SSB_PYP Templates

Justification for the Collection of Information for Planning Local Evaluations as part of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP): Promising Youth Programs (PYP)

OMB Information Collection Request

0970 - 0356

Supporting Statement

Part B

August 2016

Submitted By:

Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4th Floor Mary Switzer Building

330 C St, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

Federal Project Officer:

Seth Chamberlain (COR)

Project Monitor:

Kathleen McCoy

In anticipation of the next round of Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant funding, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the PREP: Promising Youth Programs (PYP) project, with the goal of fostering strong local evaluations by the next round of PREP grantees. This information collection request (ICR) is submitted under the generic clearance for Formative Data Collections for Policy Research (0970-0356). For further background, please see Supporting Statement A.

B1. Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods

No sampling will be employed for data collection related to this request. Grantees will be asked to provide the information requested of their evaluation, depending on the design employed (described in more detail in Supporting Statement A, Section A2). Grantees conducting impact evaluations will complete Template 1: Impact evaluation design template. Grantees conducting descriptive studies will complete Template 2:Descriptive evaluation design template. All of this formative information is necessary to ensure rigorous evaluations are conducted. Related information collections for evaluation purposes will be submitted through a full information collection request. This current request is meant only for planning and development

B2. Procedures for Collection of Information

Each grantee will complete up to three drafts of one template (appropriate for their proposed design). All three drafts will be completed within the grantees’ nine-month planning period after award. All information will be submitted electronically.

B3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with Nonresponse

Expected Response Rates and Dealing with Nonresponse

We anticipate that all grantees will provide the requested information on the schedule indicated in Supporting Statement A, Section A16. If an individual grantee is not responsive to a request for information, the contractor will work with staff in ACF’s OPRE and FYSB to ensure they provide the requested information as soon as possible. Grantees are strongly encouraged to complete these templates for planning purposes, as discussed in the funding opportunity announcement and in Grantees’ cooperative agreements.

Maximizing Response Rates

We anticipate that all grantees will provide the information requested. Our past experience indicates that more than 95 percent of grantees comply with the request at each time point, with a handful not able to complete a request in a timely manner due to extenuating circumstances. This response rate is consistent with the contractor’s past experience working with similar grantees with similar documents. Grantees complied with requests with limited exceptions due to rare events such as staff illness, need for extra data processing time, or lack of new data since prior report. To ensure that response rates are maximized, the contractor will work closely with the grantees’ project officer. If there are any difficulties with receiving a response from a particular grantee, the evaluation team will work closely with all of the project officers to ensure the vast majority, if not all, grantees complete the required templates.

B4. Tests of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken

All templates build on existing materials and previous experience from similar evaluation TA efforts by the Contractor. Consequently, pretesting of these templates has not been planned.

B5. Individual(s) Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or Analyzing Data

The data collection tools for this project were developed in partnership with staff in ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation and in consultation with staff in ACF’s Office of Family Assistance. Attachment A lists the individuals who were consulted when creating the templates.

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