[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 130 (Thursday, July 8, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39214-39215]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-16655]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Notice of Proposed Information Collection Requests

AGENCY: Department of Education.

SUMMARY: The Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, 
Regulatory Information Management Services, Office of Management, 
invites comments on the proposed information collection requests as 
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
September 7, 2010.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35) requires that the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) provide interested Federal agencies and the public an 
early opportunity to comment on information collection requests. OMB 
may amend or waive the requirement for public consultation to the 
extent that public participation in the approval process would defeat 
the purpose of the information collection, violate State or Federal 
law, or substantially interfere with any agency's ability to perform 
its statutory obligations. The Director, Information Collection 
Clearance Division, Regulatory Information Management Services, Office 
of Management, publishes that notice containing proposed information 
collection requests prior to submission of these requests to OMB. Each 
proposed information collection, grouped by office, contains the 
following: (1) Type of review requested, e.g. new, revision, extension, 
existing or reinstatement; (2) Title; (3) Summary of the collection; 
(4) Description of the need for, and proposed use of, the information; 
(5) Respondents and frequency of collection; and (6) Reporting and/or 
Recordkeeping burden. OMB invites public comment.
    The Department of Education is especially interested in public 
comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is this collection 
necessary to the proper functions of the Department; (2) will this 
information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the 
estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Department enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(5) how might the Department minimize the burden of this collection on 
the respondents, including through the use of information technology.

    Dated: July 2, 2010.
Darrin A. King,
Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Regulatory 
Information Management Services, Office of Management.

Office of Postsecondary Education.

    Type of Review: Reinstatement.
    Title: Annual Performance Reports for Title III and Title V 
Programs.
    OMB #: 1840-0766.
    Agency Form Number(s): N/A.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Affected Public: Not-for-profit institutions.
    Reporting and Recordkeeping Hour Burden:

Responses: 891.
Burden Hours: 17,460.

    Abstract: Titles III and V programs authorized by the Higher 
Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended, provide discretionary and 
formula grants to approximately 40 percent of eligible institutions of 
higher education and organizations (MSEIP-Title III, E only) to support 
improvements in educational quality, institutional management and 
fiscal stability. The office of Institutional Development and 
Undergraduate Education Services (IDUES) is authorized to award one 
year planning grants and five-year development grants and collect key 
data, analyze, report, and evaluate grantee and Program performance and 
outcomes. Grantees submit a yearly performance report to demonstrate 
that substantial progress is being made towards meeting the objectives 
of their project and first year grantees submit an interim (six month) 
report as well. This request continues the use of a web-based 
performance report to more effectively elicit program-specific 
information to be used for program monitoring, data analysis, and 
Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) reporting purposes. The 
Annual Performance Report (APR) continues to be the cornerstone of the 
Information Management Performance System (IMPS) tailored to strengthen 
the Department of Education's program monitoring efforts, streamline 
our processes, and enhance our customer service to the end of meeting 
legislative, regulatory, and directive requirements.
    The colleges and communities served by Titles III and V of the HEA 
include: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU); 
Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGI); Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions (HSI); American Indian Tribally Controlled Colleges and 
Universities (TCCU); Alaska Native-Serving Institutions; Native 
Hawaiian-Serving Institutions; Asian American and Native American 
Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI); Native American-
Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI); and other institutions that 
serve a significant number of minority and financially disadvantaged 
students and have low average and general expenditures per student.
    There are major forces continuing to drive the APR: (1) The need to 
improve the quality and effectiveness of our program monitoring 
efforts; (2) the need to provide more reliable and valid data for the 
Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA); (3) the need to evaluate 
grantee and Program effectiveness; and (4) capacity building efforts 
toward a Title III and Title V community of practice. The Office of 
Inspector General (IG) has identified repeatedly the aforementioned 
needs as areas that IDUES should resolve. For the past seven years, 
IDUES has been focused on addressing these areas and has designed this 
APR as the data collection tool of the Information Management 
Performance System platform.
    The APR supports IDUES IMPS as the database tool of our monitoring 
oversight, analysis, evaluation, trend and profile reporting of grant 
and program life cycle performance. According the IG audit ED-OIG/A04-
90013 (``Office of Higher Education Programs Needs to Improve its 
Oversight of Parts A and B of the Title III Program''), ``[Higher 
Education Programs] needs a systematic approach to effectively and 
efficiently monitor Title III grantees for compliance and program 
performance.'' With this methodical approach to program monitoring, 
IDUES is significantly reducing the risk of grantees using federal 
funds inappropriately and better ensuring that grant objectives are 
being met. In our most recent collection grantees indicated that only 
one percent of grantees requested a change to scheduled objectives and 
57 percent of grantee objectives were on schedule of

[[Page 39215]]

the more than 9,000 objectives identified. Prior to the development and 
implementation of the APR electronic collection we were not able to 
present data that indicated success or failure of the programs 
individually or collectively without laboring through hundreds of hard 
copy reports.
    In addition to improving our program oversight, the IG has found 
that the current Title III and Title V performance indicators for GPRA 
were developed with minimal consultation with the grantee communities, 
and minimal involvement from IDUES staff. In the Audit Report ED-OIG/
A04-90014 (``Review of Title III Program, HEA, Compliance with GPRA 
Requirements for Implementation of Performance Indicators''), the IG 
recommends that we create a more reliable system for collecting and 
aggregating the data needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the 
Title III and Title V programs. Clearly, the APR should play a central 
role in collecting the GPRA data that we are required to report to 
Congress. With this in mind, the APR was designed to collect data in a 
manner that is flexible, reliable, valid and pertinent to program 
objectives and Program performance measures. Furthermore the resulting 
profile and trend reports from the APR are facilitating dialogues with 
the grantee community on performance indicators and individual program 
success.
    In conjunction with the IG's findings and in accordance with 
Actions (4)(a)(1) & (4)(a)(2) of the Corrective Action Plan (CAN 
04-6001) issued by IDUES, we are continuing use of an Annual 
Performance Report that substantially improves our efforts to meet the 
aforementioned objectives. Yet it is clear that a single, annual report 
would be insufficient for satisfying the multiple and varied demands 
that are required for program monitoring and GPRA reporting. Therefore 
the APR is being submitted for OMB approval as IDUES' cornerstone of an 
Information Management Performance System that employs various tools to 
comprehensively analyze, evaluate, report Program trends and community 
practice, and monitor our grantees and Program success. Catalog of 
Federal Domestic Assistance program numbers are being added for 
84.031C, 84.031L, 84.382B, 84.031M, and 84.031X. Current questions for 
CFDA 84.031B and 84.031S are edited for clarity.
    Requests for copies of the proposed information collection request 
may be accessed from http://edicsweb.ed.gov, by selecting the ``Browse 
Pending Collections'' link and by clicking on link number 4348. When 
you access the information collection, click on ``Download 
Attachments'' to view. Written requests for information should be 
addressed to U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., 
LBJ, Washington, DC 20202-4537. Requests may also be electronically 
mailed to [email protected] or faxed to 202-401-0920. Please specify 
the complete title of the information collection when making your 
request.
    Comments regarding burden and/or the collection activity 
requirements should be electronically mailed to [email protected]. 
Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may 
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.

[FR Doc. 2010-16655 Filed 7-7-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P