Request for Student Afterschool Attendance Records

Appendix E:

Request for Student Afterschool Attendance Records

Memo

To: [Afterschool center director name]

From: [Name of study team member]

Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Subject: Afterschool attendance data request for the National Study of Continuous Quality Improvement to Inform the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program

Thank you for participating in the National Study of Continuous Quality Improvement to Inform the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, a study that Mathematica and its partners are conducting for the U.S. Department of Education.

This memo outlines our request to [afterschool center name] for afterschool attendance data on students in the study. We will work with you and your afterschool center staff to determine the easiest format for your afterschool center to deliver the student attendance data. If the afterschool attendance is recorded electronically, we will provide a secure link so the data can be transmitted securely. If afterschool attendance is collected on hardcopy documents, we will send a study member to collect copies of the attendance records or work with you to figure out an alternative way to obtain those records.

1. Student Attendance Data Requested

Students for whom data are requested. We are requesting attendance data on students in grades 3 through 5 who attended your afterschool center at any point during the first month of the 2021–2022 school year.

Attendance data elements requested. For the students described above, we are requesting information on each student’s daily attendance at your afterschool center for the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 school years among the days in which the center provided services to students. Table 1 lists the data elements we are requesting.

The data needed for the study differs between the first month of the 2021–2022 school year and later months. In the first month, we would like the attendance records to include personally identifiable information (name and date of birth) so that we can link these records with other district records and identify students to be included in study surveys. We will not include this information when we create files for the analysis, and no individuals will be named in any reports.

For any data after the first month of the 2021–2022 school year, you do not need to provide us with name or date of birth as long as the files contain the ID numbers that your center has assigned to each student. After the first month, if it is easiest for you to provide data on all students who attended your center (without name or date of birth), please feel free to do so, and the study team will identify which of those students are in the study.

To: [Afterschool Center Director Name] From: [Name of study team member] Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Page: 2

Table 1. Afterschool attendance data

Data element	Description
Afterschool center name	Name of the afterschool center
Student ID	ID used by the afterschool center to uniquely identify students. The ID should be consistent across years of attendance data.
First name	First name of student. We will only collect this information for the first month of the 2021–2022 school year.
Middle name	Middle name of student. We will only collect this information for the first month of the 2021–2022 school year.
Last name	Last name of student. We will only collect this information for the first month of the 2021–2022 school year.
Date of birth	Student’s month, day, and year of birth. We will only collect this information for the first month of the 2021–2022 school year.
Date of attendance record	The date to which the attendance record pertains. We need a record for every date in the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 school years.
Afterschool attendance status	Students’ afterschool attendance status on the specified date—specifically, whether the student was in attendance, absent, or not scheduled to attend (for example, due to a holiday).

2. Justification for Requested Data

We will use the requested attendance data to select students for the study’s surveys and to examine whether quality improvement strategies have different effects on students with different afterschool attendance patterns.

3. Data Confidentiality

Mathematica and its subcontractors follow the confidentiality and data protection requirements of The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Part E, Section 183. We will use the attendance data provided in response to this request for research purposes only. The reports prepared for the study will summarize findings across the sample and will not associate responses with a specific district, school, afterschool center, afterschool program, or individual. We will not provide information that identifies respondents to anyone outside the study team, except if required by law.

Thank you very much for your assistance with this data request! We greatly appreciate your assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact the study team with any questions or concerns at [STUDY EMAIL]@mathematica-mpr.com.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is xxxx-xxxx. The time required to complete this voluntary information collection is estimated to average 120 minutes per afterschool center in each of two rounds (winter 2021–2022 and spring 2023), including the time to review instructions, gather the attendance data needed, and complete and review the information collected. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of this form, write directly to: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences 550 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024.