The School Pulse Panel is a new study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), within the United States Department of Education, to collect extensive data on issues concerning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and staff in U.S. public primary, middle, high, and combined-grade schools. The survey will ask school district staff and sampled school principals about topics such as instructional mode offered; enrollment counts of subgroups of students using various instructional modes; learning loss mitigation strategies; safe and healthy school mitigation strategies; special education services; use of technology; use of federal relief funds; and information on staffing. Because this data collection is extremely high priority and time sensitive, it will undergo Emergency Clearance. It will not go through a 60-day public comment period and will only undergo a 30-day public comment period after clearance has been granted. The administration of the School Pulse Panel study is in direct response to President Bidenâs Executive Order 14000: Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers. It will be one of the nationâs few sources of reliable data on a wealth of information focused on school reopening efforts, virus spread mitigation strategies, services offered for students and staff, and technology use, as reported by school district staff and principals in U.S. public schools. About 1200 public elementary, middle, high, and combined-grade schools will be selected to participate in a panel where school and district staff will be asked to provide requested data monthly during the 2021-22 school years. This approach provides the ability to collect detailed information on various topics while also assessing changes in reopening efforts over time. Given the high demand for data collection during this time, the content of the survey may change on a quarterly basis.
NCES requests emergency clearance to allow us to comply with the January 21, 2021 Executive Order on Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers which states that the Department of Education must âcoordinate with the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences to facilitate, consistent with applicable law, the collection of data necessary to fully understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and educators, including data on the status of in-person learning. These data shall be disaggregated by student demographics, including race, ethnicity, disability, English-language-learner status, and free or reduced lunch status or other appropriate indicators of family income.â Normal clearance procedures would not allow IES to comply with the intent of this EO. NCES will publish a Federal Register Notice soliciting 30 days of public comment on this collection concurrent with district and school recruitment.
US Code:
20 USC 9573
Name of Law: Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002
This change request updates the burden estimate in the recruitment materials (including the special district generic application and letters/emails) to a more accurate estimated time for completion. The burden estimate will be updated from â4-5 hoursâ to â2-3 hoursâ and â240 minutesâ to â180 minutesâ throughout recruitment and communications materials. Additionally, we have updated the special district generic application to more prominently refer to the reserve sample with replacement schools as these districts will have reserve sample schools (these districts were not contacted in the initial invitations).This results in an adjustment of -14 hours and -180 responses.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
School Pulse Survey Preliminary Activities Response to 30 day Public Comment.docx
School Pulse Panel Preliminary Activities v3 Change Sheet.pdf
School Pulse Panel Preliminary Activities