No
material or nonsubstantive change to a currently approved
collection
No
Regular
08/01/2023
Requested
Previously Approved
07/31/2026
07/31/2026
53,955
53,955
10,175
10,175
0
0
The School Pulse Panel (SPP) is a data
collection originally designed to collect voluntary responses from
a nationally representative sample of public schools to better
understand how schools, students, and educators are responding to
the ongoing stressors of the coronavirus pandemic. It is conducted
by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the
Institute of Education Sciences (IES), within the United States
Department of Education, in cooperation with the U.S. Census
Bureau. Due to the immediate need to collect information from
schools during the pandemic to satisfy the requirement of Executive
Order 14000, an emergency clearance was issued to develop and field
the first several monthly collections of the SPP in 2021, and a
full review of the SPP data collection was completed in 2022 (OMB#
1850-0969). SPP’s innovative design and timely dissemination of
findings have been used and cited frequently among Department of
Education senior leadership, the White House Domestic Policy
Counsel, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Congressional deliberations, and
the media. The ongoing, growing interest by stakeholders has
resulted in the request for dedicated funding to create an
established NCES quick-turnaround data collection vehicle, with the
goal of standing up a post-pandemic panel to begin with the 2023-24
school year. The initial proposal for the next SPP study extended
the collection to also collect data from school districts, but this
has been canceled due to lack of funding. For the 23-24 school
year, the survey may ask school staff about a range of topics,
including but not limited to instructional mode offered; enrollment
counts of subgroups of students for various subject interests;
strategies to address learning recovery; safe and healthy school
mitigation strategies; mental health services; use of technology;
information on staffing, nutrition services, absenteeism, usage of
federal funds, facilities, and overall principal and school staff
experiences. Some new content will be rotated in and out monthly.
As in previous waves, for SPP 2023-24 roughly 8,000 (4,000 in an
initial sample and 4,000 in a reserve sample) public elementary,
middle, high, and combined-grade schools will be randomly selected
to participate in a panel. The goal is national representation from
1,200 responding schools to report national estimates. School staff
will be asked to provide requested data as frequently as monthly
during the 23-24 school year. This approach provides the ability to
collect detailed information on various topics while also assessing
changes over time for items that are repeated. Given the high
demand for data collection, the content of the survey will change
monthly. This request is to conduct the SPP 2023-24 main study data
collection activities, including instruments for the first quarter
of monthly collections. These materials completed a 60-day public
comment period in June 2023. They are now being published for 30
additional days of public comment. Some documents have been revised
for the 30-day public comment period. Subsequent quarterly content
submissions will be submitted for 30-day public comment
periods.
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.