ED Response to OMB Qs

Strategies for Native American Parent Involvement Focus Groups

(1850-NEW)

Responses to OMB's Comments

Prepared by REL Central

April 30, 2007

1. Please explain why you choose to recruit Native American parents through the school, rather than some other means.  It seems that this will most likely lead to soliciting feedback from those parents who are already very involved in their child's school.

The “list of potential participants” which we will obtain from the principal of each school will include all parents of Native American students in that school. Parent names will be assigned to numbers and names will be selected randomly by number. The randomly selected sample should therefore represent a full range of parent involvement, from unengaged to very involved, among these parents.

2. As indicated in the supporting statement, you are hoping to garner input from focus group participants with varying level of engagements.  How will you determine a participant's current level of engagement?

As long as we are able to maintain a sample representative of parent engagement level, we will not need to determine individual parents’ levels of engagement. Determining the level in advance would necessitate masking that level from the focus group leader to avoid introducing unwanted bias. A more difficult task is successfully encouraging the majority of parents contacted to participate. Our goal is an 80% acceptance rate for parents contacted to participate in the study. We will ask refusals to rate themselves on a simple engagement rating scale. The recruiter will not identify the parent on the rating form. We will then ask focus group participants to rate themselves using the same scale, with all replies remaining anonymous. For each school/focus group we will compare the distribution of engagement among participants to the degree of engagement among refusals. If the distributions vary, this will be included in the findings and the potential introduction of bias will be discussed.

3. Please explain the following statement (from p. 8 of the supporting statement): "We anticipate that there will be no burden on the public due to recruitment efforts."  Don't you have to conduct some sort of screening to make sure that potential parents are indeed the right target population? 

We do need to contact the selected parents in order to recruit them for the study. While we do not intend to screen them (see above) we will require approximately 20 minutes of their time so that we can explain the study and the focus group. At an anticipated 80% agreement rate, we would need to contact at least 12.5 parents in order to recruit 10; therefore, to recruit a sufficient number of participants for four focus groups, we would need to contact a total of 50 parents. We have increased this estimate to 15 parents for purposes of estimating burden. The Estimated Respondent Burden and cost tables would then read

Estimated Respondent Burden

Data collection activity	Number of respondents per data collection	Number of data collections	Time per data collection	Total hour burden
School Participation	3	4	20 min	4.0
Recruiting Parents	15	4	20 min	20.0
Parents’ focus group	10	4	1.5 hours	60

To estimate hourly wages for parents, we used the average salary for residents of South Dakota as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). To estimate the hourly wage for principals (school participation), we used the BLS May 2005 estimate for principals.

Estimate of cost burden to respondents

Data collection activity	Number of respondents per data collection	Number of data collections	Time per data collection	Hourly Wage (BLS)	Cost for participants
School participation	3	4	20 min	$33.38	$133.52
Recruiting Parents	15	4	20 min	$14.18	$283.60
Parents’ focus group	10	4	1.5 hours	$14.18	$850.80

4. Also, do you intend to call or write principals and/ or the parents themselves prior to conducting the focus groups?  If so, the call script or letter should be submitted as part of this package and the time spent should be included in the burden analysis.

We intend to contact principals or school contacts to obtain school participation and request the list of Native American parents. Contacts will also be made with the random sample of parents in order to enlist their participation in the study. Scripts for both types of contacts are included in Attachments 1 and 2. The estimate of burden for schools has been added to the tables above.

5. Will you try to draw participants from the same tribe/nation affiliation?

Our focus is on the Native American parents of schools in North and South Dakota with a high percent of Native American students. Given the random selection of parents from within the school the tribe/nation representation of the parents from each school will be represented among the participants.

Native American Parent Involvement Study

Attachment 1:
Protocol for Contacting Parent for Participation

Parent name (s)_________________________________________________________________

School: _______________________________________________________________________

Principal’s Name _______________________________________________________________

Phone Number _________________or location _______________________________________

Time and date of contact: _________________________________________________________

Contactor: _____________________________________________________________________

Introduction

Hello, my name is _______. I am a Native American from the ______ tribe. I am calling to tell you about a study of Native American parent’s involvement in school that I feel is very important and that I’d like you to participate in. May I tell you more about it? (If no, thank them and end the contact.)

If Yes: We believe little is known about why Native parents do or do not participate in their children’s schools. We want to learn from parents like you—both those who are active in the school (or their children’s education) and those who are not. To do so we would like to bring parents together to learn from them how they think about being involved in the school or with their child. As a Native American woman I will be talking with the parents who come together. We will talk for about an hour and we will not talk about anything that would embarrass you or in any way make you feel uncomfortable. I would pick you up for the talking along with any children or elderly you care for and take you to (arranged site). There will be a babysitter for your children and snacks will be provided for you and the others you bring.

Do you have questions about what I have told you so far? ______________________________

(Whether or not there are questions, explain that the study has been approved by a Human Subjects Review Board and by the government (read them the Paperwork Burden Statement if they ask about government approval). Also indicate that they will be asked to sign a paper that indicates they are willing to have the session tape recorded. But names will not be used in any of the materials that result from the study.)

Would you be willing to participate if the arrangements are acceptable?

If Yes – What days of the week and what times of day are best for you? What times would not work? I will contact you again about arrangements in the next few days.

If No – Are there any conditions that would help you decide to participate?

(If so, consider if they can be met and so indicate – this may surface problems with logistics that can be fixed.)

Attachment 2:

Protocol for Contacting Principal

for Participation of School

School: _______________________________________________________________________

Principal’s Name _______________________________________________________________

Phone Number _________________________________________________________________

Time and date of call: ___________________________________________________________

Caller: _______________________________________________________________________

Introduction

Hello, my name is _______. I am a staff member from the Regional Educational Laboratory that serves this region. I am also a Native American from the ______ tribe. I am calling to tell you about a study of Native American parent’s involvement in school that I feel is very important and that I’d like your school’s Native parents to participate in. May I tell you more about it? (If no, thank them and end the call.)

If Yes: We believe little is known about why Native parents do or do not participate in their children’s schools. We are proposing to gather a group of Native parents from your school to learn from them how they think about participation. We would like to have both parents who are actively engaged in the school and those who are not in the group. The group facilitator will be a Native American educator. The session will be non-threatening and culturally appropriate. We want to learn from parents how they think about being engaged in their child’s school or their child’s education and what forms engagement takes for them. We are also interested in what barriers they see to being engaged and what would remove the barriers. The session should last about an hour. It will be held at (designated site) and the school will not need to provide anything other than a list of parent names.

Do you have questions about what I have told you so far? ______________________________

(Whether or not there are questions, tell them that the study has been approved by a Human Subjects Review Board and by the government (read them the Paperwork Burden Statement if they ask about government approval). The participating parents will be carefully told about the study and what it entails and will be asked to sign a consent form).

Would you like me to read to you the primary questions to be used in the focus group? (If so, read the attached list of questions.)

Would you like me to fax you a copy of the Group questions and the consent form? (If so, ask for the fax number to use.)

We will be holding four groups and will then prepare a report of what has been learned. We will be glad to send you a copy of the report. In it no school or parent will be identified by name. We will also send you a report just from your school if you would like, again with no parents names included.

We would like your consent for your school’s Native parents to be asked if they would participate. All we would need from you is a list of parent names and contact information. Do you have additional questions?

Would you be willing to have your school’s parents participate?

Response: ____Yes (If yes, arrange for receiving list of parents.)

____No

Paperwork Burden Statement

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1850-xxxx. The time required to provide the requested information is estimated to average a maximum of 1.5 hours including the time to get instructions, sign consent forms, and respond to the group facilitator’s questions. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202-4700. If you have comments or concerns regarding this group session, write directly to: Sandra Garcia, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Room 506C, Washington, D.C. 20208-4651.

Areas of Questions for Groups

Lead 1: Have you heard the term parent involvement? What comes to mind when you hear people talk about parent involvement?

Lead 2: How do you think schools want parents to be involved in their children’s education?

Lead 3: Why do you think schools want parents to get involved in their children’s education?

Lead 4: There are many ways in which parents and families participate and become involved in their children’s education. Which of your family members is involved in your children’s education?

Lead 5: What things do you do to support your children’s education?

Lead 6: How do your children feel about your involvement in their education?

Lead 7: Do you think that your involvement/participation in your children’s education helps them do better in school? If so, why?

Lead 8: Have you ever encountered any difficulties or obstacles to getting involved in your children’s education?

Lead 9: Schools sometimes try to get parents to participate in their children’s education. What strategies have schools used that have helped you, as Native American parents, get involved your children’s education?

Lead 10: Do you have any suggestions for schools or districts that would help you get more involved in your children’s education?

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