[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 83 (Tuesday, April 30, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25259-25260]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-09923]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2012-ICCD-0071]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; A Study of Implementation and Outcomes in Upward Bound and 
Other TRIO Programs

AGENCY: The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of 
Education (ED).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing a new information 
collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
May 30, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice should be 
submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
http://www.regulations.gov by selecting Docket ID number ED-2012-ICCD-
0071 or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. Please 
note that comments submitted by fax or email and those submitted after 
the comment period will not be accepted. Written requests for 
information or comments submitted by postal mail or delivery should be 
addressed to the Director of the Information Collection Clearance 
Division, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, 
Room 2E105, Washington, DC 20202-4537.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Electronically mail 
[email protected]. Please do not send comments here.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Education (ED), in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general public and Federal agencies with 
an opportunity to comment on proposed, revised, and continuing 
collections of information. This helps the Department assess the impact 
of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's 
information collection requirements and provide the requested data in 
the desired format. ED is soliciting comments on the proposed 
information collection request (ICR) that is described below. 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. Please note that 
written comments received in response to this notice will be considered 
public records.
    Title of Collection: A Study of Implementation and Outcomes in 
Upward Bound and Other TRIO Programs.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-NEW.
    Type of Review: New collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Not for profit institutions.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 274.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 183.
    Abstract: This Upward Bound (UB) study, sponsored by the U.S. 
Department of Education, focuses on the implementation strategies of 
all regular UB projects. To do so, project directors will be asked to 
complete a 40 minute survey. This survey will serve two main purposes:
    1. To describe the services and strategies that Upward Bound 
grantees implement. Upward Bound projects are required to provide a 
wide-range of services, and are allowed to provide other services as 
well. The survey will attempt to capture program offerings, 
requirements, and features of the program that participants experience 
and which may improve their prospects of successfully competing high 
school, entering college, and completing college.
    2. To provide input into the decision-making process to identify a 
strategy to test as part of a random assignment demonstration. ED has 
contracted with a research team to (1) conduct a rigorous evaluation of 
college savings accounts in the context of the GEAR UP Program and (2) 
under an option that could be exercised by ED, conduct a random 
assignment demonstration of one or more promising strategies that could 
be implemented in an Upward Bound context to improve participant 
outcomes. This survey of UB grantees will probe into specific UB 
programmatic areas to identify to determine the prevalence of different 
implementation strategies and obtain a more complete picture on how 
some of these strategies are implemented. The results of this survey 
will inform the UB community as a whole as well as the planned future 
work noted above.

[[Page 25260]]

    The grantee survey will be conducted with all 820 regular Upward 
Bound projects in the spring of 2013. Preliminary results from the 
survey, which will be shared internally within ED in late Spring 2013, 
will help inform the selection of a yet-to-be determined promising 
strategy or strategies for a possible experimental study that could be 
implemented in a set of UB grantees. ED will decide whether to exercise 
the option for a study of promising strategies in Upward Bound by June 
2013, based, in large part, on the findings from the survey of UB 
grantees.
    Additionally, IES plans to publicly release the findings from the 
survey of UB grantees through a report that will require approval by 
the IES Standards and Review Office. This report will be of great 
interest to program providers and researchers concerned about college 
access programs in light of the recent changes to the Upward Bound 
program that were made in the 2012 grant competition. One of the 
important questions arising from the UB 2012 grant competition is what 
type of approaches or strategies UB projects initiated in an effort to 
reduce the cost of implementing key program components while not 
reducing the number of students served. For example, a review of 2012 
UB grant applications revealed that UB applicants proposed introducing 
the use of various technologically-based approaches to delivering some 
program components. The UB grantee survey is intended to identify and 
describe the specific strategies that UB projects actually implement to 
fulfill their grant objectives in conducting required program 
components.

    Dated: April 22, 2013.
Stephanie Valentine,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Privacy, 
Information and Records Management Services, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2013-09923 Filed 4-29-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P