PROGRAM FOR THE INTERNATIONAL 

ASSESSMENT OF ADULT COMPETENCIES (PIAAC)

2013-2014 

NATIONAL SUPPLEMENT DATA COLLECTION

REQUEST FOR OMB CLEARANCE

OMB# 1850-0870 v.3

Supporting Statement Part A

Prepared by:

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education

Washington, DC

February, 2013
i

Table of Contents

Section Page

Preface.................................................................................................................. 1

A Justification.......................................................................................................... 4

A.1 Importance of Information ................................................................. 4

A.2 Purposes and Uses of the Data........................................................... 5

A.3 Improved Information Technology ................................................... 6

A.4 Efforts to Identify Duplication........................................................... 7

A.5 Minimizing Burden on Small Institutions......................................... 7

A.6 Frequency of Data Collection ............................................................. 7

A.7 Special Circumstances.......................................................................... 7

A.8 Consultation Outside NCES............................................................... 7

A.9 Payments or Incentives to Respondents ........................................... 8

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality ............................................................... 9

A.11 Sensitive Questions............................................................................... 10

A.12 Estimates of Burden............................................................................. 11

A.13 Total Annual Cost Burden................................................................... 12

A.14 Annualized Cost to Federal Government ......................................... 12

A.15 Program Changes or Adjustments...................................................... 13

A.16 Plans for Tabulation and Publication................................................. 13

A.17 Display OMB Expiration Date ........................................................... 14

A.18 Exceptions to Certification Statement............................................... 14

B Collection of Information Employing Statistical Information

B.1 Respondent Universe and Response Rates

B.2 Procedures for Collection of Information

B.3 Maximizing Response Rates

B.4 Tests of Procedures

B.5 Individuals Consulted on Statistical Design

Tables Page

1 Estimates of burden for PIAAC National Supplement................................ 11

2 Cost for conducting the PIAAC National Supplement................................ 13
ii

Contents (continued)

Appendixes

A U.S. PIAAC National Supplement Screener (Household-based Sample)

B U.S. PIAAC National Supplement Background Questionnaire

 [Background Questionnaire (BQ) version for the Household-based sample is unchanged since 

approval in May 2011 (OMB# 1850-0870 v.2); the BQ for the Prison-based sample, while 

based on the Household BQ, is new]

C PIAAC National Supplement Contact Letters and Brochures

D List of Changes Made to the Main Study Background Questionnaire 

(Household-based Sample)

E List of Changes Made to the Main Study Screener (Household-based Sample)

F PIAAC Reducing Nonresponse Bias and Preliminary Nonresponse Bias Analysis
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Preface

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved in May 2011 (OMB# 1850-0870 v.2) the Program 

for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2011-2012 Main Study Data Collection. 

This submission is a request for OMB’s approval of the 2013-2014 PIAAC National Supplement, which has 

been developed in response to the increasing interest in the PIAAC program’s extensive new measurements 

and information and to the success of the PIAAC Main Study’s data collection. For the National Supplement, 

NCES proposes collecting data from an additional sample of U.S. adults that, when combined with the U.S. 

PIAAC Main Study data, will enhance the U.S. PIAAC sample and support analyses of key U.S. subgroups of 

interest. Specifically, the PIAAC National Supplement replicates the PIAAC Main Study with the following 

changes: (1) the sample population has been expanded to include older adults (ages 66-74) and adults in 

prison (ages 16-74), and to oversample unemployed adults (ages 16-65) and young adults (ages 16-34) who are 

either employed or not in the labor force; and (2) a five-dollar completed-screener incentive would be used to 

encourage a high screener response rate for the relatively large household screening sample required for the 

National Supplement (12,483 estimated number of completed screeners, per Table 1 below, compared with

the Main Study’s 5,686 actual completed screeners) to identify special populations in the sample in a short 

timeframe. 

Because PIAAC National Supplement so closely replicates the PIAAC Main Study, the Supporting Statement 

Parts A and B of this request are updated versions of Parts A and B of the PIAAC Main Study’s OMB 

request, which was approved in May 2011, with the following differences: the addition of a proposal for the 

screener incentive and changes to the description of target population, the prison sample, the timeline in 

section A.18, and to the description of the sample in Part B, which have been updated to accurately reflect 

modifications since the Main Study.

In addition, the following changes have been made to the study’s data collection instrument and supporting 

materials, which were approved in May 2011:

1. Four employment-related questions were added to the PIAAC screener to screen for the unemployed 

target population (the questions added to the screener are identical to the unemployment questions 

included in the OMB approved PIAAC 2011-12 background questionnaire).

2. The dates and age ranges in the PIAAC Main Study household-based background questionnaire and 

contact letters have been updated to reflect the National Supplement’s expanded age range. 

Descriptions of all modifications made to the previously approved PIAAC Main Study instruments are 

detailed in appendices D and E.

The U.S. PIAAC National Supplement will occur between late August 2013 and April 30, 2014, closely 

matching the U.S. PIAAC Main Study data collection, which occurred between August 25, 2011, and April 3, 
2

2012. The U.S. PIAAC National Supplement will include a sample of 3,600 adults in the same 80 PSUs as the 

Main Study as well as a sample of 1,200 adults from prisons and correctional facilities. The PIAAC Main 

Study included 5,010 completed cases in 80 PSUs located across the United States. The PIAAC National 

Supplement’s basic survey components (i.e., a screener, an in-person background questionnaire, and a 

computer-based or paper assessment) remain the same as in the PIAAC Main Study. However, the 

instruments have been modified slightly to: add employment questions to the screener (to identify and select 

unemployed persons); adjust age related edits needed for the addition of adults aged 66-74; and adjust daterelated edits affected by the data collection period (as explained in appendices D and E).

The following information in this Preface is provided as background and context.

PIAAC is the most comprehensive international survey of adult skills ever undertaken. The survey examines

literacy in the information age and assesses adult skills consistently across participating countries (twenty-four 

countries completed the Main Study and eight to ten countries are expected to participate in a second 

international wave of PIAAC in 2014-151). PIAAC focuses on what are deemed key skills for individuals to 

participate successfully in the economy and society of the 21st century. This multi-cycle study is a 

collaboration between the governments of participating countries, the Organization for Economic 

Cooperation and Development (OECD), and a consortium of various international organizations, referred to 

as the PIAAC Consortium, led by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), including the German Institute for 

International Educational Research (DIPF), the German Social Sciences Infrastructure Services’ Centre for 

Survey Research and Methodology (GESIS-ZUMA), the University of Maastricht, the U.S. company Westat,

the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), and the Belgium firm 

cApStAn.

The study assesses the following adult skills: basic reading skills, reading literacy, numeracy, and problem 

solving in “technology-rich environments” (the OECD term for ‘on or with a computer’). PIAAC also 

measures the ability of individuals to use computer and web applications to find, gather, and use information, 

and to communicate with others. The study uses a “Job Requirements Approach” to ask employed adults 

about the types and levels of a number of specific skills used in the workplace. These include not only the use 

of reading and numeracy skills on the job, but also physical skills (e.g., stamina and manual dexterity), people 

skills (e.g., public speaking, negotiating, working in a team), and information technology skills (e.g., using 

spreadsheets, writing computer code). It asks about the requirements of the person’s main job in terms of the 

intensity and frequency of the use of such skills. PIAAC uses computers to administer an international 

assessment, though some individuals will be given a paper and pencil version of the assessment.

 

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 The PIAAC Consortium work continues and includes reporting and data release scheduled for October 2013 for the initial 24 PIAAC countries that have 

completed data collection. In addition, they are supporting the data collection for the second wave of PIAAC countries but overseeing the sampling, training, data 

collection, quality control, weighting, reporting, and data release activities at these countries. During this same time the PIAAC Consortium will be available to 

support the PIAAC National Supplement activities in the United States as needed.
3

An important element of the value of PIAAC is its collaborative and international nature. In the United 

States, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has collaborated 

on PIAAC with the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL). Staff from NCES and DoL are co-representatives of 

the United States on PIAAC's international governing body and NCES has consulted extensively with DoL, 

particularly on development of the job skills section of the background questionnaire. Internationally, PIAAC 

has been developed collaboratively by participating countries’ representatives from both Ministries or 

Departments of Education and Labor and by OECD staff through an extensive series of international 

meetings and workgroups. These international meetings and workgroups, assisted by expert panels, 

researchers, and the PIAAC Consortium’s support staff, developed the framework for the assessment and 

background questionnaire, the common standards and procedures for collecting and reporting data, and 

guided the development of a common, international “virtual machine” (VM) software that administers the 

assessment uniformly on laptops. All PIAAC countries must follow the common standards and procedures 

and use the same VM software when conducting the survey and assessment. As a result, PIAAC is able to 

provide a reliable and comparable measure of adult skills in the adult population, age 16-65, of participating 

countries. PIAAC is wholly a product of international and inter-department collaboration, and as such 

represents compromises on the part of all participants.

Currently, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has contracted with Westat to work with 

NCES and the PIAAC Consortium on the conduct of the PIAAC National Supplement. Westat’s key tasks 

include instrument development (a screener to enumerate and select study participants), adaptation of the 

U.S. PIAAC Main Study background questionnaire for the prison population, sample design and selection, 

data collection, scoring, and the production of reports detailing the results of the main study and the national 

supplement.
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Over the past two decades, there has been growing interest by national governments and other stakeholders 

in an international assessment of adult skills to monitor how well prepared populations are for the challenges 

of a knowledge-based society. In the mid-1990s, three waves of the International Adult Literacy Survey 

(IALS) assessed the prose, document, and quantitative literacy of adults in 22 countries, and between 2002 

and 2006, the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills (ALL) Survey assessed prose and document literacy, numeracy,

and problem-solving in eleven countries and one state. 

The PIAAC Main Study conducted in 2011-2012, built on previous surveys and extended international adult 

assessment beyond traditional measures of literacy and numeracy. It aimed to address the growing need to 

collect more sophisticated information that will better match the needs of governments to develop a highquality workforce capable of solving problems and dealing with complex information that is often presented 

electronically on computers.

On account of the success of the PIAAC Main Study and of increasing interest in the PIAAC program’s

extensive new measurements and information, NCES has decided to undertake the PIAAC National 

Supplement to add an additional sample of U.S. adults that, when combined with the U.S. PIAAC Main Study 

data, will enhance the U.S. PIAAC sample and support analyses of key U.S. subgroups, including young adults 

(ages 16-34), unemployed adults (ages 16-65), older adults (ages 66-74), and adults in prison (ages 16-74).

The PIAAC National Supplement will use the same instruments and procedures that were used during the 

administration of the PIAAC Main Study. 

A.1 Importance of Information

Through its involvement in PIAAC, NCES will be able to provide policy-relevant data for international 

comparisons of the U.S. adult population’s competencies and skills, and help inform decision-making on the 

part of national and state policymakers, especially those concerned with economic development and 

workforce education. The majority of the literacy and numeracy items proposed for the PIAAC assessment 

are taken directly from previous international adult literacy assessments (IALS and ALL). However, PIAAC 

extends beyond the previous adult assessments through the addition of the “problem solving in technologyrich environments” component, which is designed to measure the cognitive skills required in the information 

age. 

Justification A
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The PIAAC National Supplement will build upon the PIAAC Main Study and will enhance the information 

available to NCES and national, state, and local policymakers for special subgroups of interest. Without the 

National Supplement, data analyses of young adults (ages 16-34) and the unemployed would be limited due to 

the relatively small sample sizes of study participants identified during the PIAAC Main Study. In addition, 

the Main Study did not include older adults (ages 66-74) or adults in prison. The National Supplement is 

therefore critical to improve the representativeness of the U.S. sample and to provide information about these 

subgroups.

A.2 Purposes and Uses of the Data

One of the aims of the PIAAC Main Study was to extend the range of adult skill measurement so that it 

adequately measured not just the middle range of skills but the upper and lower “tails” of the distribution of 

skill proficiencies. To this end, PIAAC pioneered an adaptive assessment as well as the new assessment 

domains of problem solving in technology-rich environments and reading components. The PIAAC National 

Supplement will administer the exact same cognitive assessment as the PIAAC Main Study; but it will 

complement the PIAAC Main Study with an additional sample of adults to enable national estimates for 

special groups of interest which include: the unemployed (ages 16-65), two groups of young adults (ages 16-24 

and 25-34), a 66-74 year old cohort and adults in prison (ages 16-74).

The results of this combined PIAAC dataset will be used to:

 Extend the measurement of skills held by the working-age population, with a focus on the 

unemployed and young adults;

 Provide a better understanding of the relationship of education and employment to adult skills; and

 Improve the representativeness of the U.S. sample by including a sample of older adults (ages 66-74) 

and adults in prison.

Additionally, information from the PIAAC National Supplement will be used by:

 Federal policymakers and Congress to (a) better understand the distribution of skills within and across 

segments of the population and (b) be able to plan Federal policies and interventions that are most 

effective in developing key skills among various subgroups of the adult population; 

 State and local officials to plan and develop education and training policies targeted to those segments 

of the population in need of skill development;

 News media to provide more detailed information to the public about the distribution of skills within 

the U.S. adult population, in general, and the U.S. workforce more specifically; and

 Business and educational organizations to better understand the skills of the U.S. labor force and to 

properly invest in skills development among key segments of the workforce to address skill gaps.
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A.3 Improved Information Technology

Technology is a large component of the PIAAC Main Study and the National Supplement. As with the 

PIAAC Main Study, the screener, used for household-based sampling, and the background questionnaire 

(BQ) are administered using a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) system. The interviewer reads

the items aloud to the respondent from the screen on a laptop computer and records all responses on the 

computer. The use of a computer for these questionnaires allows for automated skip patterns to be 

programmed into the database as well as data to be entered directly into the database for analyses. In addition, 

the computer will run a sampling algorithm for the screener to determine who, if anyone, in the household is 

eligible to participate in the study, and it will select a respondent or respondents for the BQ and the 

Assessment.

Although PIAAC is designed to be an adaptive, computer-administered assessment of adult skills, not all 

sampled adults may be able to use a computer. Thus, the BQ includes two questions about computer usage 

that the virtual machine (VM) uses to route respondents either to the adaptive, computer-based (CBA) 

assessment or to the paper-based (PBA) assessment depending on their self-reported computer usage. 

Sampled adults who are routed to the CBA are asked to complete a short series of cognitive items known as 

the Core Task. The Core Task serves two purposes: (1) to screen respondents for the ICT skills needed to 

complete the assessment on the computer, and (2) to provide a simple measure of the respondent’s literacy 

and numeracy skills that serve to route respondents to an initial set of literacy and numeracy items at 

appropriate level for them. Respondents who report not using computers in the BQ and respondents who do 

not answer enough questions correctly in the Core Task are routed to the paper-and-pencil assessment. 

Most respondents complete the assessment via computer (in the PIAAC Main Study, 84 percent of 

participating adults completed the assessment on the computer). An automated interviewer guide will assist 

the interviewer in administering the assessment to those who are routed to complete the assessment on paper. 

This interviewer guide contains prompts to be read aloud to the respondent. 

Additionally, the Field Management System (FMS) used during the PIAAC Main Study will be used for the 

PIAAC National Supplement. The FMS is comprised of three basic modules: the Supervisor Management 

System, the Interviewer Management System, and the Home Office Management System. The Supervisor 

Management System is used to manage data collection and case assignments and produce productivity 

reports. The Interviewer Management System allows interviewers to administer the automated instruments, 

manage case status, transmit data, and maintain information on the cases. The Home Office Management 

System supports the packaging and shipping of cases to the field, shipping of booklets for scoring report 

production, processing of cases, receipt control, and the receipt and processing of automated data, and is 

integrated with back-end processes for editing and analysis.
7

Based on our experience during the PIAAC Main Study, it is estimated that approximately 97 percent of all 

responses collected across all of the PIAAC instruments, including the screener, background questionnaire, 

core tasks, and the assessment will be submitted electronically. 

A.4 Efforts to Identify Duplication

None of the previous literacy assessments conducted in the United States, including Adult Literacy and 

Lifeskills (ALL) and National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), have used computer-based assessments 

to measure adult skills. Moreover, PIAAC incorporates a technology component among the skills being 

measured. The international nature of the study allows comparisons of the prevalence of these skills in the 

United States versus other PIAAC participating countries and the PIAAC National Supplement allows 

comparisons across the subgroups mentioned above within the United States. 

A.5 Minimizing Burden on Small Institutions

The PIAAC National Supplement will collect information about the 16–74-year-old population from 

individuals in households and individuals housed in federal, state, and private prisons that house federal and 

state prisoners. None of these qualify as small businesses or institutions.

A.6 Frequency of Data Collection

The PIAAC Main Study was a new effort in which data collection was completed during 2011-2012. PIAAC 

has been envisaged as a re-occurring 10-year survey and as of the date of this OMB submission the periodicity 

of the study had not been officially set. The PIAAC National Supplement is a one-time data collection effort 

to increase the sample sizes of special subgroups of interest.

A.7 Special Circumstances

The National Center for Education Statistics is not applying for any exceptions to the guidelines in 5CFR 

1320.

A.8 Consultation Outside NCES

The PIAAC National Supplement will follow the same procedures and guidelines that were used for the 

PIAAC Main Study and were described by the PIAAC Technical Standards and Guidelines developed by the 

PIAAC Consortium. The design of the PIAAC Main Study and the PIAAC Technical Standards and 

Guidelines involved the participation of the staff of the OECD, Educational Testing Service, the German 

Institute for International Educational Research, the German Social Sciences Infrastructure Services’ Centre 

for Survey Research and Methodology, the University of Maastricht, Westat, the IEA, and cApStAn. In the 

United States, NCES has consulted about PIAAC with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of 
8

Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), the Institute of Education Sciences’ Office of Research, the U.S. 

Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), and, through a Literacy Research 

Convening Group, representatives from the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Health and Human 

Services Administration (HHS), the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons, the Treasury 

Department, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Within NCES, PIAAC staff have worked closely 

with staff of both the Assessment Division (especially the staff of NAAL) and the Postsecondary, Adult, and 

Career Education Division (PACE). NCES staff were also assisted by the following American Institutes for 

Research staff: Jaleh Soroui, Timothy Werwath, and Saida Mamedova.

Additionally, because the PIAAC national supplement will be in the field at approximately at the same time as 

the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Inmate Study, NCES and BJS have agreed to coordinate prison 

samples with each other in the Spring 2014.

A.9 Payments or Incentives to Respondents

In recent years, in-person household-based surveys have seen response rates decline and research on surveys 

indicates that incentives play an important role in gaining respondent cooperation in such household surveys. 

As part of the planned efforts to meet PIAAC National Supplement response rate goals, NCES proposes 

giving sampled respondents the same incentive used for the PIAAC Main Study: $50 for the respondent’s 

time and effort spent answering the survey (i.e., completing the background questionnaire, the Core Task, and 

the Assessment). NCES received OMB approval to offer a $50 incentive for the PIAAC Main Study after the 

results of an incentive experiment during the 2010 PIAAC Field Test indicated that $50 improved responses 

rates compared with lower amounts. Note that respondents from the prison sample will not be given a 

monetary incentive because this is not allowed.

In addition to the $50 incentive for completing the survey, NCES proposes a $5 completed-screener 

incentive. As discussed in section B.1 and shown in Table 4, we estimate that only about one-third of the 

14,431 PIAAC National Supplement sampled households will have a participant selected for the study. This 

is due to the population groups of interest for the study and the targeted screening effort which will look for

older adults (ages 66-74) along with unemployed adults (ages 16-65) and young adults (ages 16-34). All efforts 

will be focused on obtaining the needed sample size for all subgroups within a data collection period similar 

in length to that in the Main Study. We expect this to pose challenges, given the greater volume of screening

(compared with that in the Main Study) needed to identify the targeted populations in the PIAAC National 

Supplement. To achieve this, we propose a $5 incentive for households that complete the in-person screener 

to encourage their participation and show our appreciation for their time and effort. The $5 completed 

screener incentive would be paid immediately upon completion of the in-person screener. 

As evidenced in the literature on respondent incentives (and supported by experience gained during the 

PIAAC 2011 field test), response and completion rates do improve when respondents receive incentives. The 
9

completed-screener incentive, together with the $50 incentive given to sampled respondents for the 

completion of the survey, will facilitate closing screeners in a timely fashion. Moreover, we expect the 

completed-screener incentive to reduce the number of household contacts needed to complete the screening 

effort.

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality

The PIAAC main study will conform to all relevant federal regulations—specifically, the Privacy Act of 1974 

(PRA; 5 U.S.C. 552a), the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA; 20 U.S.C. § 9573), the Family 

Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA; 20 U.S.C. § 1232g), and the NCES Statistical Standards and 

Policies. The plan for maintaining confidentiality includes: (a) all personnel signing Westat and PIAAC 

confidentiality agreements and (b) obtaining notarized NCES nondisclosure affidavits from all personnel who 

will have access to individual identifiers. The protocols for satisfying the confidentiality plans for the PIAAC 

National Supplement have been arranged with the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Disclosure Review 

Board (DRB). Several PIAAC Consortium organizations (ETS, IEA, and Westat) will support the data 

delivery, cleaning, analysis, scaling, and estimation following the same procedures used for the PIAAC Main 

Study. NCES worked closely with the DRB and these PIAAC Consortium organizations to map out the 

details of the disclosure analysis plan for the PIAAC Main Study. We plan to use the same disclosure analysis 

plan that was approved for the PIAAC Main study for the PIAAC National Supplement (see appendix F).

The physical and/or electronic transfer of PII (particularly first names and addresses) will be limited to the 

extent necessary to perform project requirements. This limitation includes both internal transfers (e.g., 

transfer of information between agents of Westat, including subcontractors and/or field workers) and 

external transfers (e.g., transfers between Westat and NCES, or between Westat and another government 

agency or private entity assisting in data collection). Westat will not transfer PIAAC files (whether or not they 

contain PII or direct identifiers) of any type to any external entity without the express, advance approval of 

NCES.

For PIAAC, the only transfer of PII outside of Westat facilities is the automated transmission of casereassignments and complete cases between Westat and its field interviewing staff. The transmission of this 

information is secure, using approved methods of encryption. Note, all field interviewer laptops are encrypted 

using full-disk encryption in compliance with FIPS 140-2 to preclude disclosure of PII should a laptop be lost 

or stolen.

In accordance with NCES Data Confidentiality and Security Requirements, Westat will deliver hard-copy 

assessment booklets to Pearson, the scoring subcontractor, for scoring in a manner that protects this 

information from disclosure or loss. These hard-copy data will not include any PII. Specifically, for electronic 

files, direct identifiers will not be included (a Westat-assigned study identifier will be used to uniquely identify 
10

cases), and these files will be encrypted according to NCES standards (128 bit or higher SSL). If these are 

transferred on media, such as CD or DVD, they will be encrypted in compliance with FIPS 140-2.

All PIAAC data files constructed to conduct the study will be maintained in secure network areas at Westat. 

These files will be subject to Westat’s regularly scheduled backup process. Backups are stored in secure 

facilities on site as well as off site. These data are stored and maintained in secure network and database 

locations where access is limited to those Westat staff who are specifically authorized. Access is only granted 

once a staff member is assigned to the project and has completed the NCES Affidavit of Non-disclosure. 

Identifiers are maintained in files required to conduct survey operations that are physically separate from 

other research data and accessible only to sworn agency and contractor personnel. Westat will deliver data 

files, accompanying software, and documentation to NCES at the end of the study. Neither names nor 

addresses will be included in those data file. 

Also included in the plan is: (1) training personnel regarding the meaning of confidentiality, particularly as it 

relates to handling requests for information and providing assurance to respondents about the protection of 

their responses; (2) controlling and protecting access to computer files under the control of a single database 

manager; (3) building-in safeguards concerning status monitoring and receipt control systems; and (4) having 

a secured and operator-manned in-house computing facility.

The laws pertaining to the collection and use of personally identifiable information are clearly communicated 

in correspondence with participants, per NCES requirements. A study introductory letter and brochure will 

be provided to households describing the voluntary nature of this survey. These materials will describe the 

study and convey the extent to which respondents and their responses will be kept confidential and will 

include the following statement: “The National Center for Education Statistics is authorized to conduct this 

study under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA; 20 U.S.C. § 9543). Under that law, the data

provided by you may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable 

form for any other purpose except as required by law (20 U.S.C. § 9573). Individuals are never identified in 

any reports. All reported statistics refer to the United States as a whole or to national subgroups.”

A.11 Sensitive Questions

The screener and background questionnaire for the PIAAC National Supplement household-based sample 

include questions about race/ethnicity, employment, and household income. The screener and background 

questionnaire for the PIAAC National Supplement prison sample also include questions about race/ethnicity 

and request household income prior to incarceration. These questions are considered standard practice in 

survey research and will conform to all existing laws regarding sensitive information. Persons in the prison 

sample will not be asked questions about the reasons for their incarceration.
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A.12 Estimates of Burden

For the PIAAC National Supplement, the estimated burden to respondents is calculated as two hours per 

respondent, including the estimated time required to answer the screener (6 minutes), background 

questionnaire questions (45 minutes), complete the Core Task and the orientation module (10 minutes), and 

the assessment (60 minutes). Table 1 below presents the estimates of burden for the PIAAC National 

Supplement. The intended total number of assessment respondents for the National Supplement from both 

the household-based sample and the prison sample is 4,800, with a total burden time (excluding the 

assessment) of 5,733 hours and an expected overall response rate of approximately 70 percent.

Table 1. Estimates of burden for PIAAC National Supplement 

NOTES: See table 4 in Part B for details on the sample yield estimates for the household-based sample (e.g., only 35.63 percent of 

households that complete the Screener are expected to have a participant be eligible to take the Background Questionnaire). See 

table 5 in Part B for details on the sample yield estimates for the prison sample.

The first four rows of Table 1 are for the household-based sample. In the first row, 14,431 represents

the number of expected occupied households computed as the total number of sampled dwelling units 

 

2 Assessments are exempt from Paperwork Reduction Act reporting and are therefore not included in the burden calculation for this 

collection.

Data Collection Instrument Sample 

size

Expected 

Response 

rate

Number of 

Respondents

Number of 

Responses

Burden per 

Respondent

Total 

Burden 

Hours

Household Sample

PIAAC National Supplement Screener 14,431 86.5% 12,483 12,483 6 min 1,248

PIAAC National Supplement Background 

Questionnaire 4,448 82.5% 3,670 3,670 45 min 2,753

PIAAC National Supplement Core Task 

and Orientation Module 3,670 100% 3,670 3,670 10 min 612

PIAAC National Supplement Assessment 

(Literacy, Numeracy, Problem-solving in a 

Technology-rich Environment, and/or 

Reading Components)2

3,670 98.1% 3,600 3,600 60 min 3,600

Prison Sample

Gaining Cooperation of State Departments 

of Justice 40 100% 40 40 1 hour 40

Gaining Cooperation of Warden 100 96% 96 96 2 hours 192

Prison Coordinator Support 96 100% 96 96 10 hours 960

PIAAC National Supplement Background 

Questionnaire 1,361 90% 1,224 1,224 45 min 918

PIAAC National Supplement Core Task 

and Orientation Module 1,224 100% 1,224 1,224 10 min 204

PIAAC National Supplement Assessment 

(Literacy, Numeracy, Problem-solving in a 

Technology-rich Environment, and/or 

Reading Components) 

1,224 98% 1,200 1,200 60 min 1,200

Totals for the Household Sample and 

Prison Sample NA NA 13,939 22,503 NA 6,927
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multiplied by the occupancy rate (16,978*.85). The number of households that go through the 

screener is computed as the number of expected occupied households multiplied by the screener 

response rate (14,431*.865=12,483). In the second row, the number of household-based sampled 

persons is computed as the number of completed screeners multiplied by the eligibility and selection 

rate (12,483*.3563=4,448). The number of household-based sampled persons who completed the BQ 

is the product of 4,448 * the BQ response rate .825 (=3,670). In the fourth row, 3,600 is the number 

of expected assessments to be completed in the household-based sample, the product of 3,670 (the 

sample size) and the assessment response rate (.981).

The next six rows of Table 1 are for the prison sample. The first three lines of the prison sample 

represent the estimated burden hours for gaining the cooperation and support of the prison staff at 

the state and prison levels and the coordination efforts required when interviews are conducted in the 

prisons. These activities are described in detail in Part B, section B.3 of this submission. In the eighth 

row, 1,361 represents the number of sampled persons in prison, which is computed as the product of 

(a) number of sampled prisons (100), (b) the prison response rate (96%), (c) the eligibility rate (97%), 

and (d) the average number of inmates selected per facility (14.63). The 1,224 in this row is the 

number of sampled persons in prison who completed the BQ, which is the product of 1,361 * the 

prison BQ response rate (.90). In the sixth row, 1,200 is the number of expected assessments to be 

completed in the prison sample, the product of 1,224 (the sample size) and the assessment response 

rate (.98).

Given that respondents from the prison sample will not be given a monetary incentive, at $50 cost per 

household-based respondent who completes the assessment, the total cost of incentives for the 

PIAAC National Supplement for all participants who complete the assessment is $180,000.

A.13 Total Annual Cost Burden

There are no additional costs to respondents and no record-keeping requirements.

A.14 Annualized Cost to Federal Government

The total cost to the federal government, including all direct and indirect costs of preparing for and 

conducting the PIAAC National Supplement is estimated to be $14,002,178. The components of these 

costs are presented in Table 2.
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Table 2. Cost for conducting the PIAAC National Supplement

U.S. PIAAC National Supplement (Tasks 1-5)

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 TOTAL

Hours Hours Hours Hours Hours Hours

Labor 47,015 111,802 1,644 1,452 592 162,505

Amount ($) Amount ($) Amount ($) Amount ($) Amount ($) Amount ($)

Labor 2,171,094 3,464,394 574,291 655,011 570,180 7,434,970 

Other Direct Costs 330,415 857,331 56,316 32,258 20,525 1,296,845 

Respondent Incentives 100,000 80,000 0 0 0 180,000 

Overhead, G&A, and Fee 1,729,430 2,323,610 176,530 162,692 95,101 4,487,363 

Salaries of Federal 

Employees

121,00 158,000 163,000 139,000 143,000 603,000

TOTAL PRICE $4,330,939 $6,883,335 $970,137 $988,961 $828,806 $14,002,178 

A.15 Program Changes or Adjustments

There is an increase in burden, between the last approval for the PIAAC Main Study and this request for the 

PIAAC National Supplement due to an increase in the number of people being screened. This increase in 

screening is required to identify the target subgroups of interest during this data collection effort. In 

particular, additional screening is required to identify and interview 1,200 unemployed respondents. 

A.16 Plans for Tabulation and Publication

NCES will produce a report for the National Supplement design, sampling, data collection, weighting, and 

missing value imputation activities. A full analysis of the Main Study and National Supplement data will be 

conducted. 

Electronic versions of each publication will be made available on the NCES website. The expected data 

collection dates and a tentative reporting schedule are shown on Table 3 below.

Table 3. PIAAC National Supplement production schedule

February 2013 Finalize the PIAAC BQ for the household-based sample 

April 2013 Finalize the PIAAC BQ for the prison-based sample

March 2013 Submit National Supplement documents to OMB for clearance.

June-July 2013 Finalize data collection training manuals, forms, systems, laptops, and 

interview/assessment training materials for the National Supplement.

August 2013 -April 2014 Collect National Supplement data.

August 2014 NCES receives National Supplement raw data from Westat 

January 2015 Receive preliminary National Supplement analysis results 

January - December 2015 Produce the National Supplement General Audience Report, Survey Report, and 

Technical Report 
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A.17 Display OMB Expiration Date

The OMB expiration date will be displayed on all data collection materials.

A.18 Exceptions to Certification Statement

No exceptions to the certifications are requested.