Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) Burden Research Study

MAKING RESEARCH RELEVANT

Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)

Burden Research Study

Appendix B

Recruitment Screener Questionnaire and

Interview Protocol

OMB #1850-0803 v. 281

Submitted by

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education

November 2020

Contents

Page

B.1 CRDC Online Burden Research Recruitment Screener Questionnaire 2

B.2 CRDC Burden Research Interview Protocol 6

B.1 CRDC Online Burden Research Recruitment Screener Questionnaire

Thank you for volunteering to fill out this short questionnaire!

The following questions will ask you about your experience reporting to the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for your district and whether or not you would be willing to participate in a follow-up interview.

It will take no more than 5 minutes to complete this questionnaire. Your responses are voluntary and there is no penalty for not responding, but your answers will help improve the burden estimates for the CRDC.

Click next to begin.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this voluntary information collection is 1850-0803. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 5 minutes. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate, suggestions for improving this collection, or any comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of this form, please write to: Stephanie Miller, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, 550 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20202.

This is a project of the Nation Center for Education Statistics, within the U.S. Department of Education.

Your participation is voluntary and all of the information you provide may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law (20 U.S.C. §9573 and 6 U.S.C. §151).

OMB No. 1850-0803 Approval Expires 06/30/2022

1. Were you the principal person at {UserData:DISTRICT} tasked with completing the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)?

• Yes [skip to number 3]

• No [continue to number 2]

2. You indicated you were not the principal person at {UserData:DISTRICT} tasked with complete the CRDC. Please provide the contact information for the principal contact.

Name: __________________

Phone: _________________

E-mail: _________________

Position: ________________

3. [only shown if number 1 == YES] How many years/months have you been the principal person responsible for reporting your district's data for the Civil Rights Data Collection?

Years: _____

Months: _____

4. Did your State Education Agency (SEA) assist with your district's submission for the Civil Rights Data Collection?

• Yes, with all of it.

• Yes, with some of it.

• No, not at all.

5. Did a vendor assist with your district's submission for the Civil Rights Data Collection?

• Yes, with all of it.

• Yes, with some of it.

• No, not at all.

6. Which reporting format did you use for your 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection submission?

• Manually entered all data into the online submission tool

• Uploaded a flat file

• Used both manual entry and flat file upload

• Some other format

7. Which modules did you find most burdensome? Please select all that apply.

LEA Form

• Students, Schools, & Programs (SSPR)

• Civil Right Coordinator/Desegregation Plan (CRCO)

• Harassment & Bullying (HIBD)

• Distance Education (DSED)

• High School Equivalency Exam (HSEE)

School Form

• School Characteristics (SCHR)

• Preschool (PSCH)

• Enrollment (ENRL)

• Program Enrollment (Gifted & Talented, Dual Enrollment, Credit Recovery) (PENR)

• Courses & Classes (COUR)

• Advanced Placement (AP) & International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) Enrollment (APIB)

• SAT/ACT & Advanced Placement (AP) Exams (EXAM)

• School & School Support Staff (STAF)

• School Security Staff (SECR)

• Retention (RETN)

• Single-Sex Interscholastic Athletics (ATHL)

• Student Discipline (Suspension, Expulsion, Corporal Punishment) (DISC)

• Student Discipline (Referrals to Law Enforcement & School-Related Arrests) (ARRS)

• Offenses (OFFN)

• Harassment or Bullying (HIBS)

• Restraint & Seclusion (RSTR)

• School Expenditures (Personnel and Non-Personnel) (EXPD)

• Justice Facilities (JUST)

• Internet Access & Devices (INET)

8. Reporting burden for the Civil Rights Data Collection is currently estimated to average 13.9 hours to respond to the School Form, and 2.9 hours to respond to the LEA Form.
   
   Please estimate the amount of time, in hours, that it took your district to complete the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection. You may provide one overall estimate or estimates for each form type (LEA and School), whichever is easier for you.
   
   Please indicate which estimate you want to provide:

• Overall [continue to number 9]

• By Form [skip to number 10]

9. Please estimate the amount of time in hours, overall, that it took your district to respond to the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection.
   
   Include preparation time, data gathering time, system reporting/upload time, and validation/error review time in your estimate.

OVERALL HOURS: _________

10. For each form, please estimate the amount of time in hours that it took your district to respond to the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection.
    
    Include preparation time, data gathering time, system reporting/upload time, and validation/error review time in your estimate.

LEA Form HOURS: _________

School Form HOURS: _________

11. We will be conducting 1-hour follow-up interviews in November and December to learn more about burden in responding to the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection. Your participation in the 1-hour interview is voluntary and there is no penalty for not participating.
    
    Would you be willing to participate in an interview about the burden you experienced during the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection?

• Yes

• No

Page after submission:

Thank you for completing this questionnaire about your 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection burden!

B.2 CRDC Burden Research Interview Protocol

Name(s)/Title(s):

School/District:

Email:

Phone:

Introductory text:

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. My name is__________, and my colleague, ___________, we are members of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) project team conducting interviews to evaluate the burden of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) survey on LEAs. For the purposes of this project, burden is defined as the time it takes LEAs to respond to and complete the CRDC survey. AIR, a research firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., has been contracted by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to learn about your experiences completing the 2017-18 CRDC survey. Your participation is voluntary and all of the information you provide may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law (20 U.S.C. §9573 and 6 U.S.C. §151). This interview script has been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, and the OMB Number is 1850-0803, and OMB approval expires 06/30/2022.

We recognize that every LEA has different experiences with the CRDC, and we want to stress that there are no right or wrong answers. The goal is to provide OCR and NCES with accurate information on the amount of time and effort it takes for all aspects of data gathering processing and reporting for the CRDC. This will allow us to make good recommendations regarding the burden caused by the CRDC. We need to hear your thoughtful and honest feedback!

The interview should take no more than 60 minutes. I will be asking the questions, and _______________ will be taking notes. As part of the interview we would like to share screens with you, so I would like to check – are you in front of a screen? [walk participant through joining GoToMeeting, if they haven’t already, and sharing their screen]

We would like to record our conversation to make sure that we catch all the important information that you will share with us. The recording will serve as our back up to the notes that _______________ will take today. OCR and NCES will have access to the recording. Is it okay for me to record you?

[Once recording starts] Now that we are recording, could you answer these 2 questions: Do you consent to be part of this study? Is it okay for us to record our session today?

Please let us know at any time if you would like to take a break or stop the interview. Additionally, we would like you to know that there are no risks associated with this study. Do you have any questions before we get started?

Background Information:

Before we begin, we’d like to get some background information about your role(s) at your [LEA/district].

• How would you describe your overall role(s) within the [LEA/district]?

• How long have you been in this role?

• What are your day-to-day activities?

• To what extent do you collaborate with other departments and offices in your role?

• How would you describe your responsibilities with respect to the CRDC?

• Did you complete any special training or certification for CRDC data collection and entry?

  • If yes, How long was the training?

• How long have you been involved with CRDC? CRDC collections_____ Years_____

Reporting Time and Burden:

Great, thank you for providing that context. Now that we better understand your background, I’d like to spend the remainder of our time discussing how much time it takes your LEA to gather, process, and report data for the CRDC. For this part of the conversation, please think back to your experiences completing the 2017-18 CRDC survey for your schools and district. The survey deadline was June 21, 2019.

Preparation & Training

Let’s begin with preparation and training.

1. How early in advance of the CRDC submission deadline did you begin to prepare?

   1. What processes or tasks are you including when you think about preparing for the CRDC?

2. Do you review the CRDC preparation resources on the Grads360 site prior to every CRDC submission?

   1. If yes, how many hours/minutes would you estimate you spend reviewing these resources? Hours_____ Minutes_____

   2. Do you have any specific items you review?

3. How do you prepare your data submission when new or revised questions have been added?

   1. How many hours/minutes would you estimate you spend revising your data to accommodate new or revised items? Hours_____ Minutes_____

4. Does the state or district offer or require any training or certification for the CRDC data collection and entry?

   1. If yes, how long did completion of the training/certification take? Hours_____ Minutes_____

   2. How frequently are you required to complete the training/certification?

   3. Who attends this training?

5. Were any required CRDC data also collected for the following reporting purposes:

1. State required reporting?

2. Internal district reporting?

3. Other required reporting?

Gathering Data

We now have a few questions on how your district/LEA gathers the data required for the CRDC.

6. Does your district/LEA use a database, Student Information System (SIS), or other record keeping system?

   1. If yes, Does your district/LEA only use this database/SIS/record keeping system for CRDC purposes only or is it used to fulfill other requirements?

   2. If yes, How much time does it take to prepare a CRDC file(s) to download? Hours_____ Minutes_____

   3. If yes, Does the database or record keeping system you use have pre-formatted CRDC reports?

   4. If no, How does your district track the information required to report in the CRDC?

7. On average, how long did it take to locate, gather, and compile internally sourced data for each module? Internally sourced means the data is housed in a database or file system maintained by the district/LEA. Hours_____ Minutes_____

   1. For a typical module, what percentage of collected data is located, gathered, and compiled from internally sourced resources, datasets and/or databases? Data %_____

   2. Are you assisted by other staff members when collecting this information?

      1. How many staff?

      2. Are these staff in another department or school?

   3. How would you describe the process of searching for, locating, gathering, and compiling required data?

8. Do you include the burden teachers and/or administrators experience throughout the year to provide the information in your reports/database?

   1. Why or why not?

9. Are any of the data required for the CRDC externally sourced, meaning located, gathered, and compiled from datasets, databases, and resources produced by any organization outside of your school district or state department of education?

   1. If yes, on average, how long did it take to locate, gather, and compile externally sourced data for each module? Hours_____ Minutes_____

   2. For a typical module, what percentage of collected data is located, gathered, and compiled from externally sourced resources, datasets and/or databases? Data %_____

   3. Are you assisted by other staff members or external personnel? How many?

   4. How would you describe the process of searching for, locating, gathering, and compiling required data from external sources?

10. How long would you estimate it takes you and/or assisting staff to gather the data required to submit for the Courses & Classes module? Hours_____ Minutes_____

    1. If additional explanation is needed to remind the R of the modules: Modules are groups of tables about the same topic area; there are 19 modules at the school level (School Characteristics, Courses and Classes, Retention, Justice Facilities, Harassment & Bullying, etc.) and 5 modules at the district level (Students, Schools, & Programs, Civil Rights Coordinator/Desegregation Plan, Distance Education, etc.).

    2. Would you say this is an easy of difficult module to gather data for?

    3. If easy, please explain why you feel this module is easy to report on.

    4. If difficult, please explain why you feel this module is difficult.

       1. Are there any additional recourses that would help you gather the information more efficiently?

11. How long would you estimate it takes you and/or assisting staff to gather the data required to submit for the Harassment or Bullying module? Hours_____ Minutes_____

    1. Would you say this is an easy of difficult module to gather data for?

    2. If easy, please explain why you feel this module is easy to report on.

    3. If difficult, please explain why you feel this module is difficult.

       1. Are there any additional recourses that would help you gather the information more efficiently?

Reporting Data

Great, let’s shift to the burden of data entry and submission.

12. Does the state enter any data on behalf of the LEA?

    1. If so, what data does the state enter?

    2. What percentage of the LEA-required data is entered by the state on the LEA’s behalf? Data %_____

    3. Does the state enter this data manually through the online submission tool, use an Excel template, or use a flat file to submit your data?

13. If applicable, how long did it take to enter LEA data into the CRDC Submission Tool? Hours_____ Minutes_____

    1. Do you enter the data manually through the online submission tool, use an Excel template, or use a flat file to submit your data?

14. If applicable, how long did it take to enter school data into the CRDC Submission Tool? Hours_____ Minutes_____

    1. Do you enter the data manually through the online submission tool, use an Excel template, or use a flat file to submit your data?

15. On a scale from 1 to 5—with 1 being very poor and 5 being very good—how would you rate your ability to manage large datasets?

Validating Data

Okay, now we have a few questions about your school’s/district’s approach to data validation.

16. How long does it take you to review, correct, and explain errors flag by CRDC validation checks? Hours_____ Minutes_____

17. On average, how many error messages do you receive at the:

    1. Question level: _______

    2. Module level: ________

    3. System level: ________

18. How burdensome are the error flags?

    1. What do you think is the primary cause for this burden?

Closing Questions

Thank you so much. We have a few final questions.

19. Have there been any changes in your CRDC reporting processes since you submitted data for 2017–18?

    1. If yes, what were the changes?

20. What would ease future CRDC burden (e.g. more time, yearly trainings, established data sources)?

Additional Questions (as time allows)

• Which module(s) were most burdensome to gather data for and report?

  • How long would you estimate it took to complete data collection and reporting for this module? Hours_____ Minutes_____

• Which module(s) were least burdensome to gather data for and report?

  • How long would you estimate it took to complete data collection and reporting for this module? Hours_____ Minutes_____

• Were there any unique challenges you came across in completing the CRDC that increased burden?

• Did your school/district utilize the CRDC Resource Center to assist with CRDC completion?