OPRE Study: Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS) Descriptive Study
No material or nonsubstantive change to a currently approved collection
No
Regular
05/19/2022
Requested
Previously Approved
12/31/2023
12/31/2023
1,302
1,302
1,010
1,010
0
0
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contracted with Mathematica and its subcontractor, the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston, to conduct the Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS). The purpose of ExCELS is to learn about leadership in center-based early care and education (ECE) settings, and better understand how leadership might improve the quality of care and education centers provide and outcomes for staff, children, and families. The ExCELS descriptive study was launched in March 2022 with a plan to recruit 120 center-based ECE settings. These centers need to have at least one primary site leader (e.g., center director) in the building, receive funding from Head Start or the Child Care and Development Fund, and serve children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (but who are not yet in kindergarten). Data collection includes interviews with each centerâs primary site leader and surveys for select center managers and all teaching staff. Data from the descriptive study will help develop a psychometrically sound measure of leadership.
The study design includes a purposive sample of 120 center-based ECE settings from four states, selected to achieve variation that is critical for assessing the theory of change for ECE leadership and for psychometric analyses to develop a measure of leadership. The statistical precision of the planned analysis rests primarily on the number of staff respondents to surveys. The team has based assumptions of survey completes on the number of participating centers, the average number of staff in center-based settings, and a high response rate. A sample of 120 centers will support the ability to achieve sample targets for survey respondents that are needed to support the planned analysis.
Since launching recruitment, the study team has had to conduct recruitment calls with a larger number of centers to engage one in the study. We are seeing that 30% of centers with which the team has conducted a recruitment call are agreeing to participate in the study. Centers are reporting being short-staffed, having many demands on their time, and continued staff stress and fatigue, due in part to the ongoing pandemic. We are also finding that larger numbers of centers are being found ineligible than anticipated (30% of those agreeing to participate after the recruitment call). This has required conducting engagement interviews with a larger number of centers than planned to successfully identify eligible centers for the study.
We are requesting an increase to the burden estimates to allow for outreach to a larger number of centers and to account for potential attrition at different stages of engagement. These increases will help us complete data collection with 120 centers to support the study goals. The team has also made three adjustments to the sampling selection and recruitment targets to be more flexible in bringing centers into the study and determining eligibility.
US Code:
42 USC 9835
Name of Law: Head Start Act § 640
US Code:
42 USC 9858
Name of Law: Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 § 658O
PL:
Pub.L. 113 - 186 9
Name of Law: Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 as amended by the CCDBG Act of 2014
US Code:
42 USC 9844
Name of Law: Head Start Act § 649
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.
ExCELS_NonSub Change Request_05192022.docx
Teaching staff survey