[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 26 (Tuesday, February 9, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6894-6895]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-02520]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request; 
Education and Human Resources Program Monitoring Clearance

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 
(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), and as part of its continuing effort to 
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the National Science Foundation 
invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this 
opportunity to comment on this information collection. This is the 
second notice for public comment; the first was published in the 
Federal Register at 80 FR 69701 and no comments were received. NSF is 
forwarding the proposed submission to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for clearance simultaneously with the publication of this 
second notice. The full submission may be found at: http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.

DATES: Comments regarding these information collections are best 
assured of having their full effect if received by OMB within 30 days 
of publication in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: Written comments regarding the information collection and 
requests for copies of the proposed information collection request 
should be addressed to Suzanne Plimpton, Reports Clearance Officer, 
National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Rm. 295, Arlington, VA 
22230, or by email to [email protected]. Copies of the submission may be 
obtained by calling (703) 292-7556.
    For Additional Information: Contact Suzanne Plimpton, the NSF 
Reports Clearance Officer, phone (703) 292-7556, or send email 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, which is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 
days a year (including federal holidays).
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information 
unless the collection of information displays a currently valid OMB 
control number and the agency informs potential persons who are to 
respond to the collection of information that such persons are not 
required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays 
a currently valid OMB control number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title of Collection: Education and Human Resources Program 
Monitoring Clearance.
    OMB Approval Number: 3145-0226.
    Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to renew an information 
collection.
    Abstract: The National Science Foundation (NSF) requests 
establishment of program accountability data collections that describe 
and track the impact of NSF funding that focuses on the Nation's 
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and 
STEM workforce. NSF funds grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements 
to colleges, universities, and other eligible institutions, and 
provides graduate research fellowships to individuals in all parts of 
the United States and internationally.
    The Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), a unit 
within NSF, promotes rigor and vitality within the Nation's STEM 
education enterprise to further the development of the 21st century's 
STEM workforce and public scientific literacy. EHR does this through 
diverse projects and programs that support research, extension, 
outreach, and hands-on activities that service STEM learning and 
research at all institutional (e.g., pre-school through postdoctoral) 
levels in formal and informal settings; and individuals of all ages 
(birth and beyond). EHR also focuses on broadening participation in 
STEM learning and careers among

[[Page 6895]]

United States citizens, permanent residents, and nationals, 
particularly those individuals traditionally underemployed in the STEM 
research workforce, including but not limited to women, persons with 
disabilities, and racial and ethnic minorities.
    The scope of this information collection request will primarily 
cover descriptive information gathered from education and training 
(E&T) projects that are funded by NSF. NSF will primarily use the data 
from this collection for program planning, management, and audit 
purposes to respond to queries from the Congress, the public, NSF's 
external merit reviewers who serve as advisors, including Committees of 
Visitors (COVs), the NSF's Office of the Inspector General, and as a 
basis for either internal or third-party evaluations of individual 
programs.
    The collections will generally include three categories of 
descriptive data: (1) Staff and project participants (data that are 
also necessary to determine individual-level treatment and control 
groups for future third-party study or for internal evaluation); (2) 
project implementation characteristics (also necessary for future use 
to identify well-matched comparison groups); and (3) project outputs 
(necessary to measure baseline for pre- and post-NSF-funding-level 
impacts).
    Use of the Information: This information is required for effective 
administration, communication, program and project monitoring and 
evaluation, and for measuring attainment of NSF's program, project, and 
strategic goals, and as identified by the President's Accountability in 
Government Initiative; GPRA, and the NSF's Strategic Plan. The 
Foundation's FY 2014-2018 Strategic Plan may be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14043/nsf14043.pdf.
    Since this collection will primarily be used for accountability and 
evaluation purposes, including responding to queries from COVs and 
other scientific experts, a census rather than sampling design 
typically is necessary. At the individual project level funding can be 
adjusted based on individual project's responses to some of the 
surveys. Some data collected under this collection will serve as 
baseline data for separate research and evaluation studies.
    NSF-funded contract or grantee researchers and internal or external 
evaluators in part may identify control, comparison, or treatment 
groups for NSF's E&T portfolio using some of the descriptive data 
gathered through this collection to conduct well-designed, rigorous 
research and portfolio evaluation studies.
    Respondents: Individuals or households, not-for-profit 
institutions, business or other for profit, and Federal, State, local, 
or tribal government.
    Number of Respondents: 7,284.
    Burden on the Public: NSF estimates that a total reporting and 
recordkeeping burden of 58,449 hours will result from activities to 
monitor EHR STEM education programs. The calculation is shown in table 
1.

 Table 1--Anticipated Programs That Will Collect Data on Project Progress and Outcomes Along With the Number of
                              Respondents and Burden Hours per Collection per Year
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                                                         Number of                                  Annual hour
                  Collection title                      respondents       Number of responses         burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advancing Information STEM Learning (AISL)                       155  155.......................           1,921
 Monitoring System.
Centers of Research Excellence in Science and                     40  40........................           1,810
 Technology (CREST) and Historically Black Colleges
 and Universities Research Infrastructure for
 Science and Engineering (HBCU-RISE) Monitoring
 System.
Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12)                1,267  1,267.....................           3,529
 Monitoring System.
Integrative Graduate Education and Research                    3,307  3,307.....................          12,282
 Traineeship Program (IGERT) Monitoring System.
Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation                563  563.......................          12,949
 (LSAMP) Monitoring System.
Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation                 55  55........................           2,090
 Bridge to the Doctorate (LSAMP-BD) Monitoring
 System.
Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce)                 422  422.......................           5,908
 Monitoring System.
Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) Monitoring               12  12........................           1,368
 System.
Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering,                500  1,000.....................           6,000
 and Mathematics (S-STEM) Monitoring System.                          (500 respondents x 2
                                                                       responses/yr.).
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics                277  277.......................           6,648
 Talent Expansion Program (STEP) Monitoring System.
Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science,                 686  686.......................           2,744
 Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (TUES)
 Monitoring System.
Additional Collections not Specified................             900  900.......................           1,200
                                                     -----------------------------------------------------------
    Total...........................................           8,184  8,684.....................          58,449
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    The total estimate for this collection is 58,449 annual burden 
hours. The average annual reporting burden is between 1.7 and 114 hours 
per ``respondent,'' depending on whether a respondent is a direct 
participant who is self-reporting or representing a project and 
reporting on behalf of many project participants.

    Dated: February 3, 2016.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2016-02520 Filed 2-8-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7555-01-P