81 FR 2851 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Parent Information and School Choice Evaluation

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 11 (January 19, 2016)

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

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 19, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2851-2852]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00845]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No. ED-2016-ICCD-0008]


Agency Information Collection Activities; 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 
March 21, 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 2E105, 
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 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: 3,525.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 2,306.
    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

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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: January 13, 2016.
Stephanie Valentine,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Office of 
the Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2016-00845 Filed 1-15-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P