2015-16 NATIONAL POSTSECONDARY 

STUDENT AID STUDY (NPSAS:16)

Full Scale Institution Contacting 

and Enrollment List Collection

Supporting Statement Part A

(OMB # 1850-0666 v. 15)

Submitted by

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education

April 23, 2015
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Contents

A. Justification ......................................................................................................................................1

1. Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary...................................................................... 1

a. Purpose of this Submission ........................................................................................................................ 1

b. Legislative Authorization ............................................................................................................................ 2

c. Prior NPSAS Studies ................................................................................................................................... 2

d. Prior and Related Studies............................................................................................................................ 3

2. Purposes and Uses of the Data.......................................................................................................................... 3

a. NPSAS:16 Purposes..................................................................................................................................... 3

b. NPSAS:16 Research and Policy Issues ..................................................................................................... 4

3. Use of Information Technology........................................................................................................................ 6

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication.......................................................................................................................... 6

5. Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses .............................................................................. 6

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

7. Special Circumstances of Data Collection....................................................................................................... 7

8. Consultants Outside the Agency ....................................................................................................................... 7

9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents............................................................................................ 7

10. Assurance of Confidentiality.............................................................................................................................. 7

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

12. Estimates of Response Burden........................................................................................................................10

13. Estimates of Cost...............................................................................................................................................11

14. Costs to Federal Government .........................................................................................................................11

15. Reasons for Changes in Response Burden and Costs .................................................................................11

16. Publication Plans and Time Schedule.............................................................................................................11

17. Approval to Not Display Expiration Date for OMB Approval ................................................................11

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.................................................12

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods & References

C. Additional Enrollment List Items Justification

Appendixes

A. Studies Addressing Issues Relevant to NCES’ Postsecondary Longitudinal and Sample Surveys Studies 

Program

B. Technical Review Panel Members

C. Confidentiality Agreement

D. Letters, Contacting Materials, and Website Content

E. Script for Eligibility Screening Calls

F. Endorsing Associations for NPSAS:16

G. Information Collected through the Institution Registration Page and Enrollment Lists

Tables Page

Table 1. Chronology of NPSAS and its longitudinal components.................................................................................................3

Table 2. Maximum estimated burden on institutions for the NPSAS:16 full scale enrollment list collection..................... 10

Table 3. Individual and total costs to NCES for the NPSAS:16 field test and full-scale implementations ......................... 11

Table 4. Contract costs for NPSAS:16............................................................................................................................................. 12

Table 5. Operational schedule for NPSAS:16 ................................................................................................................................ 12
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A. Justification

1. Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary

a. Purpose of this Submission

This document supports the clearance of materials and procedures for institution sampling and contacting, 

and enrollment list collection for the full scale of the 2015-16 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study 

(NPSAS:16). This study is being conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within 

the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), part of the U.S. Department of Education. The primary contractor 

for this study is RTI International (Contract# ED-IES-13-C-0070), and subcontractors include Coffey 

Consulting; HERMES; HR Directions; KForce Government Solutions, Inc.; Research Support Services; 

Shugoll Research; and Strategic Communications, Inc. Consultants are Dr. Sandy Baum, Ms. Alisa 

Cunningham, and Dr. Stephen Porter.

This submission covers NPSAS:16 full scale materials and procedures required for institution sampling and 

contacting, and the enrollment list collection and sampling. NCES will submit a separate clearance package 

covering the student data collection in the fall of 2015. The materials to be used in the full scale NPSAS 

collection are based upon those that were approved for the field test (OMB# 1850-0666 v.12-14). With those

submissions, NCES adequately justified the need for and overall practical utility of the full study, an 

overarching plan for all phases of the data collection, and provided as much detail on the measures to be used 

as was available at the time of the submission. As part of the field test submission, NCES published a notice 

in the Federal Register allowing first a 60- and then a 30-day public comment period. For this submission, 

NCES published a notice in the Federal Register allowing an additional 30-day public comment period on the 

final details of the 2015-16 full-scale study described in this submission.

NPSAS:16 is a nationally representative study of how students and their families finance education beyond 

high school. The first NPSAS was implemented by NCES during the 1986–87 academic year to meet the 

need for national-level data about significant financial aid issues. Since 1987, NPSAS has been fielded every 3 

to 4 years, most recently during the 2011–12 academic year. This submission is for the ninth cycle in the 

series focused on the 2015–16 academic year. NPSAS:16 also will serve as the base year data collection for the 

2016 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B), a study of college graduates one year 

(B&B:16/17), four years (B&B:16/20), and ten years (B&B:16/26) following completion of requirements for 

the bachelor’s degree. Subsets of questions in the student interview will focus on describing aspects of the 

experience of B&B-eligible students in their last year of postsecondary education, including student debt, 

entry to graduate school, and the transition to employment and career.

This submission includes:

 A list of previous studies related to or based on data from NPSAS or its longitudinal spin-offs 

(Appendix A);

 A membership list of the Technical Review Panel (TRP) for the institution data collection component 

of NPSAS:16 (Appendix B);

 The Confidentiality Agreement completed by all project staff having access to individually identifiable 

data (Appendix C);

 Introductory letters to institutions and students selected for participation in the NPSAS:16 study 

(Appendix D);

 The script used by institutional contactors to verify eligibility and confirm contact information with 

sampled institutions (Appendix E);

 A list of endorsing institutions and associations supporting NPSAS:16 (Appendix F); and

 Information collected through the Institution Registration Page and Enrollment Lists.
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b. Legislative Authorization

NPSAS:16 is conducted by NCES in close consultation with other U.S. Department of Education offices, 

federal agencies, and organizations. NPSAS is authorized under the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) 

of 2002 (20 U.S.C. § 9543) and the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008, 20 U.S.C. § 1015:

(A)(k) Student aid recipient survey

(1) Survey required: The Secretary, acting through the Commissioner for Education Statistics, shall conduct, on a Stateby-State basis, a survey of recipients of Federal student financial aid under Title IV—

(A) to identify the population of students receiving such Federal student financial aid;

(B) to describe the income distribution and other socioeconomic characteristics of recipients of such Federal student 

financial aid;

(C) to describe the combinations of aid from Federal, State, and private sources received by such recipients from all 

income categories;

(D) to describe the—

(i) debt burden of such loan recipients, and their capacity to repay their education debts; and

(ii) the impact of such debt burden on the recipients’ course of study and post-graduation plans;

(E) to describe the impact of the cost of attendance of postsecondary education in the determination by students of 

what institution of higher education to attend; and

(F) to describe how the costs of textbooks and other instructional materials affect the costs of postsecondary 

education for students.

(2) Frequency: The survey shall be conducted on a regular cycle and not less often than once every four years.

(3) Survey design: The survey shall be representative of students from all types of institutions, including full-time and 

part-time students, undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, and current and former students.

(4) Dissemination: The Commissioner for Education Statistics shall disseminate to the public, in printed and electronic 

form, the information resulting from the survey.

c. Prior NPSAS Studies

As noted above, NPSAS:16 will be the ninth NPSAS in a series dating back to 1986–87. The first in the 

series, NPSAS:87, based on a sample of students enrolled in the fall term of 1986, is not completely 

comparable to later studies. Beginning in 1989–90, NPSAS surveys sampled students enrolled at any time 

during a full academic year, so that students enrolled only during the summer or spring terms, as well as those 

who began at any time in institutions not on a traditional calendar system (primarily vocational institutions), 

were included. In NPSAS:87 and NPSAS:12, institutions in Puerto Rico were not sampled. Additional 

detailed information about each of the prior NPSAS studies and related longitudinal studies conducted by 

NCES is provided at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas/.

Since its inception, the data collection techniques, sources, and sampling and weighting methods used for 

NPSAS have evolved to meet increasing demand for more precise and detailed information to inform 

postsecondary student financial aid policy. Following NPSAS:87, which combined paper-based surveys of 

40,000 students and a subset of their parents with institutional records, NPSAS:90 introduced computerassisted telephone interviewing and incorporated data from the federal Pell Grant payment file. NPSAS:93 

enabled institutions to enter student records electronically, and NPSAS:96 added as data sources the Central 

Processing System for federal financial aid applications, the National Student Loan Data System, and SAT 

and ACT student test scores. NPSAS:2000 dropped the parent interview and expanded the sample size to 

60,000 students. NPSAS:04 introduced a self-administered web-based student interview option, further 

increased the sample size to 110,000 students and, for the first time, oversampled undergraduate students in 

12 states to permit state-representative estimates for those states. NPSAS:08 retained state-representative 

oversamples for six states, enlarged the sample size to 130,000 students, and added the National Student 

Clearinghouse (NSC) as an administrative data source. NPSAS:12, in response to the growing for-profit 

sector and to ensure reliable estimates at all institution levels, dropped the state-representative samples, but 

added separate sampling for all levels of the for-profit sector: less-than-2-year, 2-year, and 4-year institutions.

In addition, NPSAS:12 was the first cycle to use current-year 12-month institutional enrollment data to ensure 

more accurate poststratification (weighting) than was achieved using prior-year enrollment data.
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d. Prior and Related Studies

Two longitudinal studies conducted within the Sample Surveys Division of NCES were designed to address a 

variety of issues regarding higher education. Based on samples of students enrolled for postsecondary 

education in a particular year regardless of age, each of these studies incorporates base year data from the 

cross-sectional NPSAS and extends it through longitudinal follow-up components focusing on first-time 

students and on recent college graduates in alternate NPSAS survey years: Beginning Postsecondary Students 

(BPS) and Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B). The chronology of the previous administrations of the NPSAS 

study and its associated longitudinal components is presented in table 1.

Table 1. Chronology of NPSAS and its longitudinal components

Base year First follow-up Second follow-up Third follow-up

NPSAS:90 BPS:90/92 BPS:90/94 —

NPSAS:93 B&B:93/94 B&B:93/97 B&B:93/03

NPSAS:96 BPS:96/98 BPS:96/01 —

NPSAS:2000 B&B:2000/01 — —

NPSAS:04 BPS:04/06 BPS:04/09 —

NPSAS:08 B&B:08/09 B&B:08/12 B&B:08/18 (anticipated)

NPSAS:12 BPS:12/14 BPS:12/17 —

NPSAS:16 B&B:16/17 B&B:16/20 (anticipated)

— Not applicable.

NOTE: BPS = Beginning Postsecondary Students; B&B = Baccalaureate and Beyond.

The seven major issues addressed in these Sample Surveys Division studies are:

1. Undergraduate access/choice of institution;

2. Persistence;

3. Progress/curriculum;

4. Attainment/outcome assessment;

5. Financial aid and student debt;

6. Access to graduate programs; and

7. Benefits of postsecondary education to individuals and society.

Specific studies that explore some of these issues and have been based on previous NPSAS, BPS, or B&B 

data are listed in appendix A for reference.

2. Purposes and Uses of the Data

This section provides information on the purposes of NPSAS, and an overview of the primary research issues 

it addresses.

a. NPSAS:16 Purposes

The fundamental purpose of NPSAS is to create a research data set that brings together information about a 

variety of programs for a large sample of undergraduate and graduate students. NPSAS provides the data for 

comprehensive descriptions of the undergraduate and graduate student populations in terms of their 

demographic characteristics, academic programs, types of institutions attended, attendance patterns, and 

employment. Demographic and enrollment data establish the appropriate context that allows researchers and 

policy analysts to address basic issues about postsecondary affordability and the recipients of student financial 

assistance. These results are presented in multiple publications, including: a First Look report; four Web Table 

publications covering student aid by institutional sector, a profile of undergraduates, undergraduate financing, 

and a profile of graduate students, including education financing beyond the bachelor’s degree; and a Statistics 

in Brief report, which describes the total price of attendance for undergraduates, net price after grant aid, and 

the “out-of-pocket” net price.
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The data can be used to calculate statistics with PowerStats, QuickStats, and TrendStats, web-based software 

applications available to the public at http://nces.ed.gov/datalab, and to qualified researchers through the 

IES restricted-use data licensing program.

A second purpose of NPSAS is to gather base-year data on a subset of students who become the sample for a 

longitudinal study. NPSAS:16 will establish the base year cohort for a B&B study of bachelor’s degree 

recipients, with a follow-up survey one year later (B&B:16/17) and additional follow-ups anticipated in 2020 

and 2026. A section of the student interview will capture information about students’ graduate school and 

career plans to support analysis of graduate education and employment outcomes, with a special emphasis on 

students considering and pursuing careers in elementary and secondary teaching.

A third purpose of NPSAS is to provide a nationally representative sample that can be used to rigorously 

address fundamental research questions through experimental research methodologies. NCES plans to 

expand the use of NPSAS through collaboration with the National Center for Education Research (NCER). 

NPSAS provides a rich source of data that could be used to support experimental research funded by NCER. 

Interested researchers have been asked to submit a proposal detailing their experimental design and analysis 

plans. Upon grant review and approval, RTI will conduct any needed data collection and/or file-matching 

activities and deliver a restricted data file to NCES to provide to the grantee for analysis. Currently, proposals 

are due to NCER on August 6, 2015, and awards are expected in early summer 2016.

b. NPSAS:16 Research and Policy Issues

Many of the important questions that NPSAS:16 aims to address are the same as in the past years. Price 

increases, net price levels, and increases in student loan debt will continue to be central issues. The NPSAS:16 

data will be used to address policy issues related to changes in federal financial aid programs resulting from 

the anticipated reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Some of the primary research and policy issues 

to be addressed through the use of NPSAS:16 data will be:

(1) Student demographics;

 What is the distribution of student enrollment among types of institutions by gender, 

race/ethnicity, age, dependency, and income?

 What types of institutions are serving the largest proportions of low-income, non-traditional, and 

ethnic minority students?

 What proportion of undergraduates are first generation college students, and what types of 

institutions are they attending?

 What proportion of students are immigrants or children of immigrants, and what types of 

institutions are they attending?

 How much are students with disabilities participating in postsecondary education?

 What proportion of students enrolled in postsecondary education are active military or veterans 

and what types of institutions do they attend?

(2) Academic preparation and programs;

 What proportion of college students have taken remedial courses and in what subjects?

 What types of students are enrolled in vocational certificate, associate’s, and bachelor’s degree 

programs, and what are their fields of study?

 What is the extent of internet-based and other distance education, for certain courses or for 

entire programs of study, and what types of institutions and students are using it?

 What are students’ primary purposes for enrolling in postsecondary education and their 

educational goals?
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(3) Financial aid;

 What proportion of students has financial aid need and what is the average amount of need by 

income?

 What proportion of students has remaining need beyond what they receive in financial aid and 

what is the average amount of unmet need?

 What proportion of students receives Federal Pell grants and where do they attend college?

 What proportion of students are receiving aid from states, institutions, employers, and private 

sources, and what is the average amount received?

 What proportion of students is receiving need-based or merit-based aid?

 How does the amount and type of aid vary by dependency and income level?

 What is the ratio of federal to non-federal aid at various types of institutions?

 What is the ratio of grants to loans at various types of institutions?

 What proportion of students receives veterans and other Department of Defense benefits, and 

how much do they receive?

 How has the incidence and average amount of Veterans’ benefits changed since the enactment of 

the Post-9/11 GI Bill (P.L. 110-252)?

 How has the number and proportion of nonveterans receiving Veterans’ benefits as dependents 

of veterans changed since enactment of the Post-9/11 GI Bill (P.L. 110-252)?

 What types of institutions enroll the highest proportions of active military personnel, veterans, 

and recipients of Veterans’ benefits?

(4) Price of attendance;

 What are the differences in the average tuition and total price of attendance by type of institution 

and among students by dependency, income, and full-time or part-time attendance status?

 What is the average net price of attendance (student budget minus financial aid) at various 

income levels at different types of institutions?

(5) Student borrowing;

 What are the differences in the percentage borrowing and the average amounts borrowed 

through the federal student loan programs by institution type, attendance status, class level, and 

income?

 What proportion of students borrow the maximum Direct (Stafford) loan amounts?

 What is the difference in the proportion of students receiving subsidized or unsubsidized Direct 

(Stafford) loans by dependency and income level?

 What is the average cumulative debt of students by class level, especially among graduating 

college seniors?

 What proportion of students borrows private loans, in what amount, and how does this 

borrowing vary by institution type?

 What proportion of students use credit cards to finance their education, and how much do they 

borrow?

(6) Student employment;

 What proportion of students engage in paid work while enrolled and what are the average hours 

per week they work?
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 What is the average amount earned from work while enrolled?

 What proportion of students is employed by their institution in work-study and graduate 

assistantships as compared with other types of employment?

(7) Sources of funds;

 What types of financial support are dependent students receiving from their parents?

Answers to these and other questions are vital if policymakers at the local, state, and national levels are to 

respond adequately to the changing environment of postsecondary education. As the publications listed in 

appendix A indicate, since inception, the NPSAS, BPS, and B&B series have resulted in numerous NCES 

publications addressing these issues. The data from these studies have also been used extensively to explore 

Sample Surveys division issues through the NCES Postsecondary Education Analysis Resources (PEAR) 

series.

3. Use of Information Technology

To ensure the secure transmission of sensitive information on the student enrollment lists, we will allow 

institutions to either upload encrypted student enrollment list files to the project’s secure website using a login 

ID and strong password provided by RTI, or provide an appropriately encrypted list file via e-mail.

We do not expect that institutions will ask to provide a paper list, but RTI has protocols in place for handling 

faxed materials. The original file and any paper list containing Social Security numbers (SSNs) will be kept 

through data collection in order to resolve any issues with student identification that occur during data 

collection and then the files will be deleted and the lists shredded after data collection is completed. RTI will 

ensure that SSNs for non-selected students are securely discarded immediately following sampling.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

Efforts to identify duplication have included NCES consultations with other federal offices, such as the U.S. 

Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education; the Office of Planning, Evaluation and 

Policy Development; and other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office; the Congressional 

Budget Office; and the Office of Management and Budget. In addition, NCES collaborates with the National 

Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to ensure 

that each unit is kept up-to-date on each other’s studies pertaining to postsecondary students and institutions. 

NCES and NSF meet on a regular basis to cover topical issues relevant to both offices and each has staff 

serving on study technical review panels. NCES routinely consults with non-federal associations, such as the 

American Council on Education, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, the National 

Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, the National Association of Independent Colleges and 

Universities, the Council of Graduate Schools, and the Institute for Higher Education Policy to confirm that 

data collected through NPSAS are not available from any other sources. NCES also consults with academic 

researchers, several of whom attend the NPSAS Technical Review Panel meetings. Beyond identification of 

duplication, these consultations provide methodological insights from the results of similar and related studies 

conducted by NCES, other federal agencies, and nonfederal sources. The consultations also assure that data 

collected through NPSAS will meet the needs of the federal government and relevant organizations. No 

studies in the U.S duplicate the data produced by NPSAS.

5. Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses

The burden associated with enrollment list collection is relatively minor for all institutions, including small 

businesses that may be contacted as part of the NPSAS:16 full scale (for-profit schools and other small public 

and private schools). NPSAS:16 is asking for a minimal set of variables on the enrollment lists, and 

institutions will be offered alternative methods of providing requested data, including uploading to a secure 

website or emailing encrypted list files. We will attempt to minimize the intrusion and burden to such schools 
7

by working closely with a school-appointed coordinator before the data collection effort to identify the 

sources of information within the school and the format in which records are kept. We have also discussed 

enrollment list variables with the technical review panel to ensure that the request is minimally burdensome 

and consistent with typical recordkeeping at postsecondary institutions.

6. Frequency of Data Collection

This cycle of NPSAS will take place 4 years after the last data collection. The large-scale and rapid changes in 

federal policy concerning postsecondary student aid necessitate frequent studies. Eligibility restrictions 

change, size of grant and loan amounts fluctuate, and the balance between various aid options changes 

dramatically. Since these changes affect students’ ability to finance postsecondary education and the level of 

debt that students are accumulating, data collections every 3 to 5 years are necessary. A recurring study is 

essential in helping predict future costs for financial aid because loan programs create continued obligations 

for the federal government as long as the loans are being repaid.

Repeated surveys like NPSAS are also necessary because of the dynamic nature of the postsecondary 

environment. For example, for-profit institutions have recently a much more prominent role than was the 

case in years past. Changes in private-sector lending, increases in tuition and fees, and changes in federal 

student aid policies (such as the recent increase in maximum Pell Grant awards) further highlight the need for 

periodic data collections. Effects of these changes on federal policy and postsecondary education 

participation create an opportunity, as well as a need, for monitoring on a regular basis.

7. Special Circumstances of Data Collection

No special circumstances of data collection are anticipated.

8. Consultants Outside the Agency

Recognizing the significance of NPSAS data collection, several strategies have been incorporated into the 

project work plan that allow for the critical review and acquisition of comments relating to project activities, 

interim and final products, and projected and actual outcomes. These strategies include consultations with 

persons and organizations both internal and external to NCES, the U.S. Department of Education, and the 

federal government.

Previous NPSAS implementations have benefited from a technical review panel composed of staff from 

several offices in the Department; representatives of NSF, OMB, and CBO; and non-federal members who 

are considered experts in postsecondary education issues, including financial aid (a list of the TRP members is 

provided in appendix B). Three technical review panel meetings have been held to inform the NPSAS:16 data 

collection. Another meeting is scheduled for August 2015 to discuss the results of the field test and review 

plans for the 2016 full-scale study design. Subsequent to the TRP meeting, a separate request, related to 

student-level data collection activities, specifically, the student interviews and student record collection from 

institutions, will be submitted for OMB’s review.

9. Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

No payments or gifts to responding institutions will be given.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

NCES assures participating individuals and institutions that all identifiable information collected under

NPSAS and related programs 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 [Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 

(ESRA), 20 U.S.C. § 9573]. NPSAS:16 data security and confidentiality protection procedures are in place to 

ensure that RTI and its subcontractors comply with all privacy requirements, including:
8

 The Statement of Work of this contract;

 Privacy Act of 1974 5 U.S.C. § 552(a);

 The U.S. Department of Education Incident Handling Procedures (February 2009);

 The U.S. Department of Education General Handbook for Information Technology Security 

General Support Systems and Major Applications Inventory Procedures (March 2005);

 The U.S. Department of Education, ACS Directive OM: 5- 101, Contractor Employee Personnel 

Security Screenings.

 Family Educational and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, 20 U.S.C. § 1232(g);

 ESRA, 20 U.S.C. § 9573; and

 All new legislation that impacts the data collected through this contract.

RTI will comply with the Department’s IT security policy requirements as set forth in the Handbook for 

Information Assurance Security Policy and related procedures and guidance as well as IT security 

requirements in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), OMB Circulars, and the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards and guidance. All data products and 

publications will also adhere to the revised NCES Statistical Standards, as described at the website: 

http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2012/.

The NPSAS:16 procedures for maintaining confidentiality include notarized nondisclosure affidavits obtained 

from all personnel who will have access to individual identifiers; personnel training regarding the meaning of 

confidentiality; controlled and protected access to computer files; built-in safeguards concerning status 

monitoring and receipt control systems; and a secure, staffed, in-house computing facility. NPSAS:16 follows 

detailed guidelines for securing sensitive project data, including, but not limited to: physical/environment 

protections, building access controls, system access controls, system login restrictions, user identification and 

authorization procedures, encryption, and project file storage/archiving/destruction.

There are security measures in place to protect data during file matching procedures described in section 3. 

NCES has a secure data transfer system, which uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, allowing the

transfer of encrypted data over the Internet. The NCES secure server will be used for all administrative data 

sources with the exception of the NSC which has its own secure FTP site. All data transfers will be encrypted.

Study notification materials sent to institutions for student records will describe the voluntary nature of 

NPSAS:16 and convey the extent to which respondent identifiers and all responses will be kept confidential.

The Department has established a policy regarding the personnel security screening requirements for all 

contractor employees and their subcontractors. The contractor must comply with these personnel security 

screening requirements throughout the life of the contract. The Department directive that contractors must 

comply with is OM:5-101, which was last updated on 7/16/2010. There are several requirements that the 

contractor must meet for each employee working on the contract for 30 days or more. Among these 

requirements are that each person working on the contract must be assigned a position risk level. The risk 

levels are high, moderate, and low based upon the level of harm that a person in the position can cause to the 

Department’s interests. Each person working on the contract must complete the requirements for a 

“Contractor Security Screening.” Depending on the risk level assigned to each person’s position, a follow-up 

background investigation by the Department will occur.

Regarding file matching with administrative sources, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

(34 CFR Part 99) allows the disclosure of information without prior consent for the purposes of NPSAS:16 

according to the following excerpts: 34 CFR § 99.31 asks, “Under what conditions is prior consent not 

required to disclose information?” and explains in 34 CFR § 99.31(a) that “An educational agency or 

institution may disclose personally identifiable information from an education record of a student without the 
9

consent required by §99.30 if the disclosure meets one or more” of several conditions. These conditions 

include, at 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6)(i):

“The disclosure is to organizations conducting studies for, or on behalf of, educational agencies or 

institutions to:

(A) Develop, validate, or administer predictive tests;

(B) Administer student aid programs; or

(C) Improve instruction.”

In addition, 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6)(v) specifies: “For the purposes of paragraph (a)(6) of this section, the term 

organization includes, but is not limited to, Federal, State, and local agencies, and independent organizations.”

All three parts of 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6)(i) apply to NPSAS:16. The purpose of NPSAS:16 is to create a 

research data set for a large sample of students that brings together information about federal, state, and 

private aid programs, and gathers additional demographic and enrollment data to establish the appropriate 

context. The resultant data set allows research and policy analysts to address basic issues about the 

affordability of postsecondary education and the effectiveness of the existing financial aid programs. The data 

set can be used for, or on behalf of, educational agencies or institutions to accomplish activities (A), (B), and 

(C).

In 34 CFR § 99.31 (a)(6)(iii), FERPA further specifies that such disclosure may only occur if “[the] study is 

conducted in a manner that does not permit personal identification of parents and students by individuals 

other than representatives of the organization” and “[the] information is destroyed when no longer needed 

for the purposes for which the study was conducted.”

Additionally, the study, including the administrative data linkage, qualifies for a 45 CFR Part 46 waiver of 

consent based on the following factors:

 There is minimal risk to the participants. There is no physical risk and only minimal risk associated 

with linkage of data to sample members. The public-use and restricted-use data, prepared as part 

of the contract with RTI, will not include SSNs, even though these numbers are used for the 

linkage. Data will undergo disclosure avoidance analysis and disclosure treatment steps to further 

reduce the risk.

 The waiver will not affect the rights and welfare of the subjects. The voluntary nature of the study 

is emphasized to sample members. Public-use and restricted-use data are only used for research 

purposes and lack direct individually-identifying information. The data are further protected 

through disclosure avoidance procedures approved by the NCES Disclosure Review Board.

 Whenever appropriate, subjects will be provided with additional pertinent information after they 

have participated. For each round of the study, information about prior rounds and the nature of 

the study is made available to sample members.

 The study cannot be conducted practicably without the waiver. To obtain written consent from 

sample members, multiple forms would have to be sent to the sample members with multiple 

follow-up telephone and in-person visits. This process would add weeks to the data collection 

process and is not feasible from a time standpoint. Additionally, the value of these data would be 

jeopardized from a nonresponse bias perspective.

 The potential knowledge from the study is important enough to justify the waiver. These linked 

data for NPSAS:16 will provide invaluable data to researchers and education policy makers about 

the federal financial aid that students have received, as well as critical information concerning 
10

access to and persistence in postsecondary education. Rather than ask students for information 

about financial aid, we are getting it from the NSLDS, which is the Department’s system of 

recording federally aided student loans taken out and grants received by students. Students 

generally tend not to be a very reliable source of information about the amounts or timing of 

grants and loans they have received. This administrative record data is accurate and much easier to 

obtain than obtaining the same data by administering a questionnaire.

11. Sensitive Questions

Institutions will be asked to provide personally-identifying information for students on the enrollment lists

(including name, contacting information, SSN, and date of birth (DOB)). Although considered sensitive, 

items collected on the enrollment lists will facilitate 1) identification of minors in the sample, 2) selection of 

the student sample, 3) initial tracing and locating activities, and 4) ongoing follow up with the baccalaureate 

cohort as part of the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study. Immediately after the student sample is 

selected, the SSNs for non-selected students will be securely discarded.

12. Estimates of Response Burden

Table 2 provides the projected estimates for response burden for NPSAS:16, which are based on experiences 

from prior rounds of NPSAS. Using time burden data for similar institutional data collection tasks, we 

estimate the average burden associated with the enrollment list collection to be approximately 165 minutes 

per institution. The estimated hourly cost to institutions was raised from $17 for NPSAS:12 to $21 for 

NPSAS:16 to reflect salary increases at those institutions. The total estimated cost to institutions participating 

in the NPSAS:16 full scale enrollment list data collection for the 4,081 total burden hours is $85,701. This 

submission is for data collection of institution materials and enrollment lists only. We will submit burden 

estimates for data collection from and about sampled students in a separate package in fall 2015.

The response time for participating institutions will vary based on how institutions keep their records and 

how easily they can extract the requested information. First, eligibility-screening calls will be made to each 

sampled institution to confirm eligibility and verify contact information prior to mailing study information. 

Next, eligible institutions will be asked to complete an Institution Registration Page (IRP) to provide basic 

information about institutional characteristics. Finally, institutional coordinators will be asked to provide 

electronic enrollment lists of all students enrolled during the academic year. Institutions will be offered two 

methods for providing their enrollment lists:

1. Upload encrypted student enrollment list files to the project’s secure website using a login ID and 

strong password provided by RTI, or

2. Email an appropriately encrypted list file directly to RTI.

Based on NPSAS:12 full-scale and NPSAS:16 field test results, we expect that most NPSAS:16 enrollment 

lists will be uploaded to the project website, and very few enrollment lists will be sent via e-mail.

Table 2. Maximum estimated burden on institutions for the NPSAS:16 full scale enrollment list collection 

Data collection activity

Institution 

sample

Expected 

eligible 

institutions

Number of 

responding 

institutions

Percent 

expected 

response 

rate

Average time 

burden per 

response 

(mins)

Range of 

response 

times 

(mins)

Total time 

burden 

(hours)

NPSAS:16 full scale study

Eligibility screening calls 1,690 1,640 1,690 100 4.8 1.8-6.0 135

Institutional registration page † 1,640 1,394 85 4.8 3.0-6.6 112

Institutional enrollment lists † 1,640 1,394 85 165.0 60.0-360.0 3,834

Full scale Institutional total 1,690 (4,478 responses) 4,081

† Not applicable.
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13. Estimates of Cost

There are no additional costs to the respondents.

14. Costs to Federal Government

A summary of estimated costs to the federal government for NPSAS:16 are shown in table 3.

Table 3. Individual and total costs to NCES for the NPSAS:16 field test and full-scale implementations 

NPSAS:16 implementations Costs to NCES

Field test

NCES Salaries and expenses $62,370 

Contract costs 7,173,724

Total 7,236,094 

Full-scale study

NCES Salaries and expenses 197,739 

Contract costs 13,574,629 

Total 13,772,368 

Total costs

NCES Salaries and expenses 260,109 

Contract costs 20,748,353 

Total $21,008,462 

NOTE: Costs presented here do not include base fee.

Included in the cost estimates are staff time, reproduction, postage, and telephone costs associated with the 

management, data collection, analysis, and reporting for which clearance is requested (although this request is

for full scale institution contacting and enrollment list collection only, the costs shown are for the entire fullscale data collection, including institution and student data collection efforts. Table 4 provides a more detailed 

breakdown of contract costs.

15. Reasons for Changes in Response Burden and Costs

The apparent decrease in burden is due to the fact that the last approval was for the NPSAS:16 institution and 

student field test collections, while this request is for the full scale data collection for institutions only. The 

burden for the full scale student data collection will be added in a submission in the fall 2015.

16. Publication Plans and Time Schedule

The operational schedule for the NPSAS:16 full-scale study is shown in table 5. The formal contract for 

NPSAS:16 requires the following reports, publications, and other public information releases:

 Descriptive summaries of significant findings for dissemination to a broad audience;

 Detailed data file documentation describing all aspects of the full-scale study design and data collection 

procedures, including an appendix summarizing the methodological findings from the field test;

 Complete data files and documentation for research data users in the form of both a restricted-file; 

QuickStats, a public-use data analysis system in which users create their own tables and charts using 

pre-defined categories from a subset of variables; and PowerStats, which allows users to create their 

own tables and charts using all of the variables, in addition to conducting regression analysis;

 Special tabulations of issues of interest to the higher education community, as determined by NCES.

17. Approval to Not Display Expiration Date for OMB Approval

The expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection will be displayed on data collection 

instruments and materials. No special exception is being requested.
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18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in the Certification for Paperwork Reduction 

Act Submissions of OMB Form 83-I.

Table 4. Contract costs for NPSAS:16 

Study area and task Budgeted amount

110 Post award conference $25,400 

120 Schedules 26,353

130 Monthly reports 215,474

140 Integrated monitoring system 544,143

150 Technical review panels 1,286,662

160 Mini-meetings 135,116

Standardized institution data collection

210 Task 2 Comparison Report 323,667

220 Institution Data Reporting System 358,575

Full-scale data collection

410 Sampling 474,362

420 OMB forms clearance 105,070

421 Instrument development 1,048,446

422 Training 406,704

423 Tracing 605,531

424 Data collection 4,432,465

425 Interview data processing 1,262,758

432 CPS file merge 50,053

433 NSLDS file merge 34,463

434 Other system file merge 218,940

435 Develop data collection materials 111,009

436 Weighting, imputation, and nonresponse bias analysis 212,304

437 Data disclosure 29,388

441 Enrollment list collection 698,939

442 Institution data collection 462,466

443 Institution data processing 759,727

Reporting

511 Report prospectus 57,125

512 Draft manuscript 245,997

513 Review-quality manuscript 151,531

514 Public-ready manuscript 90,942

515 Respond to professional judgment 19,789

610 Respond to information requests 564,165

620 Major IT data reporting 242,693

630 Ad hoc reports 111,926

Table 5.Operational schedule for NPSAS:16

NPSAS:16 activity Start date End date

Full-scale study

Contacts with institutions to request enrollment lists Oct. 1, 2015 Feb. 26, 2016

Enrollment list collection Jan. 11, 2016 Jul. 10, 2016

Select student sample Jan. 18, 2016 Jun. 1, 2016

Collect student data from institutional records Feb. 1, 2016 Sept. 30. 2016

Self-administered web-based data collection Feb. 1, 2016 Sept. 30, 2016

Conduct telephone interviews of students Feb. 22, 2016 Sept. 30, 2016

Process data, construct data files Jan. 22, 2016 Jun. 14, 2017

Prepare/update reports Aug. 1, 2016 July 31, 2018