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 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.
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.