This study will examine the
implementation of Ramp-Up to Readiness, a schoolwide guidance
intervention aimed at increasing the college readiness of students.
The intervention is at present being implemented in 34 high schools
in Minnesota, and the developers intend to make the intervention
available to a much larger set of Minnesota schools. No
independently gathered high-quality evidence exists, however, on
whether schools are able to implement this comprehensive
intervention as intended or how its core components compare to the
college-readiness supports in other high schools. The project for
which OMB clearance is requested will attempt to gather such
evidence from 22 public Minnesota high schools through the least
burdensome means. The school-level implementation study will focus
on assessing whether Ramp-Up school staff implement the program as
intended, on identifying the extent to which the Ramp-Up program
differs from the college-readiness supports offered in schools
without Ramp-Up, and on the validity of a measure of personal
college readiness, which the developers hypothesize is a key
mechanism through which the program impacts later outcomes. The
study will collect data from school staff in the following
activities: administrative data collection, focus groups in January
and June, extant document collection, instructional logs, student
and staff surveys, and student personal readiness assessment. The
findings produced through analysis of these data will help (1)
state education agencies seeking strategies and programs to endorse
as a potential means of improving students college readiness and
college enrollment, (2) local education agencies that are
considering the challenges of implementing Ramp-Up, (3) the
developer of this intervention (the College Readiness Consortium at
the University of Minnesota) and developers of other college
readiness interventions who continually seek to improve their
programs by using information from studies like this, and (4) a
group of education stakeholders in the Midwest interested in
considering whether to conduct a study of the impacts of the
Ramp-Up internvetion on student outcomes.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.