Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program Evaluation and Assistance page 1

Supporting Statement: 

Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program Evaluation 

PART A. JUSTIFICATION

A1. Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary

This is a request for approval to collect information from Transition to Teaching (TTT) 

grantees that will be used to prepare required interim and final program evaluation reports for 

submission to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and Congress. TTT 

grantees are required by statute to submit an interim project evaluation to ED at the end of the 

third project year and a final project evaluation at the project’s end. The reports are to “describe 

the extent to which Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) that received funds through the grant 

have met the goals relating to teacher recruitment and retention described in the application.”1

Currently, ED uses the information submitted by grantees in the project evaluations, along with 

the annual project performance reports, to prepare the interim and final program evaluation 

reports. The project performance and evaluation reports provide data on the specific Government 

Performance Results Act (GPRA) program measures (see Current Reporting Requirements) and 

information on grantee activities related to recruitment and retention. However, without an 

OMB-approved data collection, ED is not able to require all grantees to respond to the same data 

items in a consistent manner. Grantees provide consistent data only in response to the GPRA 

measures. The Department has used evaluation questions to encourage grantees to provide data 

on their recruitment and retention strategies. However, grantees are not required to respond to 

these questions and the responses from those that do are inconsistent and typically not of the 

same depth and clarity. In addition, prior to the usage of the TTT Evaluation 1855-0018, the poor 

quality of some reports and missing or incomplete data in others made it difficult to aggregate 

data across grantees and accurately describe to the Secretary and Congress the extent of program 

implementation. 

The extension of this data collection will allow ED to continue to gather data on a common 

set of indicators across grantees, that are coordinated with the ongoing content analysis of 

grantee performance and evaluation reports. These complementary data sets enable ED to 

 

1 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended, Title II, Part C, Subpart 1, 

Chapter B, Sec. 2314(b).
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improve the quality of the required reports to the Secretary and Congress by being able to more 

fully and accurately describe project implementation and how projects have recruited, selected, 

prepared, placed, certified, supported, and retained eligible nontraditional teaching candidates in 

high-need schools in high-need LEAs for at least three more years. 

The TTT Program

The TTT grant program is housed within the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) 

in the U.S. Department of Education. The TTT program is authorized under Title II, Part C, 

Subpart 1, Chapter B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by 

the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) (Pub. L. No. 107-110). The program provides fiveyear grants to eligible applicants to develop and implement a comprehensive approach to recruit, 

select, prepare, place, certify, support, and retain mid-career professionals, including highly

qualified paraprofessionals, and recent college graduates. Eligible grantees include State 

educational agencies (SEAs), LEAs, for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations, and 

institutions of higher education (IHEs) in partnership with high-need LEAs or SEAs. 

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, ED funded 31 projects across the country. In FY 2007, ED 

funded 42 grantees, followed by 21 grantees in FY 2009, and 30 grantees in FY 2011. 

TTT Program Components

The major components of the TTT program correspond to the process by which grantees 

identify eligible candidates, place qualified teachers in the classroom, and retain them for three 

years. These components reflect the overall purpose of TTT, the application content, and allowed 

uses of funds identified in the authorizing legislation. 

 Recruitment: Identifying and attracting eligible TTT participants.

 Selection: Determining eligibility requirements for candidates to be 

enrolled in a TTT project, including requisite content knowledge, skills, 

and commitment to teach in high-need schools in high-need LEAs.

 Preparation: Providing a route to certification that is accelerated, integrates 

coursework and field experience, is adapted to participants’ learning 

needs, and yields highly qualified teachers that are prepared to teach in 

high-need schools in high-need LEAs.

 Placement: Identifying the needs of eligible partner LEAs and working 

with these LEAs to hire qualified Teachers of Record (TORs) in high-need 

schools.
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 Certification: Ensuring that teacher preparation activities fulfill the 

relevant legislative requirements for certification through the Stateapproved alternate routes in each State. 

 Support/Retention: Providing mentoring and other supports to TORs so 

that they will remain as teachers in high-need schools in high-need 

districts for at least three years.

Current Reporting Requirements

ED has established one performance goal for assessing the effectiveness of the TTT 

program: increasing the percentage of new, highly qualified TTT teachers who teach in highneed schools in high-need LEAs for at least three years. TTT tracks progress toward achieving 

program results through three performance measures: 

 The percentage of TTT participants who become teachers of record in 

high-need schools in high-need LEAs. For this measure, grantees provide 

the number of participants and the number of TORs in high-need schools 

in high-need LEAs.

 The percentage of TTT participants receiving certification/licensure within 

three years. For this measure, grantees report the number of participants 

who became certified within three years.

 The percentage of TTT TORs who teach in high-need schools in highneed LEAs for at least three years. For this measure, grantees report the 

number of TORs who have been teaching in high-need schools in highneed LEAs for at least three years.

TTT grantees report annually on these performance measures as well as their own specific 

project objectives and measures using ED’s standard performance reporting form (524B). In 

addition, at the interim and after the final year of the project, grantees provide a project 

evaluation. 

Data Collection

The data collection will continue to focus on the implementation and outcomes of TTT 

projects at the interim and at the end of the project period. The data collection affects the TTT 

grantee cohort that corresponds with the third and final performance period. Therefore, only one 

to two cohorts would participate in the evaluation at any one time. Currently, grantees provide 

data in a consistent manner in the annual performance reports on the GPRA measures: the 
Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program Evaluation and Assistance page 4

number of participants, TORs, and certified and retained teachers. However, these reports do not 

provide adequate information on how the major project components (as identified under TTT 

Program Components) are being implemented by all grantees. In addition, while data on the 

program performance measures have been reported consistently across grantees, specific 

information on project participants, other TTT components such as preparation and support, and 

project measures is reported inconsistently across projects due to differences in project 

implementation and State requirements. This data collection provides information on the various 

components as undertaken by grantees and how various project activities support the goals of 

each project as well as the performance goals of the TTT program. In order to describe program 

implementation and the processes used by grantees to recruit and retain teachers as described in 

the program components above, additional data are necessary and these data need to be reported 

consistently by all grantees.

The data collection consists of an electronic survey to be completed by each TTT Project 

Director or project designee. Project Directors or their designee complete this survey at the 

interim (during the third year) and in the final year of the project. The survey complements the 

annual performance report and the project evaluation. Items are constructed to answer the 

following evaluation questions, organized around the components of the TTT program:

 What strategies were used to recruit TTT participants? 

 What factors and processes were used to select TTT participants? 

 How were participants prepared to become certified to teach in high-need 

schools in high-need LEAs?

 What was the process for placing TORs in high-need schools? What were 

the major barriers to placement? 

 How were TORs supported? Which support activities (mentoring, team 

teaching, common planning times, etc.) were successful in retaining 

teachers? 
Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program Evaluation and Assistance page 5

A2. Purpose and Uses of the Data

The data from this collection is used to prepare a report for the Secretary and Congress on 

the implementation of the TTT program for a given cohort of grantees at the interim and at the 

end of the project period. This program evaluation report includes information on the 

recruitment, selection, preparation, placement, support, and retention of TTT participants in 

high-need schools in high-need LEAs for at least three years. Data from the data collection 

instrument, (electronic survey) completed by the Project Director or designee will be combined 

with the content analysis of grantee performance reports and evaluation reports to provide a 

complete picture of program implementation. 

Collecting data from each grantee on the same items through this data collection will allow 

ED and the TTT program to aggregate data on items that are important for a clearer and more 

accurate understanding of the implementation of TTT by an entire cohort. These data will 

supplement the program measure numbers and enhance the project-specific information provided 

in the individual performance and evaluation reports, resulting in a more complete report on 

program implementation to the Secretary, Congress, TTT grantees, and other interested parties. 

ED will also use these data to improve program management and technical assistance to 

grantees. 

A3. Use of Technology to Reduce Burden 

The contractor uses an electronic survey to collect information from grantees. The survey

will be structured to allow users to enter data in multiple sessions so respondents can schedule 

time for the survey accordingly. Since TTT grantees have ready access to the Internet and are 

accustomed to communicating with ED via email, the electronic dissemination of the survey is 

appropriate for this population. 

During the data collection and reporting period, TTT program staff will be available to 

respond to any grantee inquiries. 

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication 

The data collection will build on the findings of previous reports, make use of survey

items from the previous survey, as appropriate, and focus on new grantee cohorts. It will be 

conducted in conjunction with the submission of the grantee annual performance and interim and 

final evaluation reports. The contractor and TTT staff will coordinate all correspondence to 

grantees to present the survey and the performance and evaluation reports as an interrelated task 

and to avoid redundancy. The survey instrument has been developed to build upon the reporting 
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requirements of each project and to collect data on project implementation that are currently not 

reported elsewhere. The contractor has also reviewed previous project reports and program 

documents used to guide the review of grantee performance and evaluation reports in order to 

identify the data elements most vital to the program evaluation. 

A5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Entities

No small businesses or entities will be involved as respondents.

A6. Consequences of Not Collecting the Data

A program evaluation report for the Secretary and Congress can be prepared without this 

data collection. The program will continue to use the information submitted by grantees in their 

annual project performance reports (524B) and interim evaluations to report to the Secretary and 

to Congress on the status of the TTT program. However, as noted under Current Reporting 

Requirements, there are gaps that prevent the program from fully reporting on all aspects of 

program implementation. The program evaluation will be severely limited by the lack of 

information on the major components of the TTT program. In addition, since most of the 

information provided in the current project performance reports and evaluations is qualitative, it 

is difficult to aggregate and analyze in order to make valid and reliable points about the program 

as a whole. In short, without this requested data collection, the quality of the program evaluation 

report will be compromised and data that can better inform the Secretary, Congress, and the 

program staff about the implementation of the TTT program will not be available.

A7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner 

inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.

A8. Federal Register Comments and Persons Consulted Outside the Agency 

Both a 60-and 30-day Federal Register Notice (FRN) was published in March and June

2015, the Department did not receive any comments during the 60-day FRN comment period. 
Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program Evaluation and Assistance page 7

A9. Payment or Gifts 

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

that result from the TTT grant award.

A10. Assurance of Confidentiality

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

assurances of confidentiality are required or provided. 

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 will be provided to grantees about the purpose of 

the data collection and how ED will use the information to evaluate the TTT program. 

A12. Estimates of Hour Burden 

The estimated annual response burden is 42 person hours. TTT grantees will be asked to 

complete the survey in conjunction with their interim and final performance and evaluation 

reports. Thus, grantees from different cohorts would complete the survey at different points in 

time. 

Exhibit 1: Reporting Schedule for TTT Grantees by Cohort

Interim performance 

report and evaluation

Final performance report and evaluation

FY 2007 cohort

(42 grantees) N/A Dec 2012

FY 2009 cohort

(21 grantees) May 2012 Dec 2014

FY 2011 cohort

(30 grantees) May 2014 Dec 2017

Note: Dates shaded are completed tasks. Dates in bold fall within the potential dates for approval. 

The survey is estimated to take one hour to complete. Using an hourly rate for LEA 

administrators taken from California Department of Education financial data, the total cost of the 

reporting would be $7,488 (Exhibit 2). 
Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program Evaluation and Assistance page 8

Exhibit 2: Estimated Burden for TTT Survey by Cohort and Total

TTT Cohort Reporting 

date

Number of 

respondents

Total Hour 

Burden

Hourly Rate Monetary 

Burden

FY 2007 cohort

(42 grantees)

Dec 2012 42 42 $52 $2,184

TOTAL 42 42 - $2,184

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 approximately $205,000. 

These costs are associated with (1) developing the data collection protocol, (2) providing 

technical assistance and guidance to grantees as they complete the survey, (3) analyzing the 

survey data and combining these with data from the performance reports (524B forms) and 

evaluation reports, (4) preparing a written program evaluation report for the Secretary and 

Congress, and (5) disseminating the results through briefings and presentations at TTT 

conferences. 

A15. Program Changes or Adjustment

There are no program changes or adjustments to this extension request. 

A16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication of Results 

The contractor will produce a report on the program implementation following each 

reporting period outlined in section A12 above. These reports will use data from the new data 

collection and also incorporate findings from the analysis of performance reports (524B forms) 

and evaluation reports. These reports will be used by TTT staff to plan for technical assistance 

and to report to the Secretary and Congress of the status of the program. The contractor will also 

present findings from the data collection to grantees during TTT conferences and meetings, and 

to other interested parties as needed. 
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A17. Approval to Not Display OMB Expiration Date 

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

A18. Explanation of Exceptions 

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

Reduction Act Submissions.