[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 72 (Thursday, April 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22067-22068]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08536]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Docket No.: ED-2016-ICCD-0008]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Parent Information and School Choice Evaluation
AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of Education
(ED).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44
U.S.C. Chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing a new information
collection.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before
May 16, 2016.
ADDRESSES: To access and review all the documents related to the
information collection listed in this notice, please use http://www.regulations.gov by searching the Docket ID number ED-2016-ICCD-
0008. Comments submitted in response to this notice should be submitted
electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov by selecting the Docket ID number or via postal
mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. Please note that comments
submitted by fax or email and those submitted after the comment period
will not be accepted. Written requests for information or comments
submitted by postal mail or delivery should be addressed to the
Director of the Information Collection Clearance Division, U.S.
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, Room 2E-103,
Washington, DC 20202-4537.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to
collection activities, please contact Meredith Bachman, 202-245-7494.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Education (ED), in
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C.
3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general
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public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed,
revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps the
Department assess the impact of its information collection requirements
and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public
understand the Department's information collection requirements and
provide the requested data in the desired format. ED is soliciting
comments on the proposed information collection request (ICR) that is
described below. The Department of Education is especially interested
in public comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is this
collection necessary to the proper functions of the Department; (2)
will this information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is
the estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Department enhance
the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected;
and (5) how might the Department minimize the burden of this collection
on the respondents, including through the use of information
technology. Please note that written comments received in response to
this notice will be considered public records.
Title of Collection: Parent Information and School Choice
Evaluation.
OMB Control Number: 1850-NEW.
Type of Review: A new information collection.
Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals or Households.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 1,175.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 769.
Abstract: Sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES),
U.S. Department of Education, the Parent Information and School Choice
Evaluation (PISCE) is an important first step toward filling the wide
gap in knowledge about how to present school choice information to
parents. This research is needed to provide guidance to districts where
school choice is expanding. PISCE seeks to identify the format, amount,
and organization of information that is most comprehensible and usable
to parents. The study will target low-income parents of school-age
children and will evaluate perceptions of different presentations of
school information. The results of the study will be used to create a
reader-friendly guide for school districts.
IES has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the
needed research. Most of the experiment will be conducted with members
of a standing panel who already complete surveys on a regular basis for
a variety of purposes. This approach provides a low-cost and quick
turnaround method to obtain findings related to the understandability
of school choice information, which does not require respondents to be
making actual school choices for their children. To enhance what can be
learned from the standing panel, the research team also intends to
recruit a sample of low-income parents of school-age children from
locations where a public school choice marketplace with unified
enrollment has been active for at least two years. Parents who have
experienced public school choice or are at least exposed to open
enrollment in their district may experience the experiment differently
than the standing panel members, for whom considering schools other
than one's default neighborhood school may be unfamiliar. This
augmented sample of, presumably, less survey-savvy low-income parents
will be used to provide a sensitivity check of the findings based on
the standing panel alone.
Dated: April 8, 2016.
Kate Mullan,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Office of
the Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2016-08536 Filed 4-13-16; 8:45 am]
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