[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 122 (Monday, June 25, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37923-37926]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15417]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Comment Request for Information Collection for the Workforce
Investment Act (WIA) Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs Gold Standard
Evaluation (WIA Evaluation); New Collection
AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (Department), as part of its
continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a
preclearance consultation program to provide the general public and
Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or
continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program
helps to ensure that required data can be provided in the desired
format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized,
collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of
collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed.
The Department notes that a Federal agency cannot conduct or
sponsor a collection of information unless it is approved by the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) under the PRA and displays a currently
valid OMB control number, and the public is not required to respond to
a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB
control number. Also, notwithstanding any other provisions of law, no
person shall be subject to penalty for failing to comply with a
collection of information if the collection of information does not
display a currently valid OMB control number (see 5 CFR 1320.5(a) and
1320.6).
This data collection request consists of follow-up surveys for a
sample of WIA customers participating in the WIA Evaluation and data
for use in estimating the costs of WIA services and training received
by sample group members. In addition, it includes data for a
supplemental study to learn about services to veterans, the services
they receive, and their outcomes. Since the WIA Evaluation is excluding
veterans from the net-impact study, this supplemental study provides
the opportunity to analyze veterans' experiences in the 28 WIA
Evaluation sites.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
addresses section below on or before August 24, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Eileen Pederson, Office of Policy
Development and Research, Employment and Training Administration, U.S.
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW., Room N-5641,
Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: (202) 693-3647 (this is not a
toll-free number). Email address: [email protected]. Fax number:
(202) 693-2766 (this is not a toll-free number).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
Passage of WIA (Pub. L. 105-220) led to a major redesign of the
country's workforce system. WIA programs serve more than 6 million
people annually at a cost of over $3 billion (U.S. Department of Labor,
Fiscal Year 2012 Budget in Brief). Among its goals, WIA aims to bring
formerly fragmented
[[Page 37924]]
public and private employment services together in a single location
within each community, make them accessible to a wider population than
did prior employment services and training, empower customers with
greater ability to choose from services and training options, and
provide localities greater local flexibility in using funds and greater
accountability for customers' employment outcomes.
Congress mandated in Section 172 of the WIA legislation that the
Secretary of Labor conduct at least one multi-site control group
evaluation. Accordingly, the Department is undertaking the WIA
Evaluation to provide rigorous, nationally representative estimates of
the net-impacts of WIA intensive services and training. Intensive
services involve substantial staff assistance and include assessments,
counseling, and job placement. Training includes education and
occupational skills--building. This evaluation will offer policymakers,
program administrators, and service providers information about the
relative effectiveness of services and training, how the effectiveness
varies by target population, and how the services and training are
provided. The study will also produce estimates of the benefits and
costs of WIA intensive services and training. The Department contracted
with Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractors--Social Policy
Research Associates, MDRC, and the Corporation for a Skilled
Workforce--to conduct this evaluation.
The WIA Evaluation was launched in November 2011 when seven local
Workforce Investment Areas (LWIAs) began customer intake. By August
2012, all 28 of the evaluation's LWIAs will be enrolling customers into
the evaluation. For most sites, the sample intake period will last
between 12 and 18 months. The length of the intake period was
determined in consultation with the local Workforce Investment Board
and/or LWIA administrators WIA customers who are eligible for intensive
services will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) The
full-WIA group--adults and dislocated workers in this group can receive
any WIA service for which they are eligible; (2) the core-and-intensive
group--adults and dislocated workers in this group can receive any WIA
intensive services for which they are eligible, but not training; and
(3) the core-only group--adults and dislocated workers in this group
can receive only core services and no WIA intensive services or
training. Customers who do not consent to participate in the study will
be allowed to receive core services only for the duration of the study
intake period in the respective LWIA.
Based on estimates using recent data, approximately 68,000 WIA
adult and dislocated worker customers will be randomly assigned to the
evaluation--about 64,000 customers to the full-WIA group and 2,000
customers to each of the restricted-service groups. All 4,000 members
of the restricted-service groups and a random sample of 2,000 customers
in the full-WIA group will be asked to complete two follow-up surveys.
The WIA Evaluation will address the following research questions:
1. Does access to WIA intensive services, alone or in conjunction
with WIA-funded training, lead adults and dislocated workers to achieve
better educational, employment, earnings, and self-sufficiency outcomes
than they would achieve in the absence of access to those services?
2. Does the effectiveness of WIA vary by population subgroup? Is
there variation by sex, age, race/ethnicity, unemployment insurance
receipt, prior education level, previous employment history, adult and
dislocated worker status, and veteran and disability status?
3. How does the implementation of WIA vary by LWIA? Does the
effectiveness of WIA vary by how it is implemented? To what extent do
implementation differences explain variations in WIA's effectiveness?
4. Do the benefits from WIA intensive services and training exceed
program costs? Do the benefits of intensive services exceed their
costs? Do the benefits of training exceed its costs? Do the benefits
exceed the costs for adults? Do the benefits exceed the costs for
dislocated workers?
An initial package, approved in September 2011 (OMB No. 1205-0482),
received clearance for the customer intake process which included: a
form to check the study eligibility of the customer; a customer study
consent form (indicating the customer's knowledge of the evaluation and
willingness to participate); the collection of baseline data through a
study registration form; and a contact information form. The package
also included site visit guides for the collection of qualitative
information on WIA program processes and services.
Subsequent to receiving OMB approval for qualitative data
collection during site visits to the 28 LWIAs participating in the
study and because veterans are excluded from the net-impact study, ETA,
in consultation with the Department's Veterans' Employment and Training
Service and OMB, decided to collect additional qualitative and
quantitative data in order to analyze veterans' experiences in the 28
WIA Evaluation sites.
This package requests clearance for the three remaining data
collection efforts for the evaluation:
Two follow-up surveys to be conducted at 15 and 30 months
after random assignment, with a sample of WIA customers included in the
evaluation; and
A cost data collection package consisting of three forms--
a program costs questionnaire, a staff activity log, and a resource
room sign-in sheet--for use in estimating the costs of WIA services and
training received by sample members.
The Veterans' Supplemental Study, consisting of
qualitative and quantitative data collected on veterans served at the
28 LWIAs participating in the WIA Evaluation. The study will add
questions and several activities to the WIA Evaluation's second round
of implementation study site visits to the 28 LWIAs. The supplemental
study's qualitative component will address seven additional research
questions:
1. How do veterans learn about available services in the One-Stop
Career Centers?
2. What are the procedures for orienting and enrolling veterans
into services, including WIA and Wagner-Peyser, and how do they differ
from procedures for nonveteran customers?
3. How do One-Stop Career Center staff members operationalize
veterans' priority of service for WIA and Wagner-Peyser services?
4. How do the Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP)
specialists and Local Veterans' Employment Representatives (LVERs)
coordinate to provide services to veterans, and how do these staff
members interact with other One-Stop Career Center staff?
5. What services are provided to veterans through the One-Stop
Career Center?
6. What issues do staff face in providing services to veterans, and
how do they differ from nonveteran customers?
7. What innovative or promising practices have states or local
areas implemented to provide employment and training services to
veterans?
In addition to the quantitative data collection for the Veterans'
Supplemental Study, two sets of administrative data that states report
to the Department will be analyzed: The WIA Standardized Record Data
(WIASRD) and Wagner-Peyser data. Because the data is already reported
to the Department, there is no additional burden associated with this
data collection.
[[Page 37925]]
Follow-up surveys. The follow-up surveys will collect data on
customers' receipt of services and customer outcomes on attainment of
education credentials, labor market success, and family self-
sufficiency. The surveys will be administered by telephone to 6,000
study participants--all 2,000 members of each of the core-only and
core-and-intensive groups and 2,000 randomly selected study
participants in the full-WIA group. These data will be used to estimate
the impacts of WIA intensive services and training. The first and
second follow-up surveys are similar in the questions they will ask;
they differ only in the reference period. The first survey asks about
months 1-15 following random assignment and the second survey asks
about the next 15 months (months 16-30). If a sample member does not
respond to the first survey, the second survey will ask about all 30
months since random assignment.
Cost data collection package. The benefit-cost analysis of
intensive services and training requires data on the costs of the
services received by sample members. Data on the quantity of services
received will be obtained primarily from the follow-up surveys. Data on
the cost of each service will be obtained from the sites by requesting
that LWIA staff complete a program cost questionnaire, a front-line
staff activity log, and administer resource room sign-in sheets.
Program cost questionnaire. LWIA administrative staff will
complete these detailed questionnaires on the salaries and fringe
benefits of all staff in the local area whose salary is paid at least
in part by WIA. This includes administrative/executive staff, managers
and supervisors, front-line staff, and administrative assistants.
Front-line staff activity log. The front-line staff
activity log will collect information on what activities counselors
engage in on a typical day. Counselors will use a template to record
their activities using a set of pre-specified codes for each activity
for one week. This information will be used to estimate the average
preparation and follow-up time associated with one-on-one meetings with
customers, time spent in resource rooms, and time spent in workshops
and peer support groups.
Resource room sign-in sheets. To calculate the average
cost per visit to the resource room, the study will collect information
on the number of people who use the resource room. For One-Stop Career
Centers that already collect this information, the study will request
it from all centers in the local area. However, for centers that do not
already collect this information, or do not collect it in a way that
can be used by the study, the study will provide a resource room sign-
in sheet for each of the LWIA's One-Stop Career Centers.
Veterans' Supplemental Study. During site visits to all 28 sites
participating in the WIA Evaluation, interviews about services to
veterans will be conducted with One-Stop Career Center staff working
with veteran customers. These staff members include DVOP specialists,
LVERs, and WIA and Employment Service (ES) staff. In addition, the
study team will interview the state veterans coordinators in the 19
states represented in the WIA Evaluation.
Eight of the 28 sites will be purposively selected for additional
data collection activities to learn about the services veterans receive
through the public workforce investment system and their experiences.
The eight sites will be selected based on two factors: the number of
veterans served by the LWIA; and evidence of particularly promising or
innovative practices. In these sites, a focus group of 6-to-86 veterans
who have received services at the One-Stop Career Center in the past 6
months will be convened so that site visitors may speak directly with
veterans to learn about the services they received and the programs in
which they participated, and to obtain more detail about their
experiences and their impressions of those experiences.
Case files of three of the focus group participants at each site
will be selected for review. The review will illustrate how veteran
customers receive services through the One-Stop Career Center system.
For both these activities, a diverse group of veterans representing a
range of backgrounds and experiences will be selected. They will be a
mix of male and female veterans, pre- and post-9/11 veterans, and
veterans with and without service-connected disabilities.
Second, the Veterans' Supplemental Study will analyze LWIA
administrative data reported by states as part of WIASRD and Wagner-
Peyser data system. For the 28 LWIAs, this quantitative component of
the study will explore the characteristics, services received, and
outcomes of veterans who receive services through the public workforce
system.
II. Desired Focus of Comments
Currently, the Department is soliciting comments concerning the
above data collections. Comments are requested which:
Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; and
Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and minimize the burden of the information
collection on those who are to respond, including the use of
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g.,
permitting electronic submissions of responses.
III. Current Actions
At this time, the Department is requesting clearance for the WIA
Evaluation's 15- and 30-month follow-up surveys, the collection of cost
data, and the collection of information on veterans' services through
staff interviews and focus groups of veterans served by the workforce
investment system.
Type of Review: New collection.
Title of Collection: WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs Gold
Standard Evaluation.
OMB Number: 1205-0NEW.
Affected Public: Public workforce system administrators and staff,
low-income, disadvantaged adults and dislocated workers, and veterans
who have received services from One-Stop Career Centers.
Cite/Reference/Form/etc: Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Section
172 (Pub. L. 105-220).
[[Page 37926]]
Annual Burden Estimates for WIA Evaluation Follow-Up Surveys, Cost Data Collection, and Veterans Supplemental Study
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Total
Number of Responses per respondent
Activity respondents respondent Average time per response burden
\1\ (hours) \2\
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Follow-Up Surveys
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15-Month Follow-Up Survey.................... 2,460 1 40 minutes............................................... 1,640
30-Month Follow-Up Survey.................... 2,460 1 30 minutes............................................... 1,230
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Cost Data Collection
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Program Costs Questionnaire.................. 28 1 720 minutes (12 hours)................................... 336
Front-Line Staff Activity Log................ 336 1 75 minutes (1.25 hours).................................. 420
Resource Room Sign-in Sheets................. 10,000 1 0.5 minutes.............................................. 83
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Veterans Supplemental Study
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WIA/ES Staff Interviews...................... 168 1 20 minutes............................................... 56
DVOP/LVER Staff Interviews................... 56 1 60 minutes............................................... 56
State Veteran Coordinator Interviews......... 19 1 60 minutes............................................... 19
Staff Preparation for Focus Groups........... 8 1 60 minutes............................................... 8
Focus Groups--Veterans....................... 56 1 60 minutes............................................... 56
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Annual Total Burden...................... .............. .............. ......................................................... 3,896
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\1\ Attempts will be made to complete interviews with 6,000 sample members in each wave of the follow-up surveys (at 15- and 30-months). To achieve the
targeted response rate of 82 percent, we expect to complete interviews with 2,460 sample members for each survey each year. Each follow-up survey will
be fielded over a 2-year period.
\2\ Numbers may not be exact due to rounding.
Follow-Up Surveys. Each of the two evaluation follow-up surveys
will be administered once to each respondent. The surveys were designed
to take an average of 40 minutes to complete using computer-assisted
telephone interviewing for the 15-month follow-up survey, and 30
minutes for the 30-month follow-up survey. Therefore, the total annual
burden to conduct the 15-month follow-up survey is 1,640 hours (= 4,920
interviews / 2 years x \2/3\ hours per interview), and 1,230 hours to
conduct the 30-month follow-up survey (= 4,920 interviews / 2 years x
0.5 hours per interview).
Cost Data Collection. Each of the program cost questionnaires will
be administered once to each of the 28 sites participating in the WIA
evaluation. The total annual burden for collection of cost data is 336
hours (= 28 sites x 12 hours per questionnaire). The front-line
activity logs will be completed by 12 front-line staff in each of the
28 sites participating in the WIA evaluation. The total annual burden
for completing the front-line activity logs will be 420 hours (= 12
staff x 28 sites x 75 minutes / 60 minutes). The resource room sign-in
sheets will be completed by 10,000 individuals accessing services in
the 28 sites participating in the WIA Evaluation. Signing into the
resource room will take an estimated 30 seconds (.5 minute) per
respondent. Thus, the total annual burden for the resource room sign-in
sheets will be 83 hours (= 10,000 respondents x 0.5 minutes / 60
minutes).
Veterans' Supplemental Study. The interviews with WIA and ES staff
will be conducted once with 6 staff in each of the 28 sites for an
expected 20 minutes per interview. Therefore, the total annual burden
will be 56 hours (= 6 staff x 28 sites x 20 minutes / 60 minutes). The
interviews with DVOP/LVER staff will be conducted once with 2 staff in
each of the 28 sites for an expected 60 minutes per interview. The
total annual burden will be 56 hours (= 2 staff x 28 sites x 60 minutes
/ 60 minutes). The interviews with state veteran coordinators will be
conducted once with 1 coordinator in each of 19 states with LWIAs
participating in the evaluation and are expected to be 60 minutes per
interview. The total annual burden will be 19 hours (= 1 staff x 19
states x 60 minutes / 60 minutes). The staff preparation for veteran
focus group discussions in 8 LWIAs will last 60 minutes per site. The
total annual burden will be 8 hours (= 8 sites x 60 minutes / 60
minutes). The focus groups with an average of 6-to-8 veteran
respondents in 8 sites will last an estimated 60 minutes. The total
annual burden for veterans focus group discussions will be 56 hours (=
7 focus group discussants x 8 sites x 60 minutes / 60 minutes). The
total annual burden estimate for collection in this package is
estimated to be 3,896 hours.
Comments submitted in response to this request will be summarized
and/or included in the request for OMB approval; they will also become
a matter of public record.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 19th day of June 2012.
Jane Oates,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training.
[FR Doc. 2012-15417 Filed 6-22-12; 8:45 am]
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