SUPPORTING STATEMENT - PART A
Job ChalleNGe Participant Focus Groups – 0704-JCFG
1. Need for the Information Collection
32 U.S Code 509, “National Guard Youth Challenge Program of Opportunities for Civilian Youth” seeks to “improve life skills and employment potential of participants by providing military-based training and supervised work experience, together with the core program components of assisting participants to receive a high school diploma or its equivalent, leadership development, etc.” Job ChalleNGe is an extension of Youth ChalleNGe and provides technical and career training to graduates of Youth ChalleNGe.
The Job ChalleNGe program focuses on underserved populations and communities. This intent aligns with that of Executive Order 13985, which directs that the Federal Government shall work to advance equity, with a focus on historically underserved communities. This collection is part of a study examining the implementation of the Job ChalleNGe program across its six operating sites. The results of this collection will help inform site operations to ensure that the program meets its goals; the results also will assist with continuous program improvement by providing feedback on many aspects of the program.
The residential and academic Job ChalleNGe program experience can be fully examined through the experiences and perceptions of participants. Program leadership agrees that participant perspectives are necessary to understand program operations, and the site leaders support the proposed collection. This data does not already exist; Job ChalleNGe is a relatively new program with no established qualitative data collection.
For this collection, we propose conducting a focus group of participants at each of the six Job ChalleNGe site. Focus groups are a scientifically valid approach to gather in-depth perspective from individuals who have engaged in shared experiences. Focus groups allow for the gathering of contextually-based responses more so than other data collection methods (e.g., surveys) while also minimizing burden on participating sites as compared to other data collection methods (e.g., individual interviews).1
2. Use of the Information
The respondents are participants in the National Guard Job ChalleNGe program. This information is being collected to better understand program participants’ experiences and perceptions. This information will be used to help inform site operations, program policy decisions, and to drive continuous program improvement, thus assisting DoD in using its resources appropriately. Also, focus groups will allow us to understand participants’ experiences and perceptions in a relatively nuanced way (compared to other collection methods, such as surveys)2.
Respondents will be asked a series of questions to which they can choose to respond; RAND staff will take notes and will use audio recording to fill in notes as needed. Respondents may choose not to respond to any/all questions. Consent for recording the focus group will be obtained from participants; if any participant does not consent, physical notes will be taken instead.
There will be no invitations or other communications sent to respondents; rather, program staff will inform program participants of the opportunity to participate in a focus group. Individuals who indicate interest to program staff will be scheduled for the focus group. At the time of the focus group, participants will be provided consent language and those who do not wish to participate will be allowed to leave the focus group setting and return to normal program activities.
Notes from the focus group conversation, which will not include any identifying information, will be kept on laptops that require two-factor authentication or on password-protected secure servers. Demographic characteristics of participants, which will be collected at the time of the focus group and used to assess the representativeness of the participants relative to the site’s enrollment and how the program is working for different groups of participants, will not be connected to responses provided by individuals during the focus group. RAND project staff (all of whom complete annual training on data security measures and human subjects’ research procedures) will be responsible for coding and analyzing all collected responses. The information collected will be used to inform DoD policy recommendations and practice guidance.
3. Use of Information Technology
We intend for all data to be collected in-person (0% electronic), providing COVID procedures allow. All collection will become electronic (100%), utilizing Zoom Gov, if COVID procedures do not permit in-person collection.
4. Non-duplication
The information obtained through this collection is unique and is not already available for use or adaptation from another cleared source.
5. Burden on Small Businesses
This information collection does not impose a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses or entities.
6. Less Frequent Collection
This information collection is planned to occur only once per class. Therefore, no individual will be asked to participate more than once. Less frequent data collection would reduce the extent to which findings accurately portray ongoing program operations and provide valid information on which to guide program improvement.
7. Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines
This collection of information does not require collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines delineated in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
8. Consultation and Public Comments
Part A: PUBLIC NOTICE
A 60-Day Federal Register Notice (FRN) for the collection published on Thursday, February 24, 2022. The 60-Day FRN citation is 87 FR 10346 FRN 10346-10347.
No comments were received during the 60-Day Comment Period.
A 30-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection published on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. The 30-Day FRN citation is 87 FR 36833 FRN 36833-36834.
Part B: CONSULTATION
No additional consultation apart from soliciting public comments through the Federal Register was conducted for this submission.
9. Gifts or Payment
No payments or gifts are being offered to respondents as an incentive to participate in the collection.
10. Confidentiality
A Privacy Act Statement is not required for this collection because we are not requesting individuals to furnish personal information for a system of records.
A System of Record Notice (SORN) is not required for this collection because records are not retrievable by PII.
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is not required for this collection because PII is not being collected electronically.
Maintain as permanent until DAA-0330-2022-0005 is approved by NARA. Then records are temporary, cut off upon report completion. Destroy 10 year(s) after cutoff.
11. Sensitive Questions
No questions considered sensitive are being asked in this collection.
12. Respondent Burden and its Labor Costs
Part A: ESTIMATION OF RESPONDENT BURDEN
Collection Instrument(s)
Job ChalleNGe Participant Focus Groups
Number of Responses Per Respondent: 1
Number of Total Annual Responses: 60
Response Time: 75 minutes
Respondent Burden Hours: 75 hours
Total Submission Burden
Total Number of Respondents: 60
Total Number of Annual Responses 60
Total Respondent Burden Hours: 75 hours
Part B: LABOR COST OF RESPONDENT BURDEN
Collection Instrument(s)
Job ChalleNGe Participant Focus Groups
Number of Total Annual Responses: 60
Response Time: 75 minutes
Respondent Hourly Wage: $9.06
Labor Burden per Response: $11.33
Total Labor Burden: $679.80
Overall Labor Burden
Total Number of Annual Responses: 60
Total Labor Burden: $679.80
The Respondent hourly wage was determined by using the [Department of Labor Consolidated Minimum Wage Table Website [https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/mw-consolidated])
13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs
There are no annualized costs to respondents other than the labor burden costs addressed in Section 12 of this document to complete this collection.
14. Cost to the Federal Government
This focus group collection is part of a larger RAND contract. The total cost to the Federal Government of the focus group collection is estimated to be approximately 18,750.
Part A: LABOR COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Collection Instrument(s)
Job ChalleNGe Participant Focus Groups
Number of Total Annual Responses: 60
Processing Time per Response: 6 hours
Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses: $52.08
Cost to Process Each Response: $312.50
Total Cost to Process Response: $18,750
Overall Labor Burden to the Federal Government
Total Number of Annual Responses: 60
Total Labor Burden: 18,750
Part B: OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS
Cost Categories
Equipment: $0
Printing: $0
Postage: $0
Software Purchases: $0
Licensing Costs: $0
Other: $0
Total Operational and Maintenance Cost: $0
Part C: TOTAL COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Total Labor Cost to the Federal Government: $18,750
Total Operational and Maintenance Costs: $0
Total Cost to the Federal Government: $18,750
15. Reasons for Change in Burden
This is a new collection with a new associated burden.
16. Publication of Results
This collection will be published through RAND Corporation and will undergo a DoD clearance review beforehand.
Title: “National Guard Youth ChalleNGe and Job ChalleNGe: Metrics for Success”
Estimated publication date: July 2023.
17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date
We are not seeking approval to omit the display of the expiration date of the OMB approval on the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions”
We are not requesting any exemptions to the provisions stated in 5 CFR 1320.9.
1 Gibbs, A. (2012). Focus groups and group interviews. Research methods and methodologies in education, 186-192; Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2010). Focus group interviewing. Handbook of practical program evaluation, 3, 378-403.; Morgan, D. L., & Krueger, R. A. (1993). When to use focus groups and why. Successful focus groups: Advancing the state of the art, 1, 3-19.
2 Morgan and Krueger, 1993.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Kaitlin Chiarelli |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-08-11 |