80 FR 76677 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Evaluation of Effectiveness of the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Program

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 237 (December 10, 2015)

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing an extension of an existing information collection.

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 237 (Thursday, December 10, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76677-76678]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-31082]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2015-ICCD-0137]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; 
Evaluation of Effectiveness of the Scholarships for Opportunity and 
Results (SOAR) Program

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 an extension of an 
existing information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
February 8, 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-2015-ICCD-
0137. 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 2E115, 
Washington, DC 20202-4537.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Meredith Bachman, 202-219-2014.

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 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: Evaluation of Effectiveness of the 
Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Program.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-0800.
    Type of Review: An extension of an existing information collection.

[[Page 76678]]

    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 3,666.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 867.
    Abstract: The foundation of this evaluation is a randomized control 
trial (RCT) comparing outcomes of eligible applicants (students and 
their parents) assigned by lottery to receive or not receive a 
scholarship. This design is consistent with the requirement for a 
rigorous evaluation as well as the need to fairly allocate the 
scholarships if the program is oversubscribed. Because the law also 
specified other kinds of comparisons and analyses, the planned 
evaluation study includes both quantitative and qualitative components.
    In order for the evaluation to have sufficient statistical power to 
detect policy relevant impacts, the sample consists of 1,771 eligible 
program applicants in spring 2012 (cohort 1; n=536), spring 2013 
(cohort 2; n=718), and in spring 2014 (cohort 3, n=517. This is an 
extension of an approved information collection. The extension is 
requested to cover follow up data collection for cohort 2 as well as 
the addition of cohort 3 needed to obtain the sample size needed for 
the evaluation. There are no changes to the study design, data 
collection plans and instruments from what is approved by OMB in the 
current collection.
    Evaluation data will be collected for the three cohorts of program 
applicants from a variety of sources listed below. Each cohort will 
have baseline data as well as three years of follow up (post-lottery) 
data collection; 2013-2015 for cohort 1, 2014-2016 for cohort 2, and 
2015-2017 for cohort 3. In addition to estimating program impact, we 
will use this experimental study to conducted research about interim 
outcomes.
    Data sources include:

--Student assessments: The Terra Nova assessment will be administered 
each spring following the lotteries for 3 years (spring 2013-2015 for 
the 2012 cohort, spring 2014-2016 for the 2013 cohort, and spring 2015-
2017 for the 2014 cohort). The follow up assessments will be 
administered in students' school and will provide the primary outcome 
measure for the impact evaluation. School records Administrative 
records will be collected from DCPS, the District of Columbia Public 
Charter School Board and participating private schools in the fall of 
each year to obtain data on prior year attendance, persistence, 
disciplinary actions, and grades for members of the treatment and 
control groups.
--Parent surveys: Annual surveys of evaluation sample members' parents 
in each follow up year. These surveys will examine such issues as 
reasons for continued participation or withdrawal, involvement in 
school, satisfaction with school choices, and perceptions of school 
safety, leadership, and offerings. The survey will be mixed mode. (Web 
with phone or paper follow up).

    Student surveys: The surveys will be administered to each 
evaluation sample student in grades four and above in each of the 
follow up years at the same time (and place) as the student 
assessments.

--Principal surveys: Surveys to be administered to principals in the DC 
traditional public school, charter school, and private school systems 
in 2013-2017. Data from principals of students in the treatment and 
control groups will provide information about school organization and 
offerings for descriptive analyses of students' school environments and 
for use as mediators in the impact analysis. The web-based principal 
surveys will also be used to examine how aware public and private 
schools are of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program and whether they 
are making any changes in response to it.

    Dated: December 4, 2015.
Tomakie Washington,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Office of 
the Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2015-31082 Filed 12-9-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P