Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; NCER-NPSAS Grants-Connecting Students 2017: Testing the Effectiveness of FAFSA Interventions on College Outcomes

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Federal RegisterOct 20, 2016
81 Fed. Reg. 72582 (Oct. 20, 2016)

AGENCY:

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Department of Education (ED).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing a new information collection.

DATES:

Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before December 19, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

To access and review all the documents related to the information collection listed in this notice, please use http://www.regulations.gov by searching the Docket ID number ED-2016-ICCD-0112. Comments submitted in response to this notice should be submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov by selecting the Docket ID number or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. Please note that comments submitted by fax or email and those submitted after the comment period will not be accepted. Written requests for information or comments submitted by postal mail or delivery should be addressed to the Director of the Information Collection Clearance Division, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, Room 2E-349, Washington, DC 20202-4537.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For specific questions related to collection activities, please contact NCES Information Collections at NCES.Information.Collections@ed.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Department of Education (ED), in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed, revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps the Department assess the impact of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's information collection requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format. ED is soliciting comments on the proposed information collection request (ICR) that is described below. The Department of Education is especially interested in public comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is this collection necessary to the proper functions of the Department; (2) will this information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Department enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (5) how might the Department minimize the burden of this collection on the respondents, including through the use of information technology. Please note that written comments received in response to this notice will be considered public records.

Title of Collection: NCER-NPSAS Grants—Connecting Students 2017: Testing the Effectiveness of FAFSA Interventions on College Outcomes.

OMB Control Number: 1850-NEW.

Type of Review: A new information collection.

Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 53,900.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 30,144.

Abstract: In 2010, the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), both within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), began collaborating on an education grant opportunity related to the cross-sectional National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). NPSAS is a large, nationally-representative sample of postsecondary institutions and students that contains student-level records on student demographics and family background, work experience, expectations, receipt of financial aid, and postsecondary enrollment (see http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas/about.asp;; (OMB #1850-0666)). Since 1987, NPSAS has been fielded every 3 to 4 years, most recently during the 2015-16 academic year. The goal of this NCER-NCES collaboration is to provide researchers the opportunity to develop “one-off” projects that would target a subset of the NPSAS sample. Under this NCER-NCES grant opportunity, researchers submit applications to the Education Research Grants program (84.305A) under the Postsecondary and Adult Education topic and to the Exploration or Efficacy/Replication research goals. NCER supports research projects using NPSAS subsamples to: (1) Explore the relations between postsecondary persistence and completion, and malleable factors (as well as the mediators and moderators of those relationships), and (2) evaluate the efficacy of interventions aimed at improving persistence and completion of postsecondary education. Through the grant award, researchers can obtain indirect access to a subsample of the NPSAS sample after the study's student interviews have been completed. This request is to conduct, in 2017, the “Connecting Students 2017: Testing the Effectiveness of FAFSA Interventions on College Outcomes” study, funded by the NCER-NPSAS grant, designed to measure the effectiveness of an intervention that will provide financial aid information and reminders to college students who were initially interviewed as part of NPSAS:16.

Dated: October 17, 2016.

Tomakie Washington,

Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Management.

[FR Doc. 2016-25426 Filed 10-19-16; 8:45 am]

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