2003 Background Questionnaires

In addition to assessing subject-area achievement, NAEP collects background information that serves to fulfill reporting requirements of federal legislation and to provide a context for reporting student performance. The legislation requires that, whenever feasible, NAEP include information on special groups (e.g., information reported by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability and limited English proficiency).

As part of most NAEP assessments, four types of questionnaires are used to collect background information:

• student questionnaires collect information on students' demographic characteristics, classroom experiences, and educational support (completed by students);
• teacher questionnaires gather data on teacher background, training and instructional practices (completed by teachers at grades 4 and 8. NAEP typically does not collect teacher information for grade 12);
• school questionnaires gather information on school policies and characteristics (completed by the principal or assistant principal); and
• SD/LEP (students with disabilities or limited English proficiency) questionnaires collect information about students selected in the sample who have disabilities or limited English proficiency (completed by special education teacher, bilingual education/ESL teacher, or staff member who is most familiar with the student).

Students complete the background questionnaires voluntarily, and their responses are kept confidential. Student names are never reported with their responses or the other information collected by NAEP.

Students are given ten minutes to complete the background questions at the end of their student assessment booklets. The two sections of student background questions each take about five minutes to complete. The teacher, school, and SD/LEP questionnaires are printed in separate booklets. With increasing frequency, teacher and school questionnaires are completed electronically.

The following 2003 questionnaires are available in PDF format (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Background questionnaires for more recent years are also available.

To obtain other NAEP questionnaires not available on this website, please contact Sherran Osborne in the NCES Assessment Division at 202-502-7420 or 202-502-7400, or specify the questionnaires you need in the Contact NAEP form.