81 FR 72581 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; NCER-NPSAS Grants-Financial Aid Nudges: A National Experiment To Increase Retention of Financial Aid and College Persistence

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 203 (October 20, 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 203 (Thursday, October 20, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72581-72582]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-25427]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2016-ICCD-0113]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; NCER-
NPSAS Grants--Financial Aid Nudges: A National Experiment To Increase 
Retention of Financial Aid and College Persistence

AGENCY: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 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 
December 19, 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-
0113. 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-349, 
Washington, DC 20202-4537.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact NCES Information Collections at 
[email protected].

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

[[Page 72582]]

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: NCER-NPSAS Grants--Financial Aid Nudges: A 
National Experiment to Increase Retention of Financial Aid and College 
Persistence.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-NEW.
    Type of Review: A new information collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 112,500.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 11,625.
    Abstract: In 2010, the National Center for Education Research 
(NCER) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), both 
within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education 
Sciences (IES), began collaborating on an education grant opportunity 
related to the cross-sectional National Postsecondary Student Aid Study 
(NPSAS). NPSAS is a large, nationally-representative sample of 
postsecondary institutions and students that contains student-level 
records on student demographics and family background, work experience, 
expectations, receipt of financial aid, and postsecondary enrollment 
(see http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas/about.asp; (OMB #1850-0666)). 
Since 1987, NPSAS has been fielded every 3 to 4 years, most recently 
during the 2015-16 academic year. The goal of this NCER-NCES 
collaboration is to provide researchers the opportunity to develop 
``one-off'' projects that would target a subset of the NPSAS sample. 
Under this NCER-NCES grant opportunity, researchers submit applications 
to the Education Research Grants program (84.305A) under the 
Postsecondary and Adult Education topic and to the Exploration or 
Efficacy/Replication research goals. NCER supports research projects 
using NPSAS subsamples to: (1) Explore the relations between 
postsecondary persistence and completion, and malleable factors (as 
well as the mediators and moderators of those relationships), and (2) 
evaluate the efficacy of interventions aimed at improving persistence 
and completion of postsecondary education. Through the grant award, 
researchers can obtain indirect access to a subsample of the NPSAS 
sample after the study's student interviews have been completed. This 
request is to conduct, in 2017, the ``Financial Aid Nudges: A National 
Experiment to Increase Retention of Financial Aid and College 
Persistence'' study, funded by the NCER-NPSAS grant, designed to 
measure the effectiveness of an intervention that will provide 
financial aid information, reminders, and advising to college students 
who were initially interviewed as part of NPSAS:16.

    Dated: October 17, 2016.
Tomakie Washington,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Office of 
the Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2016-25427 Filed 10-19-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P