The School Pulse Panel is a new study
conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES),
part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), within the
United States Department of Education, to collect extensive data on
issues concerning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students
and staff in U.S. public primary, middle, high, and combined-grade
schools. The survey will ask school district staff and sampled
school principals about topics such as instructional mode offered;
enrollment counts of subgroups of students using various
instructional modes; learning loss mitigation strategies; safe and
healthy school mitigation strategies; special education services;
use of technology; use of federal relief funds; and information on
staffing. Because this data collection is extremely high priority
and time sensitive, it will undergo Emergency Clearance. It will
not go through a 60-day public comment period and will only undergo
a 30-day public comment period after clearance has been granted.
NCES is also submitting a parallel ICR package to undergo the usual
60-day and 30-day clearance processes so that data collection can
continue beyond the expiration of the emergency clearance. The
administration of the School Pulse Panel study is in direct
response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14000: Supporting the
Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood
Education Providers. It will be one of the nation’s few sources of
reliable data on a wealth of information focused on school
reopening efforts, virus spread mitigation strategies, services
offered for students and staff, and technology use, as reported by
school district staff and principals in U.S. public schools. About
1200 public elementary, middle, high, and combined-grade schools
will be selected to participate in a panel where school and
district staff will be asked to provide requested data monthly
during the 2021-22 school years. This approach provides the ability
to collect detailed information on various topics while also
assessing changes in reopening efforts over time. Given the high
demand for data collection during this time, the content of the
survey may change on a quarterly basis. This program was previously
cleared for data collection, but response rates were initially
lower than anticipated, jeopardizing the statistical reliability of
the collection, and so in a previous request (OMB# 1850-0963 v.6)
NCES froze the data collection to revise some key components,
particularly the requested burden. In this request NCES is
submitting planned communication materials and data items to be
collected in January, February and March of 2022.
The School Pulse Panel
is a new study conducted by the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES), part of the Institute of Education Sciences
(IES), within the United States Department of Education, to collect
extensive data on issues concerning the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on students and staff in U.S. public primary, middle,
high, and combined-grade schools. The survey will ask school
district staff and sampled school principals about topics such as
instructional mode offered; enrollment counts of subgroups of
students using various instructional modes; learning loss
mitigation strategies; safe and healthy school mitigation
strategies; special education services; use of technology; use of
federal relief funds; and information on staffing. Because this
data collection is extremely high priority and time sensitive, it
will undergo Emergency Clearance. Because this data collection is
extremely high priority and time sensitive, it will undergo
Emergency Clearance. It will not go through a 60-day public comment
period and will only undergo a 30-day public comment period after
clearance has been granted. NCES has also submitted a parallel ICR
package to undergo the usual 60-day and 30-day clearance processes
so that data collection can continue beyond the expiration of the
emergency clearance. The administration of the School Pulse Panel
study is in direct response to President Biden’s Executive Order
14000: Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools
and Early Childhood Education Providers. It will be one of the
nation’s few sources of reliable data on a wealth of information
focused on school reopening efforts, virus spread mitigation
strategies, services offered for students and staff, and technology
use, as reported by school district staff and principals in U.S.
public schools. About 1200 public elementary, middle, high, and
combined-grade schools will be selected to participate in a panel
where school and district staff will be asked to provide requested
data monthly during the 2021-22 school years. This approach
provides the ability to collect detailed information on various
topics while also assessing changes in reopening efforts over time.
Given the high demand for data collection during this time, the
content of the survey may change on a quarterly basis. In October
2021, the SPP was suspended for the months of October, November,
and December due to low response rates for the first month of the
collection (OMB 1850-0963 v6). During that pause, the Institute of
Education Sciences redesigned the study to improve response rates.
A primary strategy for that was to reduce burden in each month’s
collection and to rotate content to address data needs of the
agencies across months. Additionally, we are actively recruiting
schools in a more comprehensive manner in order to start the
January collection with a more robust, committed panel of schools.
This submission includes planned communication materials and items
to be collected in January, February, and March. The SPP study
itself is extremely important particularly now that COVID-19 has
not waned, and the pulse model is one that the agency will need
after the pandemic subsides for other quick-turnaround data
needs.
US Code:
20
USC 9573 Name of Law: Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002
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.
SPP Winter Collections Revision Memo 0963 v7.docx
School Pulse Panel Data Collection Fall 2021 Study Delay Revision