Part A ECLSK-2023 Preschool Field Test

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) program, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), draws together information from multiple sources to provide rich, descriptive data on child development, early learning, and school progress. The ECLS program studies deliver national data on children’s status at birth and at various points thereafter; children’s transitions to nonparental care, early care and education programs, and school; and children’s experiences and growth through the elementary grades. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023) is the fourth cohort in the series of early childhood longitudinal studies that began with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) and continued with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011).¹

The ECLS-K:2023 is exceptionally broad in its scope and coverage. The study will advance research in child development and early learning by providing a detailed and comprehensive source of current information on children’s early learning and development, transitions into kindergarten and beyond, and progress through school. Data will be collected relevant to emerging policy-related domains and areas not fully measured in previous ECLS program studies, as well as to allow for comparisons to two other nationally representative kindergarten cohorts (i.e., the ECLS-K and ECLS-K:2011) that experienced different policy, educational, demographic, and economic environments than children are expected to experience in the years of the ECLS-K:2023.

The ECLS-K:2023 will provide data about the population of children who will be kindergartners in the 2022-23 school year. In addition, the ECLS-K:2023 will go beyond its predecessor kindergarten cohort studies by adding a round of data collection in the spring prior to children’s kindergarten year, known as the “preschool round.”² Collecting parent data beginning in preschool will enable the study to measure influences on children’s development before entry into formal schooling, including children’s home environments and access to early care and education.

The ECLS-K:2023 will focus on children’s early school experiences continuing through the fifth grade. It is designed to provide data that can be used to analyze the relationships between a wide range of family, school, community, and individual variables and children’s development, early learning, and performance in school. The study includes collection of data from parents, teachers, and school administrators, as well as direct child assessments. In later rounds, child questionnaires will also be collected. While all of these components will be included in the study, the ECLS-K:2023 is designed such that the child will be the unit of analysis; the study will also be representative at the school level at the kindergarten year. NCES contracted Westat to carry out the ECLS-K:2023 national data collections for the preschool through third-grade rounds, with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) as the subcontractor developing the child assessments.

In preparation for the ECLS-K:2023 study, focus groups with parents of preschool children were conducted between March and May of 2019 (OMB# 1850-0803 v.246 & 249). A request to conduct usability testing of the preschool instruments will be submitted to OMB in August 2019 (under OMB # 1850-0803).

This request is to conduct a field test of the ECLS-K:2023 preschool data collection activities to test the design of the main study’s preschool data collection in the spring 2022, during which households in selected primary sampling units (PSUs) will be geocoded and a sample of them will be screened for the presence of a child who will be in kindergarten³ the following fall. Households with such children will be administered a parent survey, with data collected from the child’s parent or guardian. The children who are the target of the preschool parent survey will then be added to the cohort of 2022-23 kindergartners if they attend kindergarten in the fall 2022 as expected. The preschool data collection procedures will be field tested from January through October 2020.⁴

A.1.2 Legislative Authorization

The ECLS-K:2023 is authorized by law under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S. Code Section 9543): “The Statistics Center shall collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistical data related to education in the United States and in other nations, including — (7) conducting longitudinal and special data collections necessary to report on the condition and progress of education.”

A.1.3 Prior Related Studies

The ECLS-K:2023 is part of a longitudinal studies program. The prior ECLS program studies collected data on three cohorts—the kindergarten classes of 1998-99 and 2010-11 cohorts and a birth cohort. Together these cohorts provide the range and breadth of data required to more fully describe and understand children’s education experiences, early learning, development, and health in the late 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.

The ECLS-B, the birth cohort of the ECLS program, followed a national sample of children born in the year 2001, from birth through kindergarten entry. The ECLS-B focused on the characteristics of children and their families that influence children’s school readiness and first experiences with formal schooling, as well as children’s early health and in- and out-of-home experiences.

The ECLS kindergarten cohort studies followed nationally representative cohorts of children from kindergarten through eighth grade (1998-99 cohort, i.e., the ECLS-K) and fifth grade (2010-11 cohort, i.e., the ECLS-K:2011). For the ECLS-K, the base-year data were collected in the fall and spring of the 1998-99 school year, when the sampled children were in kindergarten. A total of 21,260 kindergartners throughout the nation participated by having a child assessment and/or parent interview conducted during that school year. Five more waves of data were collected: in fall and spring of the 1999-2000 school year when most, but not all, of the children who participated in the base year were in first grade; in the spring of the 2001-02 school year when most were in third grade; in the spring of the 2003-04 school year when most were in fifth grade; and in the spring of the 2006-07 school year when most were in eighth grade.

For the ECLS-K:2011, the base-year data were collected in the fall and spring of the 2010-11 school year, when the sampled children were in kindergarten. Approximately 18,200 kindergartners throughout the nation participated by having a child assessment and/or parent interview conducted during that school year. Seven more waves of data were collected: in fall and spring of the 2011-12 school year when most, but not all, of the children who participated in the base year were in first grade; in the fall and spring of the 2012-13 school year when most were in second grade; in the spring of the 2013-14 school year when most were in third grade; in the spring of the 2014-2015 school year when most were in the fourth grade; and in the spring of the 2015-16 school year when most were in fifth grade.

A.1.4 ECLS-K:2023 Study Design for the Preschool Data Collection

The ECLS‑K:2023 expands on the previous ECLS kindergarten cohort studies by including a preschool data collection round in the spring of 2022. Households will be sampled nationally to find families with preschool-age children who plan to attend kindergarten in the 2022-23 school year. These children will then be included in the national kindergarten sample in the fall of 2022 if they matriculate into kindergarten as expected.

The target population for the preschool round in spring 2022 is all children expected to be in kindergarten the next fall. Because the study seeks information on children’s experiences prior to kindergarten, using intent to attend kindergarten in the next year to define eligibility includes children who are cared for at home, those who are in child care, and those who are in preschool/early learning programs.

Given that children are not clustered in schools in the year before kindergarten and many do not attend any formal educational program in that year, a household component is essential to provide adequate coverage of the target population (i.e., children who will attend kindergarten in the next school year). Following the sampling strategy used successfully by the National Household Education Survey (NHES), an address-based sample (ABS) design will be used. Sampling households allows virtually complete coverage of children that could not be obtained by sampling any other sampling frame. The sample of households will be clustered by geography so that many of the sampled children are likely to attend a kindergarten school sampled for the ECLS-K:2023 during the 2022-23 school year.

For the preschool data collection, a parent survey will be fielded. An invitation to complete a web screener will be sent to households to identify those who have children in the target population. The screener will determine whether or not an eligible child resides at the address. If more than one eligible child is within the household, then one of these eligible children will be selected as the target for the preschool parent survey. Parents⁵ in households with eligible children will then be asked to complete an online survey about the eligible/selected child, their home environment, and the family structure. If a parent of the eligible/selected preschool child does not respond to the invitation to complete the screener or web survey, a series of reminders will be sent, and ultimately a paper screener or questionnaire will be mailed to the address to attempt obtain the data. For the preschool data collection, the only fielded instrument is the screener/parent survey, e.g., no child assessment will be conducted.

Households selected for participation will be invited to have an adult respondent go to the MyECLS website to complete the web screener. The MyECLS website is the survey portal for respondent activities, including the household screener, parent survey, and future ECLS-K:2023 data collection activities. The participant will answer one screener question to determine if he or she is eligible to complete the full screener. This one screener question determines whether there any children age 10 or younger living in the household. If the participant is deemed eligible based on the one screener question, he or she will be invited to complete the rest of the screener to determine full eligibility for the study. Upon completion of the full screener, eligible participants will have the opportunity to continue on to complete the 30-minute parent survey. In the field test only, a subset of participants who are not eligible for the parent survey but do have children age 10 and younger in the household who are enrolled in third grade or a lower grade will be asked a few additional questions about where their children attended kindergarten to inform study design assumptions on the location of schools educating children within selected school catchment areas.

The ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test, to be conducted from January through October 2020, is in part designed to determine how to define respondent eligibility in a screener so as to identify all children in a household who are expected to attend kindergarten in the fall of the following school year (the preschool field test eligibility criteria are detailed in the Household Screener subsection below and in section B.1.1.3 of the Supporting Statement Part B. The field test will evaluate the effectiveness of the sampling strategy in identifying households with preschool-aged children, and will also test the preschool round data collection procedures. To evaluate the assumptions of the study design, for the field test only, a follow-up parent survey will additionally be administered in fall 2020 to determine if the sampled children did indeed begin kindergarten as expected and which kindergarten they attended.

The data collection instruments described below appear in full in Attachments B1 & B2 and will be field tested in spring and fall 2020. The resulting data will be analyzed and the instruments will be revised as needed before the national preschool data collection in the spring of 2022. The one exception is the fall follow-up parent survey, which, as mentioned, will only be fielded in the field test in order to test assumptions about the accuracy of parents’ reports of their children’s intended kindergarten attendance.

Household Screener. An invitation to complete a web screener will be delivered to addresses in a sampled area. Because the vast majority of households will not have eligible children, an initial screener question will ask about the presence of children under 10 in the household. If the response is affirmative, the respondent will continue on to the remaining screener questions. For those who respond no, a thank you message will appear and they will exit out of the screener. Having this initial eligibility question will save the vast majority of respondents from needlessly completing the remainder of the screener.

The full set of screener items is expected to take about 2 to 5 minutes to complete, depending on how many children age 10 or younger are in the household. The screener contains questions about the children age 10 and under in the household. Eligibility for the main national study will be determined based on whether the household has a child that is expected to be in kindergarten or a kindergarten equivalent the following fall. To allow for respondent reporting errors, if screener responses do not indicate other children in the household as eligible, in the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test, respondents who report children in the household who are three or four years old and who are expected to attend first grade or a higher grade in the fall of 2020 will be asked to complete the parent survey. These children will be included in the preschool field test because the parent-reported predicted fall grade level is likely an error, and the child may instead enter kindergarten in the fall.

While most respondents are expected to complete the survey by web, a paper screener will be mailed to web nonrespondents as well as those who request one from the ECLS help desk. Screeners will be available in both English and Spanish.

Parent Survey. A parent survey will be administered to one parent/guardian of one eligible child per household in the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test. The surveys are expected to take about 30 minutes to complete and will be available in both English and Spanish. They will be web surveys accessible on multiple electronic devices. Paper surveys will also be available. Many of the constructs included in the survey are the same or similar to those used in the previous ECLS program parent interviews, including family structure, child care arrangements, literacy and mathematics skills, children’s media usage, and the child’s health and well-being. New questions include those on children’s adaptive language, home learning activities in mathematics, parent-child conversations, the level of chaos in the home environment, and questions about using software or a device to limit children’s screen time and Internet access.

Parent Follow-Up. While the main preschool field test collection will occur in spring 2020, a brief parent follow-up survey will be administered in fall 2020 to parents who complete the parent survey in spring 2020. Depending on the mode used by respondents to complete the spring parent survey (web or paper) and if a valid email address is provided and/or permission to send text messages is granted, we will use two different methods to contact respondents for the fall follow-up. However, everyone who does not respond to requests to complete the follow-up instrument will receive multiple paper follow-up surveys. This survey, which will be available in English and Spanish, will ask the parent/guardian to confirm if the selected child attended kindergarten and whether they attended the school that was reported by the household on the screener in spring 2020.

A robust respondent recruitment campaign will be implemented to increase response rates of the household screener and parent survey during both the field test and national main study. Methods of follow-up communication will include reminder post cards, letters, emails, and text messages to encourage participation. In addition, as noted earlier, a paper option will be available for respondents who do not wish to complete the web survey. This paper survey will also be sent to nonresponders of the web survey in order to encourage participation.

In addition to this document, this submission includes:

Supporting Statements Parts B and C, which provide additional details on the sample strategy, survey instruments, and data collection procedures for the field test preschool data collection.
Attachment A provides respondent communication materials.
Attachment B provides the preschool field test survey instruments (Attachment B1 provides the web versions and Attachment B2 the hard copy versions of the instruments).
Attachment C provides text and screenshots from the MyECLS website, along with descriptions of each webpage functionality.
Attachment D provides a listing of every question item that will be asked of ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test respondents, along with the item wording, its section and number, the construct the item measures, and the specific research question in Part C of this OMB submission for which the item is intended to provide information.

A.2 Purpose and Uses of the Data

The ECLS-K:2023 study will provide rich data that are designed to serve two purposes: descriptive and explanatory. The study will provide descriptive data related to: (1) children’s status prior to and at entry into kindergarten and at different points in children’s elementary school careers, (2) children’s transition into school and into the later elementary grade levels, and (3) children’s school progress through the fifth grade. Additionally, the study data will enable researchers to test hypotheses about how a wide range of child, family, school, classroom, nonparental care, education provider, and community characteristics relate to experiences and success in school.

In addition to the descriptive objectives mentioned above, the data will describe the diversity of young children with respect to demographic characteristics such as race/ethnicity, language, and school readiness. Such information is critical for establishing policies sensitive to this diversity. The longitudinal nature of the study will enable researchers to study cognitive, socioemotional, and physical growth, as well as relate trajectories of growth and change to variation in home, school, and before- and after-school care setting experiences in the elementary grades. Ultimately, the ECLS-K:2023 data sets will be used by policymakers, educators, and researchers to consider the ways in which children are educated in our nation’s schools and to develop effective approaches to education. The data will be particularly valuable to policymakers, as the ECLS-K:2023 is being launched a dozen years after ECLS-K:2011 and a quarter century after the ECLS-K. Analyses of the three cohorts will provide valuable information about the influences of changing policy and demographic environments on children’s early learning and development.

The design of the ECLS-K:2023 preschool round is guided by a conceptual framework of children’s development and learning that emphasizes the interaction among various environments which children experience prior to formal school entrance and into formal schooling, and the resources within those environments to which children have access. For this reason, information on a wide array of topics will be collected during the preschool round, including the characteristics of the child, the child’s family, and the child’s early care and education environments.

The goal of the preschool field test is to test the operational procedures and assumptions for the national preschool round. The field test data will shed light on the impact of child age on parents’ ability to predict children’s kindergarten enrollment the following fall, the anticipated response rates for screener and parent survey for the national data collection, and whether the child selected as the target of the preschool parent survey is likely to attend the sampled kindergarten school associated with the catchment area from which the child has been sampled.

A.2.1 Research Issues Addressed in the ECLS-K:2023

Today’s early care and education environment differs from that of the past in numerous ways. In recent years, students’ learning environments have been affected by changes at the federal, state, school, family, and societal levels. These changes range from evolving federal education policy, increased attention and support for early learning, technological changes influencing how children learn, and demographic changes in student and family populations in the United States. The preschool and early elementary school rounds of the ECLS‑K:2023 offer an opportunity to learn more about how families and schools respond to these changes. Exhibit 1-1 shows examples of developments since the earlier ECLS program studies related to children’s learning environments that are relevant to the ECLS‑K:2023.

The widespread use of the ECLS program data is a testament to their importance. Like the other ECLS studies, the ECLS‑K:2023 will be an exceptionally valuable resource because it will collect measures of children’s cognitive growth and development in the context of the many school and family influences on children’s early lives. Collecting parent data starting in preschool enables the study to measure influences on children before kindergarten, including the home environment and children’s access to early care and education.

A.2.1.1 Developments in Early Education Policy

A major change in early education occurred when, in 2015, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA maintains some of the same ideas as the 2002 reauthorization of ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but includes more flexibility and decision-making at the state level resulting in state differences in schools’ goals, testing, interventions, and standards for academics and teacher qualifications. ESSA explicitly recognizes the importance of early learning from birth through third grade, allows Title I funds to be used for improving access and quality of preschool programs, and allows Title II funds to provide professional development to teachers to improve instruction for English learners from ages 3 and up. It also allows states to integrate early learning more fully into their state accountability and school improvement systems. In addition, ESSA includes a new Preschool Development Grant that focuses on providing more access to quality preschool education and the coordination of programs (Klein 2016).⁶ The Preschool Development Grant supports state efforts to create high quality early childhood education programs that are aligned with K-12 programs and help low- and moderate-income children have better transitions to kindergarten (First Five Years Fund 2016). ESSA also includes new federal grants for Statewide Family Engagement Centers that focus on engaging parents and the community (Ujifusa and Tully 2016).

Other changes in federal policy, such as the 2017 “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” include the repeal of the former penalty in the Affordable Care Act for not having health insurance, the ability for families to use 529 college savings accounts to pay for private K-12 education, and the increase of the maximum Child Tax Credit to $2,000 per child for some families, depending on income (Internal Revenue Service 2018; Society for Research in Child Development 2018). The ECLS‑K:2023 is an opportunity to obtain current data that may reflect these policy changes.

Exhibit A-1. Examples of developments since the earlier ECLS program studies relevant to the ECLS-K:2023

Policy changes

– Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) 2015

– Passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017

Economic challenges

– State and local budget constraints and cuts

– Continued child poverty and food insecurity

– Growth in skilled jobs and demand for schools to prepare students for workforce

Changes in early childhood education–birth to school-entry

– Increase in state-funded pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) programs

– Improvements in quality and access from turn of the century until present, but access to high-quality early childhood education varies widely across states and communities

– Quality rating and improvement systems for early child care and education

– Increased attention to the early childhood educator workforce

– Increased emphasis on enhancing early learning opportunities and outcomes

– Focus on decreasing the achievement gap through early intervention

Changes in schools and challenges to schools

– Growth in preschool use and recognition of the importance of early childhood education for closing achievement gaps

– Increased access to full-day kindergarten

– Growth in school choice and increasing number of charter schools

– Continued growth in use of technology and the Internet in schools, including increased use of mobile devices, “bring your own device” policies, online assessments, and new methods of classroom interactions

– Blended learning where in-person instruction and technology-delivered information are combined

– Differentiated instruction and personalized learning

– Training teachers to use technology effectively and to become online educators

– Growth of Hispanic, Asian, and multi-race child populations

– Growth in English language learners (ELL) in schools, especially at young ages

– Continued development of data systems to monitor student outcomes and make decisions

Child health and experiences

– Improvements in childhood lead exposure, but continued risk

– Lower rates of teen pregnancy (and associated possible implications for maternal age of kindergartners)

– Increase in infant breastfeeding

– Increase in proportion of children who received a well-child checkup, but variation by subgroups

– Continued problem of obesity and associated diabetes

– Rise in incidence of allergies, autism, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

– Increased number of homeless children and children in foster care

– Increased childhood exposure to violence

– Child disabilities related to the Zika virus

– Increased parental substance abuse

Economic data show a continued economic recovery from the deep recession that started over a decade ago. From 2015 to 2016, the poverty rate for children decreased from 19.7 to 18.0 percent (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). Compared to previous years, more parents are employed and earning higher wages, more children have health insurance, and more students are graduating from high school (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2017). In addition, the number of families living in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty declined in 2016 for the first time in 20 years (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2018). However, one in five children live in poverty, some families lack food, and there are inequalities among racial/ethnic groups in poverty levels and family structure (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2018). School funding has also not fully recovered and many schools have less funding than they had in 2008 (Ogletree and Robinson 2016). In addition, the pay gap between teachers and workers with comparable education levels has increased over time (Allegretto and Mishel 2016) and some teachers have been striking for higher wages. The ECLS‑K:2023 data could be used to examine associated issues such as current school resources and how schools are meeting the needs of students and families.

A.2.1.2 Increased Attention and Support for Early Learning

Educational policymakers and researchers continue to search for effective ways to promote school readiness. In the past decade, there has been a greater recognition of the potential for high-quality early learning experiences to help close the achievement gaps that already exist when students start kindergarten. Access to high-quality, state-funded preschool has increased across the two decades since the ECLS‑K began in 1998, but there are wide differences among states in enrollment and program quality.

Other recent changes include increased access to full-day kindergarten, a proliferation of quality rating and improvement systems across states, and increased attention to improving teacher training and professionalism in the early childhood educator workforce. In addition, a growing number of schools and districts have implemented school-wide practices and policies for socioemotional learning, an area that research suggests has long-term impacts on positive youth development and educational attainment (Taylor et al. 2017). Research from the previous ECLS study cohorts further suggests that some areas of school readiness, such as teacher-rated literacy and mathematics skills, may be improving (Bassok and Latham 2017). The ECLS‑K:2023 can provide new evidence about school readiness to evaluate changes across time.

A.2.1.3 Technology and Learning

Technological advances, improved Internet access, and the importance of technological proficiency in modern society are changing how and what students learn. Broadband Internet is now available in most classrooms, the price for technology is lower than in the past, and teachers are being trained to use technology before they begin teaching (U.S. Department of Education 2017). Teachers are using personalized learning to address individual students’ needs, help students improve skills, and have experiences such as virtual field trips and interactions with other students around the world. Many schools also use blended learning—the combination of in-person instruction and technology. A growing number of schools have a computer or tablet for each student and assess students online. However, there are inequalities in what technology resources communities have and challenges with implementation of technology (U.S. Department of Education 2017). The ECLS‑K:2023 is designed to capture current uses of technology, support for teachers for the technology in their classes, and issues with technology implementation.

A.2.1.4 Demographic Changes

The United States has been experiencing demographic shifts in its population, becoming an increasingly diverse society (Child Trends 2016; Colby and Ortman 2015). Recent analyses of decennial census data show that from 2000 to 2010, the growth in the nation’s child population was due primarily to increases in the Hispanic, Asian, and other groups who are not White, Black, or American Indian or Alaska Native (Frey 2011). The demographic shift is especially evident in the school-aged population. The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English language learners was higher in school year 2012-13 (9.2 percent, or an estimated 4.4 million students) than in 2002-03 (8.7 percent, or an estimated 4.1 million students) (U.S. Department of Education 2015). More recently, it has been reported that about a fourth of U.S. children speak a language other than English at home and live with at least one foreign-born parent (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics 2017).

English language use is not the only challenge for many of these children, particularly those born outside the United States. Many children, especially those with parents from Mexico and Central America, come from households with parents with a lower level of education, larger families, and lower family income than their native-born peers (Grieco et al. 2012; Larsen 2004). However, households with parents born in foreign countries are more likely than those with parents born in the U.S. to be headed by married couples (Grieco et al. 2012). Also, families with different cultural backgrounds and from other countries may have different normative expectations for how they should interact with schools and teachers. The ECLS-K:2023 will enable researchers to examine how schools and teachers are meeting the needs of these students and their families and to measure the effectiveness of the efforts of schools to educate all students.

A.3 Use of Improved Information Technology

A.3.1 Web-Based Survey

The ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test will use web survey data collection for household respondents and eligible parents. Parents of students in the target population are expected to be digital natives who expect an option to communicate electronically and are increasingly unlikely to spend time completing a survey on paper or with an interviewer. By offering a web survey, the ECLS-K:2023 will provide flexibility for respondents to choose when to participate using a mode that they are likely most comfortable engaging with. Finally, web surveys have usability advantages over paper forms, including that the resulting parent survey data are expected to require less quality review and editing by ECLS-K:2023 staff. Response rates ranging from 45 percent to 96 percent have been achieved on NCES studies that have been developed for or transitioned to web-based data collection, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the International Early Learning Study (IELS), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The response rates provided here for the web mode are consistently higher than the response rates for paper or interviewer modes for the same study. While it is expected that most respondents will choose to complete the web version of the instruments, paper versions of the screener, parent survey, and follow-up survey will be provided to respondents who do not respond to the web-based activities, or to those who request them.

A.3.2 Usability Testing

Prior to the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test, all web surveys underwent usability evaluations in the fall of 2019 (see OMB #1850-0803 v. 253 and v. 255) to test whether people understand the questions, whether there are points in the survey where people become confused or frustrated, what errors respondents make, how respondents correct mistakes, whether help text is used, and other potential issues. The MyECLS website and all web surveys also underwent testing to ensure 508 compliance.

A.4 Efforts to Identify Duplication

The ECLS-K:2023 will not be duplicative of previous ECLS collections. The ABS methodology for the preschool field test is new to the ECLS program, although the method has been used in other studies. For example, the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2016 (NHES:2016) used a similar mail-based screener and achieved a response rate of 66 percent (McPhee et al. 2018). The addition of an ABS for the ECLS-K:2023 preschool round allows virtually complete coverage of preschool-aged children that could not be obtained by sampling any other venue. The ECLS-K:2023 intends to build on the lessons learned from the NHES:2016 to improve response rates by offering mixed modes of web and paper surveys, as was done for an experimental group in the NHES:2016.

Other studies contain a similar parent survey or interview component as the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test’s parent survey. The aforementioned NHES program surveys, while cross-sectional, cover similar topics, including early childhood care and education, early childhood school readiness, before- and after-school care options, and parent and family involvement in education; however, these studies do not provide longitudinal data. The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), which is similar to the ECLS-K:2023 in terms of the content and respondents included, has followed several cohorts of children from preschool through early elementary school, with its newest cohort being conducted from 2019 through 2022. However, the FACES samples are limited to children served by the Head Start program. The ECLS-B, similar to previous rounds of ECLS-K, was a longitudinal study that followed a cohort of children from approximately 9 months old (2001-02) through the start of kindergarten but did not continue data collections through the elementary grades. The Middle Grades Longitudinal Study of 2017–18 (MGLS:2017) focuses on similar components and development outcome areas to the ECLS program studies, but for a cohort of middle grades students, rather than kindergartners. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which ran from 1991 through 2007, included similar study components to collect data on child development outcome areas (social, emotional, intellectual, and language development; health; and physical growth). However, the NICHD sample was recruited from hospitals shortly after the birth of the children and the study’s main focus was on early child care, including maternal care and the relationship between that care and children’s developmental outcomes. No new cohorts are currently planned for the NICHD.

A.5 Burden on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

The field test does not involve data collection work with small businesses or entities. Burden for all respondents (i.e., household screener respondents and parent survey respondents) will be minimized wherever possible; for example, the recruitment letters and materials are designed to be clear, brief, and informative.

A.6 Frequency of Data Collection

This submission describes the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test data collection, which will occur in 2020. Sampling and operational procedures will be tested to determine if the preschool data collection is feasible to include in the national ECLS-K:2023 prior to the fall 2022 kindergarten round. The preschool field test is the first data collection⁷ for the ECLS-K:2023, with subsequent data collections occurring in fall 2021 for the ECLS-K:2023 kindergarten and first-grade field test, spring 2022 for the main study preschool data collection, fall 2022 and spring 2023 for the main study kindergarten data collection, spring 2024 for the main study first-grade data collection, spring 2025 for the grades 3-5 field test, spring 2026 for the third-grade data collection, and spring 2028 for the fifth-grade data collection. Collecting ECLS-K:2023 data less frequently would impede the longitudinal analyses that are the primary goal of this study.

A.7 Special Circumstances of Data Collection

No special circumstances for this information collection are anticipated.

A.8 Consultants Outside the Agency

NCES consulted with a range of outside agencies for the ECLS program kindergarten cohort studies. Consultations for the previous studies as well as for the ECLS-K:2023 have and will continue to inform the ECLS-K:2023 study design and instrumentation. During the early development of the ECLS-K and ECLS-K:2011, project staff met with representatives from a wide range of federal agencies with an interest in the care and well-being of children (see Table A-1). The goal of these activities was to identify policy and research issues and data needs. Similarly, consultation with federal agencies occurred for the ECLS-K:2023 (see Table A-1), including, for example, with colleagues in the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Historically in the ECLS program, consultations with government agencies resulted in interagency agreements funding questions, sections of or full study instruments, and components of the child assessments (specifically, the hearing evaluations). Federal agency partners will continue to be consulted during the span of the study.

Similar to its predecessors, the ECLS-K:2023 represents a collaborative effort by education and health and human services agencies. NCES supports the development of the core design of the ECLS-K:2023. Partner agencies supporting the inclusion of the supplemental questions or sections of the study instruments that will enrich the ECLS-K:2023 by providing expert input and/or funding have included: the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED); the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); and the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIOSH), the National Eye Institute (NEI), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), all at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in DHHS. NIOSH sponsored the hearing evaluation that was conducted for the ECLS-K:2011. Table A-1 lists the federal agency consultants for the ECLS-K, ECLS-K:2011, and ECLS-K:2023 and Table A-2 lists other organization consultants for the ECLS-K:2023.

ECLS project staff have also consulted several other organizations (see Table A-2) that have an interest in the care, well-being, and education of young children. The goal of such consultations is to obtain additional perspectives on policy and research issues and data needs. While most of this consultation occurred during the design and conduct of the ECLS-K and ECLS-K:2011, there has also been such consultation during the design of the ECLS-K:2023. For example, ECLS project staff have consulted with staff involved with the Early Learning Network, a network funded by IES and located within the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families & Schools at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In preparation for the early rounds of ECLS-K:2023 data collection, Westat assembled expert panels (one Technical Review Panel (TRP) and two Content Review Panels (CRP)) to review and comment on issues related to the development of the study and survey instruments. The members of the panels included experts in research, policy making, and practice in the fields of early childhood education and development; elementary education; parenting and children’s learning; children’s language, literacy, and mathematics development in the home context; research methodology; special populations; and assessment. Additional expert panels will be assembled to provide input throughout the course of the study.

Table A-1. Federal agency consultants for ECLS-K, ECLS-K:2011, and ECLS-K:2023

Katrina Baum¹

Department of Justice

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Michael Planty, Jenna Truman

U.S. Department of Justice

Bureau of Justice Statistics

William Murphy, Christa Themann

Centers for Disease Control

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Diane Schilder¹

Government Accounting Office

Cindy Prince,¹ Emily Wurtz¹

National Education Goals Panel

Tom Bradshaw,¹ Doug Herbert,¹Sunil Iyengar, Melissa Menzer

National Endowment for the Arts

Jeffrey Thomas¹

National Endowment for the Humanities

Andy Hartman¹

National Institute for Literacy

Mary Queitzsch,¹ Larry Suter¹

National Science Foundation

Michael Ruffner,¹ Bayla White,¹

Brian Harris-Kojetin¹

Office of Management and Budget

John Endahl,¹ Joanne Guthrie, Jeff Wilde¹

Victor Oliviera,¹Mark Nord, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Matthew P. Rabbitt

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Don Hernandez¹

U.S. Department of Commerce

Bureau of the Census

Marriage and Family Statistics

Naomi Karp,¹ Dave Malouf,¹ Ivor Pritchard,¹

Marsha Silverberg¹

U.S. Department of Education

IES

Lauren Angelo, Jon Jacobson

U.S. Department of Education

IES, NCEE

Jacquelyn Buckley

U.S. Department of Education

IES, NCSER

Caroline Ebanks

U.S. Department of Education

IES, NCER

Patricia McKee

U.S. Department of Education

OESE Compensatory Education Programs

Tim D’Emillio

U.S. Department of Education

OELA

Christy Kavulic, Meredith A. Miceli

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Special Education Programs

Cathie L. Martin¹

U.S. Department of Education

OIE

Scott Brown,¹ Louis Danielson,¹ Glinda Hill,¹

Lisa Holden-Pitt,¹ Kristen Lauer,¹

Marlene Simon-Burroughs,¹Larry Wexler

U.S. Department of Education

OSEP

Lisa A. Gorove¹

U.S. Department of Education

OUS, Budget Service, ESVA

Elois Scott¹

U.S. Department of Education

OUS, PES, ESED

Richard Dean¹

U.S. Department of Education

OVAE, Adult Literacy

Ivelisse Martinez-Beck, Pia Divine,¹ Esther Kresh,¹ Ann Rivera

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children, Youth, and Families

Gerry Hendershot,¹ John Kiley,¹ Michael Kogan,¹ Mitchell Loeb, Patricia Pastor

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services

National Center for Health Statistics

Mary Frances Cotch

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services

National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health

Christine Bachrach,¹Jeff Evans,¹ Sarah Friedman,¹

Peggy McCardle¹

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NICHD, Center for Population Research

Regina Bures, Jim Griffin

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NICHD, National Institutes of Health

Howard Hoffman

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health

Martha Moorehouse,¹ Anne Wolf¹

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation, Children and Youth Policy

¹ Consultant for the ECLS-K only. All other consultants provided input on one or both of the most recent ECLS program studies, the ECLS-K:2011 and ECLS-K:2023.

NOTE: Affiliation listed is the affiliation at the time input on the study was provided.

Table A-2. Other organization consultants for ECLS-K, ECLS-K:2011, and the ECLS-K:2023

Lynson Bobo

Project Associate

Resource Center on Educational Equity

Council of Chief State School Officers

Susan Bredekamp, Barbara Willer

National Association for the Education of Young Children

Jane Clarenbach

National Association for Gifted Children

Mary Jo Lynch

American Library Association

Office of Research and Statistics

Keith W. Mielkek

Children’s Television Workshop

June Million, Sally McConnell, Louanne Wheeler

National Association of Elementary School Principals

Evelyn Moore, Erica Tollett

National Black Child Development Institute

Thomas Schultz

Director, Center for Education Services for Young Learners

National Association of State Boards of Education

Larry Suter

Independent Education Consultant, Formerly of NSF and NCES

NOTE: Affiliation listed is the affiliation at the time input on the study was provided. Italicized text used for consultation that occurred for the ECLS-K:2011. All other consultations occurred for the ECLS-K.

Table A-3. ECLS-K:2023 TRP members for April 2019 meeting

Daphna Bassok, Ph.D.

University of Virginia

Karen Bierman, Ph.D.

The Pennsylvania State University

Robert Crosnoe, Ph.D.

The University of Texas at Austin

Douglas Downey, Ph.D.

The Ohio State University

Linda M. Espinosa, Ph.D.

University of Missouri – Columbia

Rolf Grafwallner, Ph.D.

Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) and The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)

Stephanie Jones, Ph.D.

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Megan McClelland, Ph.D.

Oregon State University

Paul Morgan, Ph.D.

The Pennsylvania State University

Lynne Vernon-Feagans, Ph.D.

The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

NOTE: Affiliation listed is the affiliation at the time input on the study was provided.

Table A-3 lists the ECLS-K:2023 TRP members that participated in a 2-day meeting held in April 2019. The meeting focused on the design of the preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade rounds of the ECLS-K:2023, although input on later rounds was also provided. Panel members recommended study constructs and specific items for the parent, child, teacher, and school administrator surveys, and provided guidance on the child assessments.

In addition, two virtual CRP meetings were held, gathering experts for more targeted discussions. The first CRP meeting was held on May 22, 2019. This meeting was about the preschool parent survey and panelists provided input on which constructs and measures should be prioritized for that round of the study. The second CRP meeting was held in two parts, with reading experts convening on June 13, 2019 and math experts on June 14, 2019. These two meetings contained discussion on the direct and indirect child assessments and panelists provided input on the assessment specifications and items to be included in kindergarten and the first-grade rounds of the study. Table A-4 lists the ECLS-K:2023 CRP members.

Table A-4. ECLS-K:2023 CRP #1 (preschool parent survey) and CRP #2 (child assessments) member list

Preschool parent survey panel

Child assessments panel

Heather Bachman – University of Pittsburgh

Stephanie Curenton – Boston University

Vivian L. Gadsden – University of Pennsylvania

Mariela Páez – Boston College

Carol Connor¹– University of California, Irvine

Lizanne DeStefano²– University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Doug Frye²– University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education

Donna Hafner²– Independent consultant, assessment development, math facilitator, elementary teacher

Alba Ortiz¹– University of Texas at Austin

Julie Sarama²– University of Denver, Morgridge College of Education

Rebecca Silverman¹– Stanford University

Barbara Wasik¹– Temple University

NOTE: Affiliation listed is the affiliation at the time input on the study was provided.

¹Reading CRP

²Mathematics CRP

A.9 Provision of Payments or Gifts

Obtaining high response rates is critical for all longitudinal studies. To help obtain acceptable response rates it is essential to establish the goodwill of respondents and to demonstrate that the study values their participation. Goodwill can be established by using well-designed respondent materials that inform respondents about the goals of the study and their role in it, professionalism among any staff who interact with participants, and a small token incentive. The following incentive plan is designed to help respondents to recognize the merits of the study and thereby encourage high response rates.

As described below in table A-5, for the national ECLS-K:2023 preschool round in spring 2022, the study will provide monetary incentives to all recipients of the ECLS-K:2023 preschool household screener and eligible participants who complete the full spring parent survey. The same incentive strategy will be implemented in the preschool 2020 field test.⁸ The incentive plan summarized in table A-5 is based on those approved by OMB for similar types of respondents on other studies.⁹ Note that although parents were not incentivized on the ECLS-K or the ECLS-K:2011, the ECLS-K:2023 incentive plan includes a small incentive for household/parent respondents due to the increasing difficulty of obtaining high response rates in the years since the earlier ECLS cohorts and the longitudinal nature of the study, which requires early round participation for eligibility in later rounds.

Table A-5. Incentive by preschool field test respondent type

Respondent type	Household screener incentive	Parent spring survey incentive	Parent fall follow-up incentive
Ineligible household respondents	$5	N/A	N/A
Eligible parents	$5	$10	$5

NOTE: Both the web and mail screener incentives are prepaid. Respondents completing the parent survey and fall-follow-up survey by web are postpaid. Respondents sent the parent survey and fall follow-up survey on paper will be prepaid.

Every ECLS-K:2023 preschool round initial mailing will include a link to complete the online screener and a five-dollar bill. Upon completion of the screener, eligible participants will be invited to participate in the full-length parent survey. Ineligible respondents will be thanked for their time and told that they are not eligible to continue in the study. Upon completion of the online parent survey, the respondent will have the option to receive a ten-dollar Amazon code, delivered digitally, or to receive ten dollars by mail. If the respondent chooses to receive ten dollars by mail, Westat will mail a ten-dollar bill to the respondent at the address on file. An additional five-dollar incentive will be provided to respondents who complete the fall follow-up survey. Respondents who complete the follow-up survey online will have the option to receive a five-dollar Amazon code, delivered digitally, or to receive five dollars by mail. Respondents who are sent the parent survey or the fall follow-up survey on paper will be prepaid their ten-dollar or five-dollar incentive, respectively. The total incentive for eligible participants who complete the spring parent survey is fifteen dollars. If the parent also completes the fall follow-up survey, the total incentive is twenty dollars. This incentive model is planned for the field test and, dependent on its performance, may be proposed national ECLS-K:2023 preschool data collection.¹⁰

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality

The ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test data will be used internally by study staff to evaluate study procedures, and will not be publicly released.

Confidentiality and data security protection procedures have been put in place for the ECLS-K:2023 to ensure that the contractor and its subcontractors comply with all privacy requirements, including:

The Statement of Work of the ECLS-K:2023 contract;
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 (20 U.S.C. §1232(g));
Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. §552a);
Privacy Act Regulations (34 CFR Part 5b);
Computer Security Act of 1987;
U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-56);
Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9573);
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §151);
Foundations of Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Title III, Part B, Confidential Information Protection;
The U.S. Department of Education General Handbook for Information Technology Security General Support Systems and Major Applications Inventory Procedures (March 2005);
The U.S. Department of Education Incident Handling Procedures (February 2009);
The U.S. Department of Education, ACS Directive OM: 5-101, Contractor Employee Personnel Security Screenings;
NCES Statistical Standards; and
All new legislation that impacts the data collected through the contract for this study.

Furthermore, the contractor will comply with the Department of Education’s IT security policy requirements as set forth in the Handbook for Information Assurance Security Policy and related procedures and guidance, as well as IT security requirements in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publications, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards and guidance. All data products and publications will also adhere to the revised NCES Statistical Standards, as described at the website: https://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2012/.

By law (20 U.S.C. §9573), a violation of the confidentiality restrictions is a felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to 5 years and/or a fine of up to $250,000. The ECLS-K:2023 procedures for maintaining confidentiality include notarized nondisclosure affidavits obtained from all personnel who will have access to individual identifiers; personnel training regarding the meaning of confidentiality; controlled and protected access to computer files; built-in safeguards concerning status monitoring and receipt control systems; and a secure, staffed, in-house computing facility. The ECLS-K:2023 follows detailed guidelines for securing sensitive project data, including, but not limited to: physical/environment protections, building access controls, system access controls, system login restrictions, user identification and authorization procedures, encryption, and project file storage/archiving/destruction.

Additionally, the contractor will take security measures to protect the web data collection application from unauthorized access. The web server will include an SSL certificate and will be configured to force encrypted data transmission over the Internet. All files uploaded to the website will be stored in a secure project folder that is accessible and visible to authorized project staff only. NCES has a secure data transfer system, which uses SSL technology, allowing the transfer of encrypted data over the Internet. The NCES secure server will be used for all administrative data sources. All data transfers will be encrypted.

The Department has established a policy regarding the personnel security screening requirements for all contractor employees and their subcontractors. The contractor must comply with these personnel security screening requirements throughout the life of the contract including several requirements that the contractor must meet for each employee working on the contract for 30 days or more. Among these requirements are that each person working on the contract must be assigned a position risk level. The risk levels are high, moderate, and low based upon the level of harm that a person in the position can cause to the Department’s interests. Each person working on the contract must complete the requirements for a “Contractor Security Screening.” Depending on the risk level assigned to each person’s position, a follow-up background investigation by the Department will occur.

Furthermore, all contractor staff members working on the ECLS-K:2023 or having access to the data are required to sign an Affidavit of Nondisclosure. As required by IES, relevant ECLS-K:2023 staff also complete the federal Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) program. They also are required to complete mandatory training on data confidentiality and the safe handling of data. The contractor will keep the original notarized affidavits on file and submit PDF copies of all affidavits to NCES. In addition, as required, relevant contractor staff will complete background screening in compliance with ACS Directive (OM:5-101).

NCES will assure schools and individuals participating in ECLS-K:2023 that all of the data provided by schools, staff, parents, and students 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). The laws pertaining to the collection and use of personally identifiable information will be clearly communicated in correspondence with states, districts, schools, teachers, students, and parents. Letters and informational materials will be sent to parents and school administrators describing the study, its voluntary nature, and the extent to which respondents and their responses will be kept confidential. This information will also be included in any research applications required by school districts. A list of kindergarten students will be requested from school districts and/or schools under the FERPA exception to the general consent requirement that permits disclosures to authorized representatives of the Secretary for the purpose of evaluating Federally supported education programs (34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(3)(iii) and 99.35). This information will be securely destroyed when no longer needed for the purposes specified in 34 CFR §99.35.

The following language will be included, as appropriate, in respondent contact materials and on cover pages and login webpages of the data collection instruments:

NCES is authorized to conduct the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023) by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9543) [and to collect students’ education records from education agencies or institutions for the purposes of evaluating federally supported education programs under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(3)(iii) and 99.35)]. The data are being collected for NCES by Westat, a U.S.-based research organization. All of the information [respondent type] 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). [The collected information will be combined across respondents to produce statistical reports.]

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 1850-0750. Approval expires MM/DD/202Y. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average approximately [x] minutes per response, including the time to review instructions, [gather the data needed,] and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate, suggestions for improving this information collection, or any comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission, please write directly to: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022-23 (ECLS-K:2023), National Center for Education Statistics, PCP, 550 12th St., SW, 4^th floor, Washington, DC 20202.

NCES understands the legal and ethical need to protect the privacy of the ECLS-K:2023 survey respondents and, with the contractor, has extensive experience in developing data files for release that meet the Government’s requirements to protect individually identifiable data from disclosure. While no preschool field test data will be publicly released, relevant procedures will be followed for the national files and appropriate steps for data file preparation and release will be outlined in future ECLS-K:2023 data collection OMB packages.

A.11 Sensitive Questions

The ECLS-K:2023 is a voluntary study and no persons are required to respond to the surveys. In addition, respondents may decline to answer any question they are asked. This voluntary aspect of the survey is clearly stated in the preschool round materials including the letter mailed to households and the instructions on the surveys, and it is stressed in ECLS-K:2023 staff training. The following describes the general nature of the instruments that will be used in the preschool field test as well as topics that may be sensitive for some respondents. The preschool field test instruments are provided in Attachments B1 and B2.

Preschool household screener. The screener will ask for information on any children in the household who are age 10 and under. Name (or nickname or initials), ages, current school or preschool enrollment, grade level, and plans for kindergarten attendance will be asked. To obtain more information about public schools with kindergartens in the sampled area, questions are included about where children in the household who will not be sampled as the target for the full parent survey attended kindergarten. These questions are not considered sensitive in nature.

Preschool parent survey. Certain topics that will be addressed in the preschool parent survey could be considered as sensitive in nature for some respondents. Questions about family income, child-rearing and disciplinary practices, and how the child compares to others his or her age in various areas of development will be included in the parent survey. Items on these topics have been administered in one or more rounds of data collection for the ECLS-K:2011. Results from the ECLS-K:2011 showed that there were low levels of missing data in the parent interviews for these items. For example, in the spring kindergarten round of the ECLS-K:2011, the first round in which these data were collected, 90.5 percent of respondents in the spring kindergarten round provided an answer to the family income question (item PAQ100) about whether their income was $25,000 or less, or $25,001 or more. For the more detailed questions about income that was $25,000 or less, 87 percent provided an answer (item PAQ110a), and for income that was $25,001 or more, 93 percent provided an answer (PAQ110b).

Prior research indicates that the topics to be measured in the preschool parent survey are correlated with children’s achievement and help to predict children’s preparedness for and success in school. Collecting data on these topics will allow researchers to go beyond descriptive analyses of variation in children’s performance by basic background characteristics such as race/ethnicity and sex. Researchers will be able to test hypotheses about how a wide range of family characteristics relate to early success in school. Therefore, it is important to include questions in the parent surveys on the potentially sensitive topics listed above.

Preschool follow-up survey. The fall 2020 parent follow-up survey will ask the parent if the sampled child in the household attends the school that was reported in the spring 2020 parent screener. These questions are not considered sensitive in nature.

A.12 Estimated Response Burden

Table A-6 outlines the estimated respondent burden for data collection activities for which this submission is requesting approval (i.e., the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test). The ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test data collection includes a household screener and parent surveys. Included in these estimates is the time that a respondent would need to complete these tasks. Table A-6 also outlines respondent burden for household recruitment. Recruitment burden time includes the time necessary to read the study materials sent to the households. The estimated respondent time burden cost across all the activities for which clearance is being sought is $210,663 for 8,655 burden hours.

The total number of respondents across all data collection activities listed in table A-6, i.e., the expected number of respondents to the household screener in web and hard-copy format, is 17,360, or 62 percent of the total mailed invitations to complete the screener.¹¹

Table A-6. Estimated respondent burden for the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test data collection

ECLS-K:2023 Activity	Sample Size	Expected Response Rate	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses	Average Burden Time per Response (minutes)	Total Burden (hours)	Estimated Respondent Average Hourly Wage²	Estimated Respondent Burden Time Cost
Total	—	—	28,000¹	46,033	—	8,655	—	$210,663

Parent recruitment	28,000	1.0	28,000	28,000	15	7,000	$24.34	$170,380
Household screener	28,000	.62	17,360	17,360	5	1,447	$24.34	$35,220
Parent survey	467	.78	364	364	30	182	$24.34	$4,430
Parent follow-up	364	.85	309	309	5	26	$24.34	$633

¹ The total number of respondents contains no duplication in respondent count. That is, parents are only counted once, as all will be asked to review the respondent materials, but only a subset is expected to complete the screener survey, and a smaller subset to complete the parent survey and the fall follow-up survey.

²The estimated average hourly earnings of parents, as derived from May 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupation Employment Statistics, is $24.34, Source: BLS Occupation Employment Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/oes/ datatype: Occupation codes: All employees (00-0000).

A.13 Estimates of Cost to Respondents

There are no costs to respondents to participate in the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test beyond the time needed for individuals to complete the household screener and answer the survey questions if their household contains eligible children. No equipment, printing, or postage charges will be incurred by the participants.

A.14 Cost to the Federal Government

The data collection activities for the preschool field test are being carried out under NCES contract number 91990019C0002 with Westat. The period of performance for this ECLS-K:2023 contract, which includes the spring and fall 2020 preschool field test data collection, runs from January 4, 2019 through January 3, 2029. This contract includes all field test and national data collections for the ECLS-K:2023 except for the fifth-grade national data collection. The total cost to the federal government for contractor and subcontractor costs for this contract as of July 2019 is $75,855,216. This cost estimate includes all data collection activities, design enhancements, and data file delivery and documentation for the noted rounds. Table A-7 provides costs to NCES for the preschool field test.

Table A-7. Costs to NCES for the ECLS-K:2023 Preschool Field Test

Preschool Field Test
NCES salaries and expenses	$150,000
Contract costs	$2,695,107
Instrumentation and materials	$699,604
Data Collection	$1,724,594
Systems and data processing	$270,909
Total	$2,845,107

A.15 Reasons for Changes in Burden

This request is a reinstatement under the ECLS kindergarten cohorts data collection program and as such all requested estimated burden shows as an increase in burden.

A.16 Publication Plans and Time Schedule

Information relevant to the preschool field test data collection will be summarized in a survey operations report. The data will be analyzed and used to evaluate the viability of a national preschool round. Data files from the preschool field test will not be shared with the public. Current field test and national data collection, data release, and report release schedules are provided in Table A-8.

Table A-8. ECLS-K:2023 data collection, data release, and report release schedules

Data collection round	Dates of field work	Anticipated first release of data, associated technical documentation, and first findings report

Preschool field test	January-October 2020	N/A
Kindergarten-first grade field test	August-December 2021	N/A
Spring preschool national collection	January-June 2022	July 2024
Fall kindergarten national collection	August-December 2022	July 2024
Spring kindergarten national collection	March-July 2023	July 2024
Spring first-grade national collection	March-July 2024	July 2025
Third-fifth grade field test	March-June 2025	N/A
Spring third-grade national collection	March-July 2026	July 2027
Spring fifth-grade national collection	March-July 2028	July 2029

A.17 Approval for Not Displaying the Expiration Date for OMB Approval

No exemption from the requirement to display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection is being requested for the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test.

A.18 Exceptions to the Certification Statement

No exceptions to the certification statement apply to the ECLS-K:2023 preschool field test.

1 Throughout this submission, reference is made to the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. For ease of presentation, it will be referred to as the ECLS-K. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 will be referred to as the ECLS-K:2011.

2 The spring 2022 round of data collection is referred to as the “preschool round” for ease of presentation. However, the sample will include not only children in preschool or an early care and education (ECE) arrangement, but also those not in preschool or ECE.

3 Schools that do not have official kindergarten programs but serve kindergarten-age children in an ungraded setting will be included. In this document, whenever the term “kindergarten” is used, it is meant to include programs that serve kindergarten-age children as well.

4 The field period contains both a spring and a fall data collection.

5 Respondents to the parent survey are expected to be parents, guardians, or adults in the household who know about the care and education of children living in the household.

6 References for all publications cited in this document are provided at the end of the Supporting Statement Part C of this submission.

7 Additional study activities have occurred to develop the study’s respondent communication materials and instruments, e.g., parent focus groups and Technical and Content Review Panels.

8 The preschool 2020 field test will include a fall parent follow-up survey; however, this survey will not be included in the national study in 2022.

9 Similar incentives were used in NHES 2016 and 2019.

10 The fall follow-up survey will not be conducted in the national ECLS-K:2023. Parents will instead participate in the full national fall kindergarten data collection.

11 The response rates discussed in Part B of this package factor in these undeliverables. However, in order to conservatively estimate burden, these undeliverables were not removed for the calculations in this table.

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