and socioemotional development from birth through elementary school. The field test cannot be completed because of the current pandemic situation.

I agree with the proposal of the extension due to the pandemic. The information gathered through this research is necessary to understand the growth of children.

ECLS has a lot of impact on the educational settings. They have collected a lot of valuable data through many studies.

The department can limit the burden of collecting data with effective technology use. According to research done by San Diego State University computers and such tools can provide additional support for researchers. Technology can be used to stimulate social settings. This may be needed because of social distance. This will also help to teach the children more about technology. The use of Zoom or other computer programs would allow the researchers to still use this time wisely although the setting may be different. Adding technology may also limit the chance of human error. The program is strongly encouraged to use the time to implement more technology in the process to prevent further delays. Our world is advancing, and we need to use all tools available to extend our research. This will help the program look for alternative methods to studying the different groups within the study.

Dear Ms. Burkes,

Thank you for your interest in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) Program and the upcoming Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2023-24 (ECLS-K:2024).

The ECLS-K:2024 strives to use technology effectively, to both reduce respondent burden and improve data collection methodologies. For example, survey instruments for parents, teachers, and school administrators will be available for completion in an online web mode. These web-based instruments will be available on the study’s participant website, which will be a source of information for potential respondents about the study. Although web instruments cannot be used for the child activities due to the age of the children and the need for standardization, technology is used during those activities in meaningful ways. During national data collections, a trained ECLS assessor uses a laptop to individually administer cognitive assessments to children. The assessment questions are all pre-programmed and children’s responses are entered by the assessors into the laptops. This results in a shorter and smoother assessment experience for children, as well as less error, because the assessors do not need to decide which items to administer. Beginning in third grade, children will also complete study surveys on these laptops. As the education environment changes in response to COVID-19, we will continue to consider ways in which technology may assist in data collection. Finally, you may be interested to know that the study will be asking questions about technology access and use in the home and school, so in addition to using technology for our data collections, we will be learning more about technology use by students, families, teachers, and schools.

Sincerely,

Jill McCarroll

Study Director, Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies

https://nces.ed.gov/ecls/

National Center for Education Statistics, Longitudinal Surveys Branch
550 12th St. SW, Washington DC 20202 | 202-304-2920 | [email protected]

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