The School Pulse Panel (SPP) is a data collection originally designed to collect voluntary responses from a nationally representative sample of public schools to better understand how schools, students, and educators are responding to the ongoing stressors of the coronavirus pandemic. It is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), within the United States Department of Education, in cooperation with the U.S. Census Bureau. Due to the immediate need to collect information from schools during the pandemic to satisfy the requirement of Executive Order 14000, an emergency clearance was issued to develop and field the first several monthly collections of the SPP in 2021, and a full review of the SPP data collection was completed in 2022 (OMB# 1850-0969). SPPâs innovative design and timely dissemination of findings have been used and cited frequently among Department of Education senior leadership, the White House Domestic Policy Counsel, the USDAâs Food and Nutrition Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Congressional deliberations, and the media. The ongoing, growing interest by stakeholders has resulted in the request for dedicated funding to create an established NCES quick-turnaround data collection vehicle, with the goal of standing up a post-pandemic panel to begin with the 2023-24 school year.
The initial proposal for the next SPP study extended the collection to also collect data from school districts, but this has been canceled due to lack of funding. For the 23-24 school year, the survey may ask school staff about a range of topics, including but not limited to instructional mode offered; enrollment counts of subgroups of students for various subject interests; strategies to address learning recovery; safe and healthy school mitigation strategies; mental health services; use of technology; information on staffing, nutrition services, absenteeism, usage of federal funds, facilities, and overall principal and school staff experiences. Some new content will be rotated in and out monthly.
As in previous waves, for SPP 2023-24 roughly 8,000 (4,000 in an initial sample and 4,000 in a reserve sample) public elementary, middle, high, and combined-grade schools will be randomly selected to participate in a panel. The goal is national representation from 1,200 responding schools to report national estimates. School staff will be asked to provide requested data as frequently as monthly during the 23-24 school year. This approach provides the ability to collect detailed information on various topics while also assessing changes over time for items that are repeated. Given the high demand for data collection, the content of the survey will change monthly.
This request is to conduct the SPP 2023-24 main study data collection activities, including instruments for the first quarter of monthly collections. These materials completed a 60-day public comment period in June 2023. They are now being published for 30 additional days of public comment. Some documents have been revised for the 30-day public comment period. Subsequent quarterly content submissions will be submitted for 30-day public comment periods.
US Code:
20 USC 9573
Name of Law: Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002
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.
Part A SPP 2023-24 Data Collection 30D (003).docx
School Pulse Panel 2023-24 Data Collection