OMB Number: 1855-0016

Charter Schools Program (CSP) Grant Award Database page 1

Supporting Statement:

Charter Schools Program (CSP) Grant Award Database

OMB Number: 1855-0016

PART A. JUSTIFICATION

A1. Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary

This request is for an extension of OMB approval to collect data necessary for the Charter 

Schools Program (CSP) Grant Award Database. The CSP is authorized under Title V, Part B, 

Subpart 1, Sections 5201 through 5211 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 

of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. Under Title V, Part B, 

Section 5205 of the ESEA, the Secretary reserves CSP funds to carry out national activities to 

provide charter schools with information, to evaluate and study charter schools, and to provide 

other types of technical assistance. 

This data collection is coordinated with the EDFacts Initiative (EDFacts) to reduce 

respondent burden and fully utilize data submitted by States and available to the U.S. 

Department of Education (ED) through the EDFacts database. Specifically, under the current 

data collection, ED collects CSP grant award information from grantees (State agencies, charter 

management organizations, and some schools) to create a new database of current CSP-funded 

charter schools and award amounts. Once complete, ED merges performance information 

extracted from the EDFacts database with the database of CSP-funded charter schools. Together, 

these data allow ED to monitor CSP grant performance and analyze data related to accountability

for academic performance, financial integrity, and program effectiveness.

Identifying Data Needs

The first task in reaching the project’s goals was to develop a reporting system to gather 

consistent and complete data on CSP grantees and on charter schools nationally. The data 

required by ED are:

 Detailed financial information on implementation of CSP grant activities

 Data responding to ED and CSP performance and efficiency measures
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 National charter school information from other data sources, such as the 

Common Core of Data and EDFacts

ED specified several aspects of program effectiveness and efficiency that the data 

collection should address. They included the program information needs outlined in the January

2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, program information for determining 

achievement of the CSP Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) indicators, and other 

information to respond to the Office of Management and Budgeting (OMB) Program Assessment 

Rating Tool (PART).

GAO Reports

In January 2005, GAO issued a report entitled To Enhance Education’s Monitoring and 

Research, More Charter School-Level Data Are Needed which examined (1) how States allow 

for charter school flexibility, (2) how States promote accountability for school performance and 

financial integrity of charter schools, (3) the implications of NCLB for charter schools, and (4) 

the role ED plays in charter school accountability. In the report, GAO recommended that ED 

help States, which are CSP grant recipients, track Federal funds to charter schools and report the 

number of charter schools started with CSP funds. In addition, GAO recommended that the CSP 

link its own data collection with the newly developed EDFacts data collection (formerly 

Performance Based Data Management Initiative, PBDMI). The current data collection has begun 

the process of accomplishing these recommendations.

OMB Review of GPRA Indicators

Congress enacted the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) in 1993 in an 

effort to reduce waste and inefficiency in Federal programs and promote accountability. GPRA 

called on each Federal agency to produce annual performance plans and reports beginning in 

1999 that were to include quantifiable and measurable performance goals and performance 

indicators for the programs in each agency. For CSP, the original GPRA goal was to encourage 

the development of a large number of high-quality charter schools. As a result, two indicators 

have been used to measure the success of this goal: (1) the number of charter schools in 

operation around the nation and (2) the number of States with charter school legislation. 
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OMB, which has responsibility for approving GPRA indicators, also reviews the value of 

the indicators and the processes used to gather the data. ED and OMB jointly reviewed the CSP 

using Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Following the review, the CSP office 

proposed three new GPRA performance indicators: 

 The percentage of charter school students in grades 4 and 8 at or above 

proficiency in reading

 The percentage of charter school students in grades 4 and 8 at or above 

proficiency in mathematics

 The Federal cost per pupil in a successful charter school (with “successful” 

defined as a school open for three or more years)

Additional Reports

Charter school researchers have also pointed to the need for more complete data on charter 

schools, primarily in the interest of policy research. For example, Lake and Hill (2005) identified 

areas of State and local record keeping that need improvement. Writing for the National Charter 

School Research Project (NCSRP), they found that data on student characteristic data such as 

race/ethnicity, free/reduced-price lunch, special education, and English language learners (ELL) 

were hard to get from State charter school offices. NCSRP also had difficulty obtaining data on 

how charter schools were performing within Federal and State accountability systems, including 

the percentage of charter schools making adequate yearly progress (AYP) and the percentage of 

charters labeled as low-performing. Other charter school-related data NCSRP had difficulty

finding from existing sources were charter school per-pupil funding, waiting lists, parent 

satisfaction, and class size.

Data to be Collected

Based on the information needs of ED and the recommendations of the GAO and OMB, 

ED created a new database of current CSP-funded charter schools and their award amounts. 

Funding for charter schools is provided in three ways: directly to the charter schools, through a 

State agency who awards grants to charter schools, and through a Charter Management 

Organization (CMO) that replicates and expands high-quality charter schools. Under the current 

data collection, ED collects data from State agencies, CMOs, and charter schools. 

As of December 2014, 43 States (including the District of Columbia) have charter school 

legislation. Twenty of these States have active CSP grants. The CSP also provides direct grants 
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to 39 charter schools in 14 states that did not receive or apply for a CSP grant (CT, DE, HI, ID, 

IL, LA, MD, ME, NC, OH, OR, PA, UT, WA) and 22 CMOs to replicate and expand highquality charter schools. The process for collecting data from the State agencies, CMOs, and 

charter schools is outlined below.

Collect CSP Subgrant Award Information from State Agencies: Each State agency that 

received a Federal CSP grant will be asked to provide the information in Exhibit 1 for the 

subgrants it awarded from Federal fiscal year funds. The collection form will be customized for 

each State agency to include the year, award number, and award amount of the CSP grants. 

Providing information on the CSP grants to the State agencies should assist them in gathering the 

information for this collection. Also at this time (first contact), information describing all phases 

of data collection, total burden, and the use of additional data sources (EDFacts) to reduce 

burden will be provided to the State agencies.

Collect CSP Sub-recipient Award Information from Charter Management Organizations: 

Charter Management Organizations that received a Federal CSP grant will be asked to provide 

the information described in Exhibit 1 for the schools it supported from Federal fiscal year funds. 

Similar to the collection form used with State agencies, the CMO collection form will include the 

year, award number, and award amount of the CSP grants. Additional information extracted from 

EDFacts will reduce the burden for CMOs. 

Collect CSP Grant Award Information from Charter Schools Funded by Direct Grants: 

The CSP grant award information for the grantees that are not States or CMOs but received 

direct grants from ED will be extracted from the G5 grants management database. However, 

NCES IDs, which are required for linking of other information, are not always available in G5 

and will need to be collected from the recipients. ED will require the recipients to verify all of 

the same information described in Exhibit 1, and to fill in any missing information.
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Exhibit 1

Data Elements Included in the Database of Current CSP-Funded Charter Schools and Award 

Amounts

Information for Each Federal Fiscal 

Year CSP Subgrant Detail

Subgrantee identification

(the entity that received the funds)

 Subgrantee name

 Subgrantee School NCES ID

 Subgrantee mailing address

LEA of the subgrantee (will allow 

matching of subgrant award information 

to information from other sources)

 LEA name

 LEA NCES ID

 LEA mailing address

 Whether it is an LEA with only charter schools (yes or 

no)

 Whether the charter school acts as its own LEA (yes or 

no) Note: Not all charter schools are approved by a 

separate LEA

Charter School Management 

Organization (CMO) 

 CMO type

 CMO name

 CMO mailing address

Charter School Authorizer  Authorizer type

 Authorizer name

 Authorizer mailing address

Subgrant Award Information

Note: States and CMOs will be provided 

with their award number, the total dollar 

amount of the award, and the grant 

period. 

For each charter school:

 Project period begin and end date

 Dollar amount of subgrant award from each Federal 

fiscal year 

 Month and year of each subgrant award

 Type of subgrant (Preplanning, Planning and Program 

Design, Implementation, or Dissemination), for CMOs 

(Replication or Expansion)

Charter school operation For each charter school:

 School year school first enrolled students (school year, 

or “not applicable” for future schools or closed schools)

 Student enrollment data for past three years 

Additional Information For each Charter Management Organization sub-recipient:

 Grades served for each Federal fiscal year and the year 

prior to expenditure of CSP funds
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 Planned grades during the project period

 Planned enrollment during the project period

 Grade levels served by prior CSP grant (if applicable)

 Funding amount of prior CSP grant (if applicable)

To assist the State agencies and CMOs, these data are currently collected using a 

preformatted spreadsheet. For example, the form for each SEA includes the award number, the 

dollar amount of the award, and the grant period. The product of this data collection is a database 

of subgrant award information from State agencies, CMOs, and direct grant recipients. As 

necessary, ED contacts the grantees to verify collected information described above to ensure an 

accurate and complete dataset. 

A2. Purpose and Uses of the Data

Extension of OMB approval will allow ED to collect data from current grantees throughout 

their three-year to five-year performance period. The data collection, combined with the student 

demographic and performance information extracted from the EDFacts database, will allow ED 

to monitor CSP grant performance and analyze data related to accountability for academic 

performance and financial integrity. This will satisfy Title V, Part B, Section 5205 of the ESEA, 

which calls for national activities related to the collection of information, technical assistance, 

and information dissemination regarding charter schools and the CSP. 

As part of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) 424 data collection, ED collects 

information on the allocation of Federal grants by States who are recipients, including grants 

under CFDA 84.282. ED collected the GEPA data for fiscal years 2002, 2003 and 2004. CSP 

grants are forward funded. Therefore, the GEPA data available at that time related to school 

years 2002-2003, 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. ED first began collecting subgrant award data in 

fiscal year 2005 and the information collected at that time was used in place of the GEPA data 

collection. 

The collection of grant information is needed for the CSP to monitor grantee performance 

and collect data related to the financial integrity and academic performance of subgrantees. Note 

that all the demographic and performance data needed for the CSP office is also needed for other 

purposes. For example, both the CSP and the Office of Special Education Programs need the 

number of Children with Disabilities (IDEA) in each charter school.
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A3. Use of Technology to Reduce Burden 

To assist State agencies, CMOs, and charter schools, the current and future data will be 

collected using a preformatted Excel spreadsheet, which will be emailed to respondents and 

completed electronically. All data readily available to ED are included in the spreadsheet. For 

example, the form for each SEA includes the award number, the dollar amount of the award, and 

the grant period. The State agency only provides the subgrant award information that is not 

accessible elsewhere. 

As the respondents complete the forms, additional assistance is made available via email 

and telephone. A toll-free number and email address are available to CSP grantees to allow them 

to contact the project team with any questions or requests for assistance as they use the form to 

submit data. This information, along with the names of project contact persons, are clearly 

printed on the data collection forms and all correspondence.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication 

Under NCLB, ED must ensure that new and expanding charter schools receive timely

payment of Federal grant funds for which they are eligible. Although ED currently tracks 

payments to the fiscal agent (generally an SEA or LEA), it does not track payments to the school 

level. The current and future data collection will allow ED to track CSP grant funds to the school 

level and gather CSP-related financial information currently unavailable anywhere else.

The data collection efforts under this project gathers CSP subgrant award information from 

State agencies, CSP sub-recipient information from CMOs, and CSP grant award information 

from charter schools funded by direct grants. That data alone, however, does not provide enough 

information to draw conclusions about program effectiveness and efficiency. To ensure that a 

complete dataset is available, ED combines the new CSP database with data extracted from 

EDFacts. This creates a complete dataset, maximizes the use of existing data sources, and 

reduces the data collection burden on State agencies, CMOs, and charter schools.

A5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Entities

The current and future data reporting collects data primarily from SEA officials in charge 

of CSP grants in each State and CMOs that are recipients of CSP grants. The exception to this 

occurs among the 39 charter schools in 14 states that did not receive or apply for a CSP grant 

(CT, DE, HI, ID, IL, LA, MD, ME, NC, OH, OR, PA, UT, WA). Schools in these States 

received direct grants from the CSP, making them individually responsible for providing the 
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requested data. Regardless of whether the reporting is done by SEA officials, CMOs, or 

individual schools, the impact on small entities is expected to be minimal.

A6. Consequences of Not Collecting the Data

The proposed data collection and subsequent merging of CSP data with existing data will 

provide ED with the data necessary to effectively monitor the performance and financial 

stewardship of CSP. The data collection process will be transparent, and the data to be collected 

will be consistent and easy to consolidate. Failure to collect the new CSP funding data – data not 

available in EDFacts – would seriously hinder ED’s ability to assess CSP’s financial integrity 

and the link between funding and student outcomes. Further, only by combining CSP financial 

data with performance data derived from EDFact can ED measure CSP’s three GPRA indicators: 

(1) the percentage of CSP-funded charter school students in grades 4 and 8 at or above 

proficiency in mathematics; (2) the percentage of CSP-funded charter school students in grades 4 

and 8 at or above proficiency in reading; and (3) the Federal cost per pupil in a successful CSPfunded charter school.

A7. Special Circumstances

This information collection fully complies with 5 CFR 1320.5.

A8. Federal Register Comments and Persons Consulted Outside the Agency 

A 60-day FRN was published in December 2014 with no public comments and 30-day

FRN was published in February 2015. 

A9. Payment or Gifts 

There are no payments or gifts to respondents other than the allocation of Federal funds 

that result from the CSP grant award.
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A10. Assurance of Confidentiality

This collection does not involve collecting any confidential information. Therefore, no 

assurances of confidentiality are required. 

A11. Justification of Sensitive Questions

This project does not include any questions of a sensitive nature. As required by the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, information is provided to respondents about purposes of the 

data collection and how the information will be used by ED to monitor CSP grant performance 

and analyze data related to academic and financial accountability. 

A12. Estimates of Hour Burden 

The estimated annual response burden is 138.84 (139) hours. Exhibit 2 aggregates the 

estimated total hours and costs to participants. The following section explains how burden 

estimates were calculated. The hourly rates of pay for SEA, CMO, and LEA/school officials 

were estimated from California Department of Education Financial Data and U.S. Bureau of 

Labor Statistics.

Exhibit 2

Estimating the Burden for Reporting

Type of Respondent Number of 

Respondents

Number of 

Subgrants, 

Subrecipients 

and Direct 

Grants

Total 

Minutes per 

Subgrant

Total Hour 

Burden

Hourly Rate Monetary 

Burden

SEA CSP grantee 20 1,379 5 114.92 $52 $5,976

CMO CSP grantee 22 170 5 14.17 $48 $680

LEA/School grantee 39 39 15 9.75 $36 $351

TOTAL 81 1,588 - 138.84 

(139)

- $7,007

The respondents in this data collection are the CSP grantees. Some grantees are SEA 

officials coordinating and managing the CSP subgrants in each State. Some are CMO 

representatives administering the CSP grant for schools managed by the organization. Other 

grantees are officials from CSP-funded charter schools in CT, DE, HI, ID, IL, LA, MD, ME, NC, 
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OH, OR, PA, UT, WA. Schools in these States apply directly to ED for CSP funds, making them 

individually responsible for providing the data requested by ED.

There are currently 43 States, including the District of Columbia, with charter school laws. 

For 20 of these States, the SEA CSP official will be responsible for submitting data to ED on all 

the subgrants awarded by the State. The 22 CSP Project Directors of CMOs awarded grants will 

submit data for the sub-recipient schools funded by these organizations. In the 14 States in which 

CSP grants are awarded directly to charter schools, 39 schools currently receive CSP grants. 

Each of these schools will also submit data to ED, making the total number of respondents 81. 

We estimate that submitting the data for each CSP subgrant or sub-recipient will take 

anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how many years the school (subgrantee) has 

received funding and if the school is currently serving students. In the latter case, no enrollment 

data is collected and so the number of data elements to report on is reduced. Further, as grantees 

update their data collection forms in subsequent years, they need only update the award amount 

and add any new subgrants or sub-recipients to the database, further reducing the overall 

reporting requirements over the course of the CSP grant. 

For SEA respondents, the total burden will vary depending upon the number of subgrants 

their State awards. The 20 States that receive CSP grants currently award over 1,300 subgrants to 

individual schools. The total burden for all SEA officials is 114.92 hours. Similarly, the total 

burden for CMO respondents is dependent on the number of sub-recipients supported by their 

grant. The 22 CMO grantees currently support 170 individual schools, the total burden is 14.17 

hours. In the case of schools or LEAs that receive their grants directly from ED, the total burden 

is 9.75 hours. We are allowing more time for school or LEA respondents to complete the form 

because they also need to verify the grant award amount from ED. 

The estimated total time for the reporting is 138.84 (139) hours at an estimated total cost of 

$7,007. 

A13. Estimate of Cost Burden to Respondents

There are no additional respondent costs aside from those outlined in section A12. 

A14. Estimate of Annual Cost to the Federal Government 

The total cost to the Federal Government for the data collection is $250,000 annually. 

These costs are associated with (1) determining the data elements to be included in the reporting, 

(2) providing technical assistance to respondents on how to complete the data collection form, 

(3) merging the CSP grant award information with EDFacts data to create a complete dataset of 
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financial, demographic, and achievement data for CSP schools, and (4) analyzing and reporting 

on the data from all CSP grantees for ED. Data collection under the current contract began on 

September 26, 2011. The contract ends on September 25, 2015. For the last year of the contract, 

the total cost is $323,928.75. 

A15. Program Changes or Adjustment

There is an overall increase in annual reporting burden. The total burden from the previous 

request was 98 hours. The new burden is 139 annual hours at a total cost of $7,007.

In 2010, the CSP program commenced a new grant competition to support non-profit 

charter management organizations in replicating or expanding high-quality charter schools. This 

new competition, which is a program change due to agency discretion, increased the number of 

respondents by 22, increased the burden hours by 14.17, and increased the costs by $680. 

At the same time, there is an adjustment increase. The reason for this adjustment is twofold: The number of respondents has changed, and the number of sub-grants is better known to 

ED, which allows for a more precise calculation of the total burden hours. The data elements 

remain the same for the current and future data collection activities. The adjustment increased 

the number of SEA and non-SEA respondents (17), the burden hours (27.22), and the costs

($1352).

A16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication of Results 

One of the data collection requirements is to analyze, report, and summarize the data 

obtained from SEA, non-SEA, and CMO grantees. The current analysis plan addresses various 

aspects of program effectiveness and efficiency such as the program information needs outlined 

in the January 2005 GAO report, program information required to determine achievement of 

CSP GPRA indicators, and other information to successfully respond to the OMB PART. From 

this analysis, ED and the CSP can effectively monitor CSP grant performance and analyze data 

related to accountability for academic performance and financial integrity.

Upon renewal of OMB approval we will continue to produce annual reports summarizing 

the data collection and analysis process. The reports will be written and organized with a national 

audience in mind, therefore making the content usable for a variety of readers, including charter 

school developers, operators, board members, teachers, parents, researchers, and authorizers. In 

2010, we published the first round of State Charter School Profiles, which presented proficiency

data for charter schools and traditional public schools in each state. These profiles will be 

updated and published annually using the data from this collection and the performance data 
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available from the EDFacts database. Further, we will be prepared to brief program staff and/or 

policy makers about results as needed throughout the study’s duration. 

Finally, we will prepare a data file containing all data collected. This data file will include 

an explanation of contents, including variable and category labels, weights, a description of how 

missing data were addressed, and the unit of observation for each data file.

A17. Project Schedule 

The current CSP data collection began with fiscal year 2005 and will continue through the 

end of fiscal year 2015. All data collection and reporting activities will end by September 25, 

2015. Some CSP grantees will use the data collection form, pending approval, in Spring 2015 as 

they are submitting their CSP grant Annual Performance Report (APR). The remaining grantees 

will use the form to report on their subgrantee activities on or around September 2015, in 

conjunction with the submission of their Final Performance Report (FPR). The data will be 

analyzed and included in a comprehensive report at the end of the project (September 25, 2015).

A18. Approval to Not Display OMB Expiration Date 

No request is being made for exemption from displaying the expiration date.

A19. Explanation of Exceptions 

This collection of information involves no exceptions to the Certification for Paperwork 

Reduction Act Submissions.

PART B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS 

The results of this information collection will not be published for statistical purposes.
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Citations

Government Accountability Office (January 2005). Charter Schools: To enhance 

Education’s monitoring and research, more charter school-level data are needed. Washington, 

D.C.: Government Accountability Office.

Government Accountability Office (October 2005). Education’s Data Management 

Initiative: Significant progress made, but better planning needed to accomplish project goals. 

Washington, D.C.: Government Accountability Office.

Lake, Robin J., and Paul T. Hill, Editors (November 2005). Hopes, fears, & reality: A 

balanced look at American charter schools in 2005. Bellingham, WA: National Charter School 

Research Project, Center on Reinventing Public Education, Daniel J. Evans School of Public 

Affairs, University of Washington.