This evaluation will focus on the impacts of Upward Bound on students applying to enter the program as early as the summer of 2007. The current OMB package requests clearance for the instruments to be used in gathering information.
The Department is requesting emergency clearance to begin collection of parental and student consent forms, baseline information forms, and student selection forms. If the evaluation has to go through the normal clearance process, ED's notification to work with grantees on data collection could not begin until late March or early April 2007, where many grantees are completing their application periods. This schedule would likely mean that summer programs would need to be delayed or perhaps cancelled for new students, creating hostility toward the evaluation, undermining the validity of the evaluation and harming its ability to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the redesigned Upward Bound program. Emergency processing would allow the Department to contact sampled grantees to be in the evaluation in late January or early February 2007, allowing more time for the evaluator to work with grantees selected for the evaluation (contingent on their receipt of funding for 2007), ensure that a sufficient number of eligible students are recruited to form a control group, and obtain the necessary consent and baseline student data required before random assignment can occur.
PL:
Pub.L. 105 - 244 404A
Name of Law: Higher Education Act of 1965, 1998, Higher Education Act Amendments
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.
83C Change Sheet1.doc
Student Selection Forms