APR Change Justification

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT

CHANGE WORKSHEET

Agency/Subagency       US Department of Education		OMB Control Number 1840-0640 Exp.  11/03-2010
Enter only items that change Current Record New Record
Agency form number(s)	N/A     	N/A
Annual reporting and record keeping hour burden
Number of respondents	178	183
Total annual responses	178	183
Percent of these responses collected electronically	100%	100%
Total annual hours	890	915
Difference		+25
Explanation of difference Program Change		0
Adjustment		+25
Annual reporting and record keeping cost burden (in thousands of dollars)
Total annualized capital/startup costs	0	0
Total annual costs (O&M)	0	0
Total annualized cost requested	0	0
Difference		0
Explanation of difference Program Change		0
Adjustment		0
Other change**The Federal TRIO Programs proposes to modify the participant record structure of the currently approved annual performance report for the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program (OMB # 1840-0640). The currently approved form was last used to collect data for the 2006-07 program year. There were several instances in which grantees incorrectly reported the status of participants in terms of their persistence in their educational programs. This misreporting of data produced inaccuracies in other data fields thus making the final aggregation of data faulty. The requested changes to the currently approved participant record structure will allow for the more precise aggregation of the student data collected each year by individual projects. The modifications will also help to clarify ambiguities regarding exactly where individual students are in their educational progression. Specifically, we propose the modification of field 21 Highest Degree Earned to further exhaust and clarify the degree attainment of the students at the end of the reporting year; and field 26 Research to distinguish those project participants involved in research from those who completed research for a specific year. There is a note added to Section III: Prior Experience to instruct respondents whose 2007-08 budget year is part of a grant/project period that began prior to 2007 to complete this section. All other projects submitted this information during the previous collection. These modest modifications to the participant record structure will allow for more precise tracking of the students’ progression through the educational pipeline until their attainment of the doctorate degree while considering the impact of federal dollars. There will be no additional data collection burden imposed on grantees since the information is already readily available as part of their current data collection activity. However, the total burden hours are increased by 25 hours to account for the additional 5 projects funded.
Signature of Senior Officer or designee:      	Date:      	For OIRA Use            

**This form cannot be used to extend an expiration date

OMB 83-C