OMB supporting statement part B for STREAMS presting
Pre-Testing Request for Strengthening Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS)
Generic Clearence for Pre-testing of Evaluation Data Collection Activities
0970 - 0355
Supporting Statement
Part B
August 2018
Submitted By:
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
330 C Street, SW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20201
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks approval to conduct pre-tests with staff at two Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs funded by the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) within ACF. This information collection is being carried out as part of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) project. This part of the project aims to develop and pilot and refine training approaches and materials for program facilitators in HMRE programs for youth. This information collection (IC) will involve pre-testing a data collection instrument with two HMRE programs to develop and refine them for potential use with additional OFA grantees. Approval for this data collection is requested under ACF’s generic clearance for pre-testing (0970-0355).
In September 2015, ACF awarded five-year grants to 46 HMRE grantees; 31 of these grantees serve youth. The STREAMS project will pre-test a facilitator self-assessment form in two sites chosen from among these youth-serving grantees.
The project team is using data available in grant applications and other program documents to identify a purposive sample of programs that serve youth, employ at least four program educators, and collectively provide services in schools and community settings. Participation in pre-testing will be voluntary.
Within the selected programs, all staff who provide services directly to youth ages 14-24 in group sessions will be asked to pre-test the facilitator self-assessment form. We assume 16 facilitators will participate in the pre-test (8 facilitators * 2 programs participating in pre-testing).
The project team will conduct pre-testing using an online form created using Survey Monkey.
After each of 3 training sessions, facilitators will be asked to complete the facilitator self-assessment form 3 times per week for a period of 6 weeks (3 forms/week * 6 weeks = 18 completions per training session) during the pre-test period. If data entry via a tablet, smart phone, or laptop is not feasible, the study team will provide a paper-and-pencil version of the self-assessment form. Items in this pre-test will cover the three facilitation strategies on which grantees will be trained. No personally identifiable information will be collected, and respondents will be reminded to exclude their name and any other identifiable information from all forms.
Expected Response Rates
The project team will work closely with ACF to purposively select HMRE programs in which staff are interested in assisting with the pre-test. We also expect the activities to be low burden. Therefore, we expect high participation in the pre-tests. We expect at least a 90 percent rate of completion of the expected number of facilitator self-assessment forms.
Maximizing Response Rates and Dealing with Nonresponse
The study team will use Survey Monkey to monitor progress in completing the expected number of facilitator self-assessment forms and will follow up with program staff as needed to encourage completion of all pre-testing activities. In addition, the study team will be available to assist program staff with any difficulties they have completing the pre-test activities.
The purpose of this information collection request is to pre-test data collection instruments. ACF expects that all the tests conducted under this clearance will result in improved questionnaires and thus reduced respondent burden.
Mathematica Policy Research, with its subcontractor Public Strategies, is conducting this pre-test for contract number GS-10F-0050L/HHSP233201500095G. Mathematica received input and guidance on the plans for the statistical analyses for this study from ACF staff. The Mathematica project team is led by the following individuals:
Ms. Diane Paulsell
Co-Project Director
Dr. Jean Knab
|
Ms. Subuhi Asheer |
In the future, further input on analytic approaches may be sought from additional Mathematica staff and from outside consultants.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Diane Paulsell |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-20 |