Sept 27 -- Sept 27 -- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Department of Education, invites comments by November 28, 2022 regarding the 2023-24 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:24) Field Test-Student Data Collection and Student Records.
This request is to conduct the 2023-24 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study Field Test (NPSAS:24 FT) student data collection, consisting of a student record data abstraction and a student survey, carrying over the approved NPSAS:24 FT Institution Collection (OMB #1859-0666 v. 33). 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.
This submission covers materials and procedures related to the NPSAS:24 student data collection, which includes abstraction of student data from institutions and a student survey, administered primarily as a web survey, and carries over respondent burden, procedures, and materials related to the NPSAS:24 FT institution sampling, enrollment list collection, and matching to administrative data files as approved by OMB in September 2022 (OMB #1859-0666 v. 33). The materials and procedures are based on those developed for previous institution-based data collections, including the 2019-20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) [OMB #1850-0666 v. 25].
The first NPSAS was implemented by NCES during the 1986-87 academic year to meet the need for national data about significant financial aid issues. Since 1987, NPSAS has been fielded every 2 to 4 years, most recently during the 2019-20 academic year (NPSAS:20).
NPSAS:24 will be nationally- representative. The NPSAS:24 field test sample size will be 6,000 students, and the full-scale sample will include 137,000 nationally representative undergraduate and 25,000 nationally representative graduate students who will be asked to complete a survey and for whom we will collect student records and administrative data. If the full-scale budget allows, we will include state-representative sampling for the full-scale collection and provide the budget for a state-representative sampling plan in the 30-day full-scale package, planned for 2023. Also, if exercised, NPSAS:24 will serve as the base year for the 2024 cohort of the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) Longitudinal Study and will include a nationally representative sample of students who will complete requirements for the bachelor's degree during the NPSAS year (i.e., completed at some point between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023 for the field test and July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 for the full-scale). Subsets of questions in the student survey will focus on describing aspects of the experience of students in their last year of postsecondary education, including student debt and education experiences. This submission is designed to adequately justify the need for and overall practical utility of the full study, presenting the overarching plan for all phases of the student data collection and providing as much detail about the measures to be used as is available at the time of this submission.
National Postsecondary Student Aid Study - Overview
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas/
Draft survey instruments and technical documentation:
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/ED-2022-SCC-0119/document
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-20839