SSA - NCECDTL TTA Feedback Surveys

Standard Evaluation Survey for the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning’s (NCECDTL’s) Training and Technical Assistance Offerings

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 - 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A

Updated January 2022

Submitted By:

Office of Head Start

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4^th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

A1. Necessity for the Data Collection

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval for the Standard Evaluation Survey for the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning’s Training and Technical Assistance Offerings. This proposed information collection meets the following goals of ACF’s generic clearance for formative data collections for program support (0970-0531):

• Delivery of targeted assistance and workflows related to program implementation or the development or refinement of program and grant recipient processes, and the development and refinement of recordkeeping and communication systems.

• Planning for provision of programmatic training and technical assistance (TTA).

Background

The National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning (NCECDTL) provides training and technical assistance to Head Start/Early Head Start grant recipients and Regional TTA Specialists. This professional development aims to yield improvements in program- and staff-level outcomes and lead to enhanced competencies (knowledge, skills, and practices) for TTA and grant recipient staff who focus on early child development and education services across the Head Start and Early Head Start program options. As part of the network of Early Childhood National Centers, DTL collaborates with the Central Office and Regional Offices for the Office of Head Start to provide individualized trainings in a variety of contexts and to a variety of audiences. Evaluation of these trainings is key in both improving and customizing future trainings to maximize outcomes for participants.

Legal or Administrative Requirements that Necessitate the Collection

There are no legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.

A2. Purpose of Survey and Data Collection Procedures

Overview of Purpose and Approach

This Generic Information Collection (GenIC) request includes a universe of questions from which specific questions will be chosen to evaluate TTA offered by the NCECDTL. The purpose of these data collections is to collect timely feedback from participants in an efficient manner to improve future programmatic TTA. Responses to this survey will be used to determine the success of TTA offerings, to improve the responsiveness of TTA offerings to group needs, and to inform continuous quality improvement of future TTA efforts.

Questions

The surveys fielded using the questions in the NCECDTL Evaluation Item Question Bank will ask respondents for 1) basic demographic information (i.e., primary role and state/region), 2) level of satisfaction with TTA, 3) gains in knowledge, 4) whether participants will apply what they learned, and 5) other open-ended feedback questions on their experience with the TTA service provided. Questions gauging satisfaction will use a combination of likert scales, multiple choice, and open-ended questions. The data collected will be used to understand whether the information provided is useful, meaningful, equitable, and respectful for everyone, and will be used to inform improvements to trainings provided in the future.

Design

Satisfaction surveys will be administered to people attending NCECDTL TTA offerings at the national, regional, and grant level. Questions will be selected (1) based on Common Item Bank requirements determined by the cross-National Center Data and Evaluation Workgroup and (2) via collaborative discussions with the Office of Head Start Regional office.

Universe of Data Collection Efforts

Surveys are distributed via electronic link and collected using secure survey software and are intended to cover between 40 and 60 sessions. This will include non-federal staff, Head Start/Early Head Start staff, state agency staff, program managers, and consultants working with Head Start/Early Head Start programs. The most common participants in these surveys based on past data are Teachers/Teacher Administrators, Coaches, Home Visitors, Education Managers, Disability Service Coordinators, and Early Childhood Specialists.

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The NCECDTL will provide an active link to the web-based survey for participants in the TTA events. In some cases (at the discretion of the Region), participants will also be sent the link via email using the email addresses participants used to register for the event. The estimated number of respondents is based on 50 trainings with roughly 40 responses per training (data from previous years suggest the average number of responses per survey was 34¹).

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

We do not anticipate duplicate responses as part of data collection. Trainings are conducted within Regional settings, meaning an individual from a different Region would not be eligible/able to attend a similar training in another Region. Additionally, events within Regions differ based on their target audience; for example, we would expect different participants/respondents for a Region III event evaluation geared at Education Managers compared to another Region III event evaluation geared at Coaches.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

Not applicable. No impact to small organizations expected.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

Because of the highly individualized nature of the trainings conducted by DTL, feedback obtained on each individual event has limited generalizability to other events. As such, sampling events to reduce data collection would not provide accurate data relative to all events. Additionally, we would not be able to sample feedback provided within individual events in order to allow all respondents wishing to provide feedback an opportunity to do so.

A7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances for the proposed data collection efforts.

A8. Federal Register Notice and Consultation

Federal Register Notice and Comments

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of the overarching generic clearance for formative information collection. This notice was published on October 13, 2020, Volume 85, Number 198 page 64480, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment periods, no substantive comments were received.

Consultation with Experts Outside of the Study

Not applicable as this is not a research study.

A9. Incentives for Respondents

No incentives for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Total Burden Requested Under this Information Collection

Instrument	Total Number of Respondents	Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden Hours	Annual Burden Hours2	Average Hourly Wage	Total Annual Cost
Standard Evaluation Survey	4,500	1	0.13	585	195	$47.26	$9,216

Total Annual Cost

The total annual cost is estimated at $9,216. This is based on median hourly wage of preschool education administrators from BLS job code 11-9031 (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes119031.htm, May 2020) at $23.63 per hours for 195 total hours annually. The hourly rate is multiplied by two to account for fringe benefits and overhead. The estimate of annualized cost to respondents for hour burden is $47.26 times 195 hours or $9,216.

A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

The total cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $5,000. Federal staff costs are estimated to be about 50 hours of the time of a staff at the GS-14 labor category to oversee the activities of this data collection.

A15. Change in Burden

This is for an individual information collection under the umbrella formative generic clearance for program support (0970-0531).

A16. Plan and Time Schedule for Information Collection, Tabulation and Publication

The data is only intended for internal capacity building and no publications are expected as a result of this data collection.

A17. Reasons Not to Display OMB Expiration Date

All instruments will display the expiration date for OMB approval.

A18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

1 These estimates are based on a combination of information collections approved under 0970-0401 and non-federally sponsored information collections initiated by Zero To Three (not on behalf of the federal government).

2 Annualized over a three-year period.

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