Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Masters Degree Program at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)

Annual Performance Report

1. The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 amended Title VII, Subpart 4 

of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to add a new masters degree program to 

advance educational opportunities for African Americans and low-income students. 

Title VIII, Section 897 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA) 

authorizes and appropriates mandatory funding totaling $9 million annually for 

Masters Degree Programs at HBCU’s to provide grants to eligible institutions for 

fiscal years 2009 through 2014. The HBCU Masters Degree Program authorizes the 

Department of Education (the Department) to award grants to specified institutions 

that the Department determines are making a substantial contribution to graduate 

education opportunities for African Americans and low-income students at the 

masters level in mathematics, engineering, the physical or natural sciences, 

computer science, information technology, nursing, allied health or other scientific 

disciplines. This program provides grants up to six years to establish or strengthen 

qualified masters degree programs in these fields at eligible institutions. 

The Department is requesting reauthorization to annually collect performance report 

data for the HBCU Masters Degree Program. This information is being collected to 

comply with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, Section 

4 (1115) and the Education Department General Administrative Regulations 

(EDGAR), 34 CFR 75.253. EDGAR states that recipients of multi-year discretionary 

grants must submit an annual performance report (APR) demonstrating that 

substantial progress has been made towards meeting the approved objectives of the 

project. Grantees are required to report on their progress towards meeting the 

performance measures established for the HBCU Masters Degree program. Further, 

the APR lends itself to the collection of quantifiable data for this program.

A customized APR that goes beyond the generic 524B APR is requested to facilitate 

the collection of standardized and comprehensive data to inform GPRA and to collect 

program specific data that can be used for evaluation and to inform policy decisions. 

The APR will collect race and ethnicity data at an aggregated level. All grantees will 

be in full compliance with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) 

Race/Ethnicity data collection requirements for maintaining, collecting, and reporting 

of racial and ethnic data to the Department.

2. The information gathered by the APR will be used to: (1) monitor the yearly progress 

of grantees; (2) assist in the decision making process in regard to making noncompeting continuation awards to grantees for the following year; (3) collect 

management performance and GPRA data to report to policymakers; and (4) meet 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) program assessment reviews.

Grantees will compile the information for the report and transmit the document to a 

designated email address specifically set up for HBCU Grantees. Once received, 

the program office and other applicable entities at the Department will review and 
analyze the APR reports. The results of the reports will play a central role in 

approving continuation funding. 

Grantees must also demonstrate that they have made substantial progress towards 

meeting the goals of their project objectives in order to receive continuation awards. 

The APR will record the accomplishments or progress of a project, provide grantees 

with an opportunity to articulate why grant objectives were or were not met, 

document time-to-degree completion rates, and track planned and actual federal 

expenditures. 

The APR is structured to provide varying levels of analyses, the most expansive of 

which is the collection of performance measurement data. The most detailed and 

individualistic level of analysis focuses on the specific grant activities identified in the 

legislation governing the program. As the grantees provide responses to the status 

of their activities, the configuration of the APR allows for broader inquiry by grouping 

activities into categories that are identified in the legislation. The flexible structure of 

the APR is further conducive to a program-wide analysis and allows us to measure 

the targeting of Federal resources, the effectiveness of program outcomes, and, 

subsequently, the success of the program as a whole. This level of analysis is 

central to ability to meet GPRA and OMB reporting requirements.

3. The Office of Postsecondary Education is committed to the reduction of paperwork. 

The APR will be distributed to all 18 grantees via email. Grantees will complete the 

APR electronically and transmit the document to a designated email address 

specifically set up for HBCU Grantees. 

4. Since the information submitted in this application is unique to each respondent and 

to authorizing legislation, no duplication exists. 

5. This collection of information does not involve small business or other small entities. 

6. Federal program and policy activities could not be carried out if the information 

requested in this package is not collected. The APR is a requirement of funded 

HBCU Masters Degree projects, as stipulated in GPRA, 1993, Section 4 (1115) and 

EDGAR 34 CFR 74.51. 

7. There are no special circumstances that would require the collection to be conducted 

in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines. 

8. The Department will publish 30/60 day Federal Register Notices to solicit public 

comment on the annual performance report. Department staff will respond to any 

questions or comments resulting from the publication of the information collection in 

the Federal Register as required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d). Consultations with the HBCU 

community will be conducted annually to solicit feedback on certain reporting 

requirements specified in the APR. 

9. The Department will not provide payments or gifts to respondents.

10. The Department’s disclosure policies adhere to the provisions of the Privacy Act.

11. Questions of a sensitive nature are not included in this information collection.
12. We anticipate that the total reporting burden hours for this data collection is 360

hours. This includes a total of 18 respondents, each with an estimated time of 20

hours each year. 

Year 1 20 (APR preparation)

Year 2 20 (APR preparation)

Year 3 20 (APR preparation)

Year 4 20 (APR preparation)

Year 5 20 (APR preparation)

Year 6 20 (APR preparation)

Total 120 total burden hours per applicant over 6 years

120 divided by 6 years = 20 average annual burden hour per applicant each 

year. 

18 applicants x 20 burden hours = 360

360 total average annual burden hours for all applicants. 

The average estimated annual costs to respondents are provided below.

Professional Staff

(18 respondents x 8 hrs x $40 per hour) = $5,760

Clerical

(18 respondents X 8 hours X $12 per hour) = $1,728

Total Professional cost: $5,760

Total Clerical cost: +$1,728

Total: $7,488

When the HBCU Master’s Degree Program was a new grant award program, staff 

consulted with similar programs collecting similar kinds of information to arrive at 

estimates relating to cost and hour burden. These estimates have proven to be 

consistent with actual performance results in the subsequent years of the program 

and are therefore preserved here.

13. There are no additional costs to the respondents resulting from this collection other 

than what has been reported in question number #12 and #14, including capital or 

start-up costs, or operation, maintenance, or purchase of services. 

14. Estimated costs to the Federal Government:

Task Costs Hours Number of 

Staff

Hours Total Total Cost

Securing OMB 

approval once 

$50 10 1 10 $500
every three years

Other Departmental 

staff to review and 

approve the request

$57 5 3 15 $855

Review of reports 

and analysis of data

$50 40 1 40 $2000

Total Annual Cost $3,355

15. This is the second time this application package has been cleared. The burden 

hours have not changed because the number of respondents and the range of data 

collected have been consistent.

16. The information collected from the APR will be analyzed by program staff to 

determine if each grantee is meeting the approved goals and objectives outlined in 

their respective projects. The data generated from the APRs will also be used to 

determine compliance with GPRA measures. The information collected from each 

grantee will be published online for public record. 

17. The OMB number and expiration date will be displayed on the data collection form.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement.