[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 177 (Wednesday, September 12, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56194-56197]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-22509]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Promising and Practical Strategies to Increase Postsecondary 
Success; Request for Information

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Request for Information (RFI); Promising and Practical 
Strategies to Increase Postsecondary Success--Second Round Request and 
Posting of Responses from First Round.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Education (Department) requests information 
about promising and practical strategies, practices, programs, and 
activities (promising and practical strategies) that have improved 
rates of postsecondary success, transfer, and graduation. In addition, 
the Department announces the availability of the material submitted by 
respondents to an earlier request for information on this same subject.
    The Department believes this information will be of interest to 
others in situations similar to those described in the submissions. We 
also believe that this information will be useful during future 
deliberations, possibly including discussions concerning improvements 
to the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), and other 
legislative proposals to the Congress. Each response to this RFI should 
contain the following elements (see Guidance for Submitting Documents 
and Request for Information for full details):
    (1) Contact information;
    (2) Brief one-paragraph abstract;
    (3) Detailed description of the promising and practical strategy; 
and
    (4) Applicable keywords or tags (meta data tags).

DATES: Responses to this RFI may be submitted at any time after the 
publication of this notice, but in order for a response to be 
considered in the second round of reviews, it should be submitted by 
November 30, 2012. We will review and post responses received after 
November 30, 2012 on a regular basis.

ADDRESSES: Provide any submission related to this RFI to the following 
email address: [email protected]. Alternatively, mail or deliver 
submissions to Frederick Winter, Fund for the Improvement of 
Postsecondary Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. 
Department of Education, 1990 K Street NW., Room 6145, Washington, DC 
20006-8544.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Frederick Winter, (202) 502-7632, 
[email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-
800-877-8339. Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in 
an accessible format (e.g. braille, large print, audiotape, or compact 
disc) by contacting Warren Farr at (202) 377-4380 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    In February 2009, President Obama established a goal for the United 
States to regain, by 2020, its position as the nation with the highest 
percentage of its population holding postsecondary degrees and 
credentials. The Secretary of Education is interested in collecting and 
making available to the public information on promising and practical 
strategies that can help educational institutions, States, non-profit

[[Page 56195]]

organizations, and other entities contribute to achieving this goal.
    On January 30, 2012, the Department published in the Federal 
Register a notice seeking information about promising and practical 
strategies that have improved rates of postsecondary success, transfer, 
and graduation (77 FR 4550). In order for a response to be considered 
in the first round of reviews, the Department requested responses by 
April 30, 2012.
    As specified in the original notice, the Department is publishing 
this second notice to announce that the information submitted by 
respondents to that first RFI is available on the Postsecondary 
Completion Web site at http://www.ed.gov/college-completion/promising-strategies.
    In addition, the Department again invites institutions of higher 
education (IHEs), non-profit organizations, States, systems of higher 
education, adult education providers, researchers, and institutional 
faculty and staff, or consortia of these entities, to provide the 
Department with information about promising and practical strategies.
    The Department is most interested in information about strategies 
that emphasize the quality of what students learn and timely or 
accelerated attainment of postsecondary degrees or certificates, 
including industry-recognized credentials that lead to improved 
learning and employment outcomes.
    The Department is also particularly interested in information about 
promising and practical strategies that could be replicated or scaled 
up to help IHEs and States meet the President's goal for postsecondary 
degree attainment and improve student success generally. In addition to 
descriptions of these strategies, we are interested in receiving 
information about the factors perceived as most important to a 
strategy's successful implementation, the evidence that led the 
respondent to determine the importance of these factors, the types of 
environments or contexts for which the practice is most likely to 
succeed, and the issues that the respondent believes would need to be 
addressed in order to encourage successful replication elsewhere.
    The Department has established the Postsecondary Completion Web 
site to serve as an online resource that makes publicly available the 
information submitted in response to the RFI. While we intend to review 
submissions made in response to this RFI before posting them on the 
Postsecondary Completion Web site, we will not be responsible for, and 
will not certify the accuracy of, any of the information or claims 
contained in these submissions. We have posted a disclaimer to this 
effect on the Postsecondary Completion Web site. The individual or 
entity that submits information remains responsible for its accuracy.
    This RFI is issued under the authority of the Department of 
Education Organization Act (DEOA) of 1979, 20 U.S.C. 3402(4), by which 
the Secretary is authorized to promote improvements in the quality and 
usefulness of education through federally supported research, 
evaluation, and sharing of information.
    Guidance for Submitting Documents: Respondents to this RFI should 
provide submissions attached to an electronic mail message sent to the 
email address provided in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. To help 
ensure accessibility to all interested parties, we request that all 
submissions comply with the requirements of section 508 of the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or be submitted in an electronic format 
that can be made accessible, such as Microsoft Word. We will accept 
submissions in any electronic or written form provided, but we will not 
post submissions in forms that are not compliant with Section 508 and 
not accessible. Instead, we will index these submissions and make them 
available in an accessible format upon request.
    We ask each respondent to include the name and address of his or 
her institution, consortium, or affiliation, if any, and the name, 
title, mailing and email addresses, and telephone number of a contact 
person. We also ask that each submission begin with a brief, one-
paragraph abstract that provides an overview of the information 
provided.
    The submission should include contact information (name, title, 
phone number, and email address) for an officer of the institution or 
an official of the submitting entity who is authorized to approve the 
submission. The Department will contact the officer to confirm 
authorization for the submission.
    If the submission is from a consortium of institutions, we ask that 
the respondent identify all members of the consortium but provide only 
the name of one contact person. We also ask that the submission include 
contact information for the consortium's executive director so that we 
can confirm authorization for the submission.

Request for Information

    At this time, we seek the assistance of entities that can offer 
information about promising and practical strategies that they have 
implemented, with or without Federal support, and that they believe 
have made measurable contributions to accelerated attainment of 
postsecondary degrees or certificates, including industry-recognized-
credentials that lead to improved learning and employment outcomes.
    We note that previous efforts to improve outcomes from 
postsecondary institutions have included improved student support 
services, early and middle college programs, successful remediation 
programs, open educational resources (that is, resources that are made 
freely available to students as a substitute for commercial, 
proprietary learning materials), distance and tele-presence courses, 
pay-for-performance scholarships and financial assistance, 
nontraditional course schedules and sequences, and peer support.
    We request each respondent to demonstrate how the promising and 
practical strategy is supported by data on outcomes. If a strategy 
described in a submission does not have extensive outcome data, the 
respondent should submit evidence that the proposed strategy, or one 
similar to it, has been attempted previously, even if on a limited 
scale or in a limited setting, and yielded promising results. We are 
particularly interested in strategies, practices, programs, or 
activities supported by outcome data or for which evaluations have been 
conducted that can support any conclusions the respondent makes about 
the strategies described. We are also interested in receiving 
information about the costs of implementing the promising and practical 
strategies, both overall and per participant.
    Specifically, we are interested in receiving documents and reports 
that include the following information:
     A detailed description of the promising and practical 
strategy:
    [cir] Clear descriptions of the college completion obstacle 
addressed, including the dimensions of the problems or obstacles 
targeted by the intervention.
    [cir] The theory of action that provides the basis for the 
promising and practical strategy.
    [cir] A history of how the promising and practical strategy was 
developed.
    [cir] A description of the way submitters or others measured the 
outcomes of the promising and practical strategy, and of any 
evaluations of the strategy, where available, including references to 
published or related studies and links to the relevant data or 
evaluation. In addition, respondents should discuss any factor or 
factors that made measuring success difficult and how they addressed 
those factors.

[[Page 56196]]

     A discussion of any difficulties or challenges that arose 
during the implementation of the promising and practical strategy and 
of any adjustments that the institution or organization made in 
response to those challenges.
     A description of the factor or factors the respondent 
believes were most important to the success of the promising and 
practical strategy. This could include the participation of a 
particular individual in the implementation of the strategy or some 
other reason that goes beyond the design of the activity undertaken.
     A description of the elements of the promising and 
practical strategy that the respondent believes did not work, including 
a discussion of why the respondent believes an element did not work and 
what the respondent would do to change the activity in question in the 
future.
     Suggestions about how other institutions might best 
replicate the promising and practical strategy and what potential 
concerns could make replication difficult.
     Detailed discussion of any Federal regulatory or statutory 
requirements or other laws, rules, or regulations that made 
successfully implementing the promising and practical strategy easier 
or more difficult.
    This list of items we invite for submission is illustrative only; 
respondents may also address other issues that they believe are 
appropriate to the promising and practical strategies they describe.

Rights to Materials Submitted

    By submitting material in response to this RFI (e.g., descriptions 
of promising and practical strategies or data supporting strategies), 
the respondent is agreeing to grant the Department a worldwide, 
royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use the 
material and post it on the Postsecondary Completion Web site. Further, 
the respondent agrees that it owns, has a valid license, or is 
otherwise authorized to provide the material to the Department for 
inclusion on the Postsecondary Completion Web site. The Department will 
not provide any compensation for material submitted in response to this 
RFI.

Request for Meta Data Tags

    The Department anticipates a significant number of responses. To 
maximize the utility of the information we can make available on the 
Postsecondary Completion Web site, and to make it easier for interested 
parties to search this information, the Department will include 
specific words or phrases--also known as ``keywords'' or meta data 
``tags''--in the database used to support the Web site. Therefore, the 
Department strongly encourages respondents to use keywords or tags to 
identify components of the strategies described in their responses. The 
keywords or tags should be linked to, and accurately reflect 
substantial components of, the strategies, practices, programs, or 
other activities described in the submission.
    To simplify searches of the database created by the responses to 
this RFI, the Department provides in Appendix A of this RFI a list of 
standard keywords and tags that would be useful for the Postsecondary 
Completion Web site. The Department strongly encourages respondents to 
select--to the greatest extent possible--from among these standard 
keywords and tags when identifying tags for their submission. If none 
of the words or phrases in Appendix A is sufficiently precise for the 
promising and practical strategy that is the subject of the response, 
respondents may substitute other keywords or tags of their own 
choosing. The Department strongly encourages respondents to provide no 
more than eight keywords or tags for each strategy and limit each tag 
to no more than three words per tag and 28 characters per word. By 
limiting keywords and tags in this manner, the Department can most 
efficiently index the database and enable effective searches of all 
information obtained through this RFI.
    Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this 
document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, 
audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the program contact person 
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

Electronic Access to This Document

    The official version of this document is the document published in 
the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the official edition of 
the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations is available 
via the Federal Digital System at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you 
can view this document, as well as all other documents of this 
Department published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable 
Document Format (PDF). To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, 
which is available free at the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at: 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

    Authority: 20 U.S.C. 3204(4).

    Dated: September 6, 2012.
Martha Kanter,
Under Secretary of Education.

Appendix A: Standard Keywords and Tags

 Accelerated Learning
 Accessible Materials
 Achievement Gap Closure
 Adult Education
 Affordability
 Assessment Technology
 Badges
 Basic Skills
 Blended Learning
 Block Scheduling
 Career Pathways
 Certificate Attainment
 Civic/Community Engagement
 Civic Learning
 Cognitive Tutors
 Community of Practice
 Competency-Based Learning
 Contextualized Learning
 Cost Savings
 Course Articulation
 Data Collection/Use
 Degree Attainment
 Developmental/Remedial Education
 Digital Materials
 Disability Services
 Dual Degrees
 Earn and Learn
 Efficiency
 Employer Partnership
 504 Plan
 Game Design
 Improving Achievement
 Industry-Driven Competencies
 Industry-Recognized Credentials
 Job Placement
 Learning Assessment
 Learning Communities
 Mentoring
 Mobile Devices
 Modular Curriculum
 Momentum Points
 Non-Traditional Age Students
 On-the-Job Training
 Online Teaching/Learning
 Open Educational Resources
 Paid Internships
 Part-Time Students
 Pay-for-Performance
 Persistence
 Personalized Instruction
 Productivity
 Real-Time Online Interactions
 Reasonable Accommodations
 Registered Apprenticeships
 Retention
 SCORM
 Self-Paced Learning
 Simulations
 Skill Assessments
 Stackable Credentials
 Student Services
 Students with Disabilities
 STEM
 Technology-Enabled Learning
 Time to Degree

[[Page 56197]]

 Transfer and Articulation
 Tuition Reduction
 Underrepresented Students
 Virtual Environments
 Web-Based Learning

    Note 1: SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model


    Note 2: STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and 
Mathematics


[FR Doc. 2012-22509 Filed 9-11-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P