Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Division of Economic Independence Listening Session on Secondary Career Pathways Data

OMB Control Number: 0970-0401

Expiration Date: 5/31/2027

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Division of Economic Independence Listening Session on Career Pathways Secondary Data

Instrument

Introduction:

During this one-hour listening session, we want to hear from you about your experiences using archived data for the Career Pathways Secondary Data Analysis grants. Your feedback can help our office improve data archiving processes for future projects, as well as potentially improve currently archived data. We’d like to keep the discussion focused on areas that OPRE has most control over, so we will not be focusing heavily on the process of gaining access to the data via ICPSR. Many of you shared feedback on that process – and are welcome to share more, if you’d like – but we’d like to focus today specifically on the archived data, data documentation, and supports that OPRE can provide to best support secondary data analyses.

This is a voluntary collection of information. Participation in this survey is voluntary. You can skip any question or stop answering questions at any time. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0401 and the expiration date is 5/31/2027. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact Liza Rodler (liza.rodler@acf.hhs.gov).

Discussion Questions:

• Based on your experiences navigating materials, what supports were most helpful in getting oriented to the materials? By “getting oriented,” we mean activities like finding relevant publications, identifying instruments, understanding file layout, etc. Examples of supports included quarterly grantee meetings, our shared Teams site, and emailing with Abt.

  • What strategies were least helpful or in need of improvement?

• What feedback do you have on the documentation that accompanied the data, like the code book, data dictionary, etc.? What is confusing, unclear, or missing from the documentation?

• We would like to hear about your satisfaction with the archived datasets. In what ways did the archived datasets match your expectations and research goals, or not?

  • Geographic information: Based on your current research questions and goals, what geographic information is most important or helpful?

  • Participant information: Based on your research questions and goals, what participant information is most important or helpful?

  • Given tradeoffs between having access to geographic information and participant information, which types of data do you think have the most value to you?

• For those of you using qualitative data: how was your experience? What resources were most helpful? What additional information would you have liked to see?

• In general, how could OPRE improve its support for secondary analysis researchers like you? For example, some topics might include support with grants management, troubleshooting data challenges, liaising with ICSPR, etc.