Memorandum United States Department of Education
Institute of Education Sciences
National Center for Education Statistics
DATE: November 14, 2023
TO: Bev Pratt, OMB
THROUGH: Carrie Clarady, OMB Liaison, NCES
FROM: Jill McCarroll, Study Director, Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies Program, NCES
SUBJECT: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2023-24 (ECLS-K:2024) November 2023 Materials Revision Request (OMB#1850-0750 v.29)
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) program, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), draws together information from multiple sources to provide rich, descriptive data on child development, early learning, and school progress. The ECLS program studies deliver national data on children’s status at birth and at various points thereafter; children’s transitions to nonparental care, early care and education programs, and school; and children’s experiences and growth through the elementary grades. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2023-24 (ECLS-K:2024) is the fourth cohort in the series of early childhood longitudinal studies. The study will advance research in child development and early learning by providing a detailed and comprehensive source of current information on children’s early learning and development, transitions into kindergarten and beyond, and progress through school. The ECLS-K:2024 will provide data about the population of children who will be kindergartners in the 2023-24 school year. The ECLS-K:2024 will focus on children’s early school experiences continuing through the fifth grade, and will include collection of data from children, parents, teachers, and school administrators.
The request to conduct the first three national data collection rounds for the ECLS-K:2024 was approved on April 7, 2023 (OMB# 1850-0750 v.26).1 The ECLS-K:2024 fall kindergarten data collection will be conducted from August until December 2023, followed by the spring (March-July 2024) kindergarten round, and the spring (March-July 2025) first-grade round. Each of these rounds of data collection will involve advance school contacts, for example to conduct student sampling activities, collect teacher and school information, and locate families whose children may have moved schools. Future OMB packages will be submitted for the third-and fifth-grade field test (to be conducted in March-July 2026), as well as for the national spring (March-July 2027) third-grade round and the spring (March-July 2029) fifth-grade round.
This current revision request (accompanied by 30 days of public comment) is to update study respondent materials, web and paper surveys, and website designs that will be used in the kindergarten and first-grade data collection activities. Many of the revisions in this package were made based on analyses of the fall 2022 field test data (OMB# 1850-0750 v.25), which informed changes to the design of the surveys and child assessment. Other changes occurred after further discussion on operational procedures. Revisions to the study instruments (and to some extent, the respondent materials and websites) are largely limited to changes to the spring kindergarten materials; an additional revision request will be submitted to OMB for revisions to the spring first-grade materials as additional discussions on design and operational procedures continue. National data collection work completed to date will also inform these future revisions.
The requested changes do not affect the approved total cost to the federal government for conducting this study. Revisions made to some parts of the previously approved ECLS-K:2024 national kindergarten and first-grade data collection request are detailed below.
Please note that the covers of all of the attachments submitted with this revision request have had the date of submission updated with “revised October 2023” to indicate the date of this revision request. Additionally, small grammatical errors (such as the removal of a spare comma) and verb tense in text reviewing activities that have previously occurred were updated throughout the documents.
REVISED – Attachment B-2b, the spring 2024 parent survey, abbreviated version, was added to the list of Attachments (page v) and elsewhere in Part A as appropriate. (page A-9)
REVISED – Attachment H, summary of changes to the kindergarten instruments, was added to the list of Attachments (page v) and elsewhere in Part A as appropriate. (page A-4)
REVISED – Text referring to a preschool national data round was slightly revised. (page A-1)
REVISED – Text added to indicate that: a revision request was submitted in April 2023 and approved in July 2023, is followed by the current November 2023 revision request, and a future revision request is currently planned for April 2024. (pages A-2, A-3)
REVISED – Text was added to indicate that the current revision request focuses on the spring kindergarten instruments and that the spring first-grade instruments will be updated in future revision requests. (page A-3)
REVISED – Text referring to OMB change requests for the study’s respondent newsletters was deleted, as they will now be official NCES’ publications and will no longer require OMB clearance. (pages A-3, A-30, A-33, A-34)
REVISED – A footnote was updated to indicate that the spring first-grade paper surveys, including a possible abbreviated paper parent survey, will be included in future revision requests. (pages A-3, A-5)
REVISED – A footnote was updated to indicate that district and school recruitment will continue to at least the end of 2023 and possibly into early 2024. (page A-4)
REVISED – The number of cooperating schools was updated to reflect the projected number of schools that will participate in the fall kindergarten round. (page A-5)
REVISED – A footnote was added to indicate that because school recruitment continues, some schools may join the study too late to participate in the fall kindergarten round. These schools will participate for the first round of their data collection in the spring 2024 kindergarten round. The footnote indicates that respondent materials in Attachment A-1 were updated accordingly. (page A-8)
REVISED – Text was added to indicate that parental consent will be collected in the spring 2024 kindergarten round for children in schools that did not participate in the fall 2023 kindergarten round. (page A-8)
REVISED – Text describing the use of abbreviated surveys was edited to reflect further NCES discussions. An abbreviated parent survey has been drafted for use in the spring 2024 kindergarten round, as needed; items for the abbreviated spring first-grade survey will be submitted as part of an April 2024 revision request. (pages A-9, A-11)
REVISED – Text added to indicate that the census of teacher data collection will not occur in transfer schools. (page A-10)
REVISED – Text referring to the use of a possible additional incentive tied to abbreviated surveys in the spring 2024 kindergarten round was deleted, as NCES recently decided not to offer any additional incentives. The table note numbers were then updated. (page A-27)
REVISED – Text was added to a table note indicating that the use of seats at a professional webinar as a school incentive is still under NCES review. (page A-28)
REVISED – A table note describing the spring 2024 incentive for school coordinators in schools who did not participate in fall 2023 was added. (pages A-28, A-30)
REVISED – Text indicating additional school-level incentives would be added to this revision request was deleted, as no new incentives have been proposed. (page A-28)
REVISED – Text noting the possibility of an abbreviated survey with an additional incentive for teachers, school administrators, and parents was deleted. While an abbreviated parent survey is still being considered, an additional incentive to complete the abbreviated survey is no longer under consideration. (pages A-30, A-31, A-32)
REVISED – The list of logos that may be displayed on the Certificate of Contribution were updated. (page A-30)
REVISED – Text related to the number of sampled children expected to be taught by kindergarten teachers was updated. (page A-31)
REVISED – Text about updated timings for the spring kindergarten surveys was deleted, as those timings are included in this November 2023 revision request. The timings for the spring first-grade surveys will be updated in the April 2024 revision request, as design decisions evolve. (page A-40)
REVISED – The respondent burden summary section and table were updated to reflect the revised number of estimated respondents in each round, specifically the number of school coordinators, teachers (primary and special education), and school administrators. The number of estimated participating respondents was reduced to reflect the smaller number of projected schools that will participate in the kindergarten rounds (850, as opposed to the 1,000 schools estimated in the previous revision request). (pages A-40 through A-44)
REVISED – Text indicating the total estimated respondent time burden cost for transfer school recruitment was updated to reflect the correct calculation. (page A-41)
REVISED – The number of cooperating schools was updated to reflect the projected number of schools that will participate in the fall kindergarten round. (pages B-2, B-3, B-6, B-7, B-8, B-13
REVISED – Text was updated to reflect the number of children that will be sampled in each school. (pages B-2, B-8, B-9, B-17)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect the current strategies used to identify and field substitute schools. A footnote describing potential strategies was deleted. (page B-3)
REVISED – Text explaining that a larger number of students in each cooperating school may be sampled was deleted, as the decision has been made to move forward with increasing the per school sampling rate. (page B-3)
REVISED – Text was added to the footnote to provide explanation as to why 21 rather than 25 sampled students was used in sampling calculations. (pages B-5, B-7)
REVISED – Text describing the use of substitute PSUs was added. (page B-6)
REVISED – Text describing possible efforts to increase school response rates was deleted, as it was no longer applicable. (page B-6)
REVISED – Text to clarify that a census of teachers will only occur in originally-sampled schools was added. (page B-9)
REVISED – Text was edited to indicate the Executive Summary was included in the April 2023 revision request. (page B-13)
REVISED – A footnote was edited to indicate that district and school recruitment will continue to at least the end of 2023. (page B-13)
REVISED – The number of parent survey interviewers hired has increased. (page B-15)
REVISED – Text describing the implementation of the abbreviated paper parent survey was added or edited to further reflect NCES discussions. (pages B-15, B-29, B-33, B-37)
REVISED – Attachment H, summary of changes to the kindergarten instruments, was added to the list of Attachments. (page B-16)
REVISED – A duplicate footnote was deleted. (page B-16)
REVISED – A footnote was edited to indicate that the spring first-grade instruments will be updated in future revision requests. (page B-16)
REVISED – A footnote was updated to indicate that all students will be sampled in schools with 29 or less kindergarten students. (page B-17)
REVISED – A footnote was updated to reflect the removal of the Mastercard logo on a sticker affixed to the incentive card envelope. (page B-18)
REVISED – Text in a footnote was edited to clarify the November 2023 and March 2024 revision request content. (page B-18)
REVISED – Text or footnote was added to indicate that because school recruitment continues, some schools may join the study too late to participate in the fall kindergarten round. These schools will participate for the first round of their data collection in the spring 2024 kindergarten round. Respondent materials were developed to introduce participants from these schools to the study, as well as provide details on the spring 2024 data collection. (pages B-23, B-27, B-28)
REVISED – Text was added to indicate that parental consent will be collected in spring 2024 from parents in schools that did not participate in the fall 2023 round. (page B-24)
REVISED – A footnote was added to describe the incentive that school coordinators from schools that did not participate in the fall 2023 round will receive in spring 2024. (page B-24)
REVISED – Text was edited to indicate district and school recruitment will continue through the end of 2023. (page B-37)
REVISED – The contact information for a NCES staff member has been updated. (page B-41)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect that this submission is for the spring kindergarten instruments and to outline the new attachment numbers for those instruments. (pages C-1, C-2)
REVISED – Text was added to describe literature related to neighborhood resources. (pages C-11, C-12)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect removal of particular parent survey content to reduce the length of the spring kindergarten instruments. (pages C-5, C-6, C-12, C-13, C-15, C-16, C-17, C-18, C-19, C-20)
REVISED –A bullet was added for an item retained from the field test that asks about employment and education changes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. (page C-20)
REVISED – Text was edited to change COVID-19 to coronavirus to consistently reference one term for the pandemic. (pages C-14, C-53)
REVISED – Text was added to provide information on the construct coverage of the abbreviated parent survey and add a separate section title to distinguish it from the full parent survey (pages C-4, C-5, C-22, C-23)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect removal of particular teacher-level and child-level teacher survey content to reduce the length of the spring kindergarten instruments. (page C-34)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect the addition of child-level teacher survey content in the spring kindergarten instrument. (page C-36)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect the addition of particular school administrator survey content. (page C-53)
REVISED – Across the entire attachment, the font type, size, and color was edited as needed to correct previous errors.
REVISED – Text was added to the e-filing and child sample availability materials to indicate that they may also be used in the spring 2024 kindergarten round. (pages A1-1, A1-2, A1-5, A1-6)
REVISED – The text of the Mandarin parent letter and consent forms were updated to address small translation errors. (pages A1-23, A-24, A1-34, A1-39)
REVISED – The school staff and parent newsletters were removed as they will now be official NCES products posted for the public on the NCES website. Prior to publication, the newsletters will go through the full NCES publication review process.
REVISED – The insert added to the children’s book provided as parent incentive was translated into Spanish and Mandarin. (page A1-85)
REVISED – The title of several spring 2024 school and parent respondent materials were updated to indicate that the materials will be used with respondents who participated in the previous fall 2023 round (returning participants). (pages A1-88, A1-103, A1-107, A1-108, A1-117, A1-121, A1-123, A1-125)
REVISED – Text was edited to reflect the fact that some respondents will have participated in the fall 2023 round, while others did not and are new to the study in spring 2024. (pages A1-90)
REVISED – The number of schools was updated to better reflect current school recruitment. (pages A1-92, A1-97, A1-103, A1-104, A1-107, A1-108)
REVISED – Text was updated to reflect the timing of study activities. (page A1-92)
REVISED – The text describing the school incentives was edited slightly to better work as a fill, rather than static text. (pages A1-95, A1-99)
REVISED – Redundant text was deleted. (page A1-100)
REVISED – New versions of several spring 2024 school and parent respondent materials were drafted to contain language appropriate for respondents who did not participate in the previous fall 2023 round (new participants). (pages A1-104, A1-109, A1-110, A1-119, A1-127, A1-129, A1-131)
REVISED – The incentive amount that school coordinators from schools that did not participate in the fall 2023 round will receive was updated. The incentive amount was updated to be consistent with the work that these school coordinators will be complete in the spring 2024 round (e.g., e-filing). (pages A1-111, A1-112)
REVISED – A cover letter to accompany an abbreviated parent hard-copy survey was added. The letter and the survey will be sent home to non-responding parents, via their child’s backpack. (pages A1-156, A1-157)
REVISED – Text indicating which logo(s) will be used on the Certificate of Contribution was edited, to allow for flexibility when determining which logo to use. (page A1-158)
REVISED – A Certificate of Participation was added for respondents who completed a U.S. Department of Education webinar, offered to school staff as an incentive to participate. NCES is still determining whether these webinars will be offered, so the title indicates that the Certificate will be used as needed. (page A1-159)
REVISED – The study letterhead may be updated to include different logos or study branding. (page A1-160)
REVISED – Across the entire attachment, the font type, size, and color was edited as needed to correct previous errors.
REVISED – The number of schools was updated to better reflect current school recruitment. (pages A2-1, A2-11)
REVISED – The text describing the school incentives was edited slightly to better work as a fill, rather than static text. (pages A2-9, A2-13, A2-18)
REVISED – Redundant text was deleted. (page A2-14)
REVISED – Text was deleted to remove the indication that survey completion was required to receive the incentive. (page A2-20)
REVISED – A cover letter to accompany an abbreviated parent hard-copy survey was added. The letter and the survey will be sent home to non-responding parents, via their child’s backpack. (pages A2-58, A2-59)
REVISED – Text indicating which logo(s) will be used on the Certificate of Contribution was edited, to allow for flexibility when determining which logo to use. (page A2-66)
REVISED – A Certificate of Participation was added for respondents who completed a U.S. Department of Education webinar, offered to school staff as an incentive to participate. NCES is still determining whether these webinars will be offered, so the title indicates that the Certificate will be used as needed. (page A2-67)
REVISED – The study letterhead may be updated to include different logos or study branding. (page A2-68)
REVISED – Modified slides for spring collection and made minor edits. (A4a and A4b)
REVISED – Text was updated to reflect the number of children that will be sampled in each school. (slide 4 in A4a and A4b)
REVISED – Some of the text was put into the past tense since there was a fall data collection described in the prior slide presentation. (slide 5 in A4a and A4b)
REVISED – Data collection window changed from August to November to August to December (slide 5 in A4a and A4b)
REVISED – Made it clear that parents and teachers can only observe their students, not all students or any students (slide 6 in A4b).
REVISED – Text referencing transitional kindergarten and pre-first teachers was added. (slide 7 in A4a)
REVISED – Removed text related to fall data collection and added a graphic (slide 7 in A4a
REVISED – Text updated to indicate that parents will be asked to complete surveys in the future, and will receive incentives in each of those rounds. (slide 8 in A4b)
REVISED – Updated the timing of the parent survey from “30-45 minutes” to about “45 minutes”. (slide 9 in A4a)
Changes were made to the spring kindergarten web survey in Attachment B-2 to reduce survey length. Items for the constructs of inhibitory control, peer victimization, and children’s experiences with school suspensions or expulsions were deleted due to concerns about the length of the spring kindergarten instrument, but may be asked in the first grade. Items for the constructs of affective empathy, parental warmth, parenting stress, and disciplinary practices were deleted due to survey length, item sensitivity, and concerns about social desirability. See Attachment H, which lists all items removed, added, and changed for the instruments in this submission. Revisions to gender pronouns were made throughout the survey and are not listed as changes.
In addition, some questions about employment were reduced to a single item and others were redesigned to align with the High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study of 2022 (HS&B:22). Also, some items were changed to allow respondents to identify members of the household by their initials rather than their full names; items were also added about mobile and landline numbers. Skip logic between items was also changed to reflect these changes and references to the field test were removed. Programming specifications were updated (i.e., internal programming notes) in the final web instrument relative to the prior, approved version, to refine these for clarity to the programmers. In addition, skips and display instructions were added for districts that do not allow tracing information to be collected. A Spanish version of the survey has also been added. In addition, an abbreviated parent survey was added in Attachment B-2b that could be used for those who do not respond to the fall or spring kindergarten survey.
Changes were made to the spring kindergarten web and paper surveys in Attachments C-3, C-4, C-6, and C-7 to reduce survey length and refine items about the coronavirus pandemic. Within the following constructs, spring kindergarten teacher-level teacher survey items were streamlined by combining items together or dropping items that collected information as other similar items: classroom composition; instructional practices; availability of instructional materials; meeting with other teachers; professional development; mentorship activities; school climate; and teacher efficacy. For the spring kindergarten teacher-level special education survey, items deleted included those related to instructional and technology resources (most items for this construct were retained), job satisfaction and self-efficacy (most items for this construct were maintained), and teacher or service provider’s education (most items for this construct were maintained). Field test items related to instructional practices and resources and teaching methods and materials were not retained for the national survey. Revisions to item wordings or response options were made in items related to instructional and technology resources, job satisfaction and self-efficacy, location of services and inclusion, teacher or service provider’s caseload, teacher or service provider’s education, and teaching methods and materials.
Skip logic between items was also changed to reflect these changes and references to the field test were removed. Programming specifications were updated (i.e., internal programming notes) in the final web instrument relative to the prior, approved version, to refine these for clarity to the programmers. Questions were also renumbered.
See Attachment H, which lists all items removed, added, and changed for the instruments in this submission.
Changes were made to the spring kindergarten web and paper surveys in Attachments D-3, D-4, D-6, and D-7 to reduce the survey length. For the child-level teacher survey, items were added to refine the type of kindergarten class and obtain information on children’s transition to kindergarten. Items were deleted to correspond to fall kindergarten item revisions or because items were collected in fall kindergarten and did not need to be collected in spring kindergarten. Item wording was updated to match items in fall kindergarten or to further refine response options. For the child-level special education teacher survey, one item was added about kindergarten transitions and no items were deleted. Revisions to item wordings or response options were made in items related to the type and amount of special education services, child’s disabilities, teacher communication, and record review. (See Appendix H, which lists all items removed, added, and changed for the instruments in this submission.) Skip logic between items was also changed to reflect these changes and references to the field test were removed. Programming specifications were updated (i.e., internal programming notes) in the final web instrument relative to the prior, approved version, to refine these for clarity to the programmers. Questions were also renumbered.
See Attachment H, which lists all items removed, added, and changed for the instruments in this submission.
Changes were made to the spring kindergarten web and paper surveys in Attachments E-1 and E-2 to reduce the survey length. For the school administrator survey items within the following constructs were streamlined by combining items together or dropping items that collected information as other similar items: enrollment; principal characteristics; school policies and practices; teacher compensation and mobility; and school climate.
See Attachment H, which lists all items removed, added, and changed for the instruments in this submission.
Screenshots were updated throughout the document to reflect the text changes.
The following MyECLS landing page revisions were made:
REVISED – A sentence was added to explain that the screenshots may not match the text. The text in the document is accurate. (page F-3)
REVISED – Text referencing the website going live was removed. (page F-6)
REVISED – A typo was removed in the Spanish text. (page F-10)
REVISED – Instructional text was added to indicate in what circumstances various lists of upcoming activities should be displayed on the website. (pages F-56, F-57)
REVISED – Text was added to indicate website language should be displayed in both the fall and spring kindergarten rounds. (pages F-59, F-77)
REVISED – Text was added to indicate that documents or other display language should be available/displayed on the website for transfer schools. (pages F-60, F-71, F-76, F-77, F-83, F-86, F-108)
REVISED – Text added to indicate that selected child attributes will be displayed on the website only for children in originally-sampled schools. (page F-77)
REVISED – Text added to indicate text that displays for transfer schools and text that displays only in kindergarten rounds. (page F-83)
REVISED – Day of birth added to the display. (page F-83)
REVISED – The estimated timing for the school administrator survey was updated from 45 minutes to 30 minutes. (page F-99)
REVISED – Language on the parent portal was edited for style and clarity, in both English and Spanish. (page F-108, 109, 110)
REVISED – Text removed that indicated that the screenshots were not current. They are accurate now. (page F-111)
REVISED – Text related to availability of updates made in the survey was moved from a bulleted list to appear higher on the website screen. (pages F-122, F-123)
REVISED – The length of the survey was changed from 41-47 to 40, in both English and Spanish. (pages F-134, F-135)
Changes were made to reflect edits to spring kindergarten web and paper surveys in Attachments B-2, C-3, C-4, C-6, C-7, D-3, D-4, D-6, D-7, E-1, and E-2. Tabs for the fall kindergarten and spring first-grade surveys have not changed.
Attachment H was added to show all items removed, added, and changed for the spring kindergarten instruments in this submission.
1 Note that the expiration date associated with this clearance (April 30, 2026) has not been updated on the materials being submitted in conjunction with this revision request. The revision request expiration date, received once the request is cleared, will be updated on these materials prior to printing or otherwise distributing. Materials that are not part of this revision request will be updated with the April 30, 2026 date prior to printing/distributing.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-12-12 |