[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 166 (Friday, August 27, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46959-46960]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-22337]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance
consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies
an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of
information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program helps to ensure that
requested 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.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
Addresses section of this notice on or before October 26, 1999. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics is particularly interested in comments
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;
Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and
Minimize the burden of the collection of information on
those who are to respond, including through 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.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Karin G. Kurz, BLS Clearance Officer,
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 3255,
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE., Washington, DC 20212. Ms. Kurz can be
reached on 202-606-7628 (this is not a toll free number).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karin G. Kurz, BLS Clearance Officer.
(See ADDRESSES section.)
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Proposed Collection
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments
concerning the proposed new collection of the 2000 School Survey
component of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). A
copy of the proposed information collection request (ICR) can be
obtained by contracting the individual listed in the Addresses section
of this notice.
II. Background
Part of the mission of the Department of Labor (DOL) is to promote
the development of the U.S. labor force and the efficiency of the U.S.
labor market. The BLS contributes to this mission by gathering
information about the labor force and labor market, and disseminating
it to policy makers and the public so that participants in those
markets can make more informed and, thus, more efficient choices.
The 2000 School Survey represents the second wave of data
collection from the schools attended by and located within the primary
sampling units (PSUs) of the youths surveyed in the NYSY97. (The first
wave of the NLSY97 was cleared under OMB number 1220-0157.) The DOL has
been interviewing these youths on a yearly basis to study how young
people make the transition from full-time schooling to the
establishment of their families and careers. the longitudinal focus of
the NLSY97 requires collection of information about the same
individuals over many years in order to trace their education,
training, work experience, family formation, income, and program
participation in programs such as apprenticeships, co-ops, internships,
and so forth. Recognizing the crucial role of schools and training the
next generation of our labor force, the BLS will administer a school
survey to measure the characteristics of the schools the youths attend
so that these characteristics can be related to the cognitive
development of the respondents in the NLSY97.
III. Current Actions
The 2000 School Survey will provide important contextual data for
better understanding the antecedents of youth's critical employment
decisions and the employment paths, entrances, and exits that they take
over their life
[[Page 46960]]
course. In addition to providing data relating to the student, the
study also will provide school-level data that can be used, for
example, to estimate changes in the incidence and profiles of school-
to-work programs in the panel of schools.
The major purposes of this data collection are to determine the
strengths and weaknesses of the process for guiding the nation's youths
from school-to-work. The study will relate the characteristics of these
youths' educational experiences to their success in finding a job and
establishing a career. Accordingly, these data will help researchers
and policy makers identify the antecedents and causes for youths
experiencing difficulties in making the school-to-work transition. By
comparing these data to comparable data from previous and future
cohorts, researchers and policy makers will be able to identify and
understand more about the dynamics of the labor market and whether and
how the school experiences of this cohort differ from those of other
cohorts.
The National School-to-Work Office, a joint office of the
Department of Labor and the Department of Education, will use these
data to assess the extent to which schools provide activities to
prepare young people for work. Combined with information collected from
the teenagers attending these institutions, BLS staff, researchers, and
federal and state policy makers will use the data from this survey to
address the roles of schools, families, individuals, peers,
neighborhoods, and work in influencing today's youth as they move from
school-to-work and, more generally, from adolescence to adulthood. The
School-to-Work Office used data from the first wave to document the
proportion of schools with school-to-work programs and the
characteristics of those schools.
This request covers the 2000 NLSY97 School Survey data collection.
The BLS believes that collecting high school-level information once
every four years provides a sufficiently clear picture of the changes
that occur in schools--such as advancement in technology,
transformations in the size and characteristics of student populations,
elimination of programs, and the evolution of funding mechanisms,
without overburdening the school administrators who respond to the
survey. Although a significant change can occur in any year for a
school, most changes occur or evolve slowly. The questionnaire will
capture these off-year changes by including retrospective questions
about when programs began.
The four-year frequency further ensures that the changing high
school experiences of students who move from one high school to another
(approximately 8 percent) because of family relocation, changes in
school boundaries, openings and closings of schools, family choices
about educational opportunities, or other reasons, are captured.
If these data are not collected, the ability of researchers and
policy makers to assess the school-to-work transition for the nation's
youth will be severely compromised. Likewise, researchers and policy
makers will be unable to assess the impact of schooling and other
environmental factors on the quality of the newest entrants to the
labor force and how those qualitative aspects relate to education,
training, work experience, family formation, income, and program
participation.
Type of Review: New.
Agency: The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Title: 2000 School Survey component of the National Longitudinal
Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97).
OMB Number: 1220--New.
Affected Public: Not-for-profit institutions (secondary schools).
Total Respondents: 7,981.
Frequency: Every 4 years.
Total Responses: 7,981.
Average Time Per Response: 30 minutes.
Estimated Total Burden Hours: 3,991 hours.
Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
Total Burden Cost (operating/maitenance): $0.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget
approval of the information collection request; they also will become a
matter of public record.
Signed at Washington, D.C., this 24th day of August 1999.
Karen A. Krein,
Acting Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
[FR Doc. 99-22337 Filed 8-26-99; 8:45 am]
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