NPSAS:12 FULL-SCALE SUPPORTING STATEMENT REQUEST FOR OMB REVIEW 1

C. Information Collected on Enrollment Lists 

Sampled institutions will be asked to provide enrollment lists that will include several 

data items. These enrollment lists will be used to screen for eligibility and to select the 

NPSAS:12 student sample. These data items, requested for each student enrolled in the time 

frame of interest (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012 for the full-scale study) are presented below:

 Name

 Social Security Number (SSN)

 Student ID number (if different from SSN)

 Student level (undergraduate, masters, doctoral-research/scholarship/other, doctoralprofessional practice, other graduate)

 FTB indicator

 Class level of undergraduates (first year, second year, etc.)

 Date of birth (DOB)

 High school graduation date (month and year) 

 Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) code or major;

 Degree program

 Contact information (local and permanent street address and phone number and 

school and home e-mail address)

Name, SSN, and student ID will be used for identifying the students selected for sample, 

and student level will be used to form the student strata described in section B. The FTB 

indicator, class level, date of birth, and high school graduation date will be used to identify

potential FTBs. High school graduation date has not been requested on lists in the past for 

NPSAS so we tested the feasibility of this request in the field test. The majority of institutions 

were able to provide this field, and no institution complained about being asked to provide it. 

The information proved useful in identifying current high school students who were ineligible 

for the study. 

Schools will be asked to provide CIP code or major. Graduate students with science, 

technology, engineering, and math majors will likely be oversampled, and graduate students with 

business and education majors will likely be undersampled, so CIP code and major will be used 

to identify such students. Schools will be asked to provide degree program which we anticipate 

using to identify FTB’s in sub-baccalaureate programs. 

As with NPSAS:04 and NPSAS:08, we will request locating data from institutions 

concurrent with the collection of student lists used for sample selection. This will allow webbased student record collection and interviewing to begin almost immediately after sample 

selection and thus help us meet the very tight schedule for data collection, data processing, and 

file development, especially in the full-scale study. For institutions unwilling to provide location 

data for all students on enrollment lists, we will request locating data only for sample students 

immediately after the sample is selected.
C. INFORMATION COLLECTED ON ENROLLMENT LISTS

2 NPSAS:12 FULL-SCALE SUPPORTING STATEMENT REQUEST FOR OMB REVIEW

We recognize the sensitivity of requesting SSN and DOB for all students on enrollment 

lists, and appreciate the argument that it should be obtained only for sample members. However, 

collecting this information for all enrolled students is critical to the success of the study for 

several reasons: 

 It is possible that some minors will be included on the lists, so we will need to collect 

DOB to identify minors and either exclude them from the population and from 

sampling or to not begin data collection for them until after they become 18 years old. 

 Obtaining DOB will also aid in accurate identification of FTBs prior to sampling, as 

discussed below. 

 Having SSN will ensure the accuracy of the sample, because it is used as the unique 

student identification number by most institutions. We need to ensure that we get the 

right data records when collecting data from institutions for sampled students. It will 

also be used to unduplicate the sample for students who attend multiple institutions.

 Making one initial data request of institutions will minimize the burden required for 

participation (rather than obtaining one set of information for all enrolled students, 

and then later obtaining a set of information for sampled students). 

 An issue related to institutional burden is institutional participation. It is very likely 

that, if faced with two requests, some institutions would respond to the first request, 

but not to the second. Refusal to provide SSNs after the sample members are selected 

will contribute dramatically to student-level nonresponse because it will increase the 

rate of unlocatable students (see the following bullet). 

 Collecting SSNs for all students on the enrollment list will allow early file matching 

procedures to be conducted with NSLDS and NSC to improve the rate at which FTBs 

are correctly classified for sampling (as described in section B.2.b).

 Obtaining SSNs early will allow us to initiate locating procedures early enough to 

ensure that data collection can be completed within the allotted schedule. The data 

collection schedule would be significantly and negatively impacted if locating 

activities could not begin at the earliest stages of institutional contact.

 NPSAS:12 will collect data from many administrative data sources on sample 

members to supplement data collected from students and institutions. The record 

matching procedures will be described in the student OMB package that will be 

submitted in September 2011. 

 NPSAS data are critical for informing policy and legislation, and are needed by

Congress in a timely fashion. Thus, the data collection schedule is also critical. We 

must be able to identify the sample, locate students, and finish data collection and 

data processing quickly. This will not be possible within the allotted time frame if we 

are unable to initiate locating activities for sampled students once the sample has been 

selected.