I. Overview
The 1994-95 Teacher Followup Survey (TFS) was sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education to update information on teacher attrition and career patterns. The U.S. Bureau of the Census collected and processed the data.
The TFS is a survey of elementary and secondary school teachers who participated in the
Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS)/1 and is conducted in the school year following the SASS data
collection. The sample for the 1994-95 TFS was selected from those teachers who participated in
the 1993-94 SASS; it consisted of all who left teaching within the year after SASS was
administered and a subsample of those who continued teaching.
The major objectives of TFS are to:
Congress, state education departments, federal agencies, private school associations, teacher
associations, and educational organizations have used data from the 1988-89 and 1991-92 TFS
surveys.
The TFS was conducted in the 1988-89, 1991-92, and 1994-95 school years (after the 1987-88,
1990-91, and 1993-94 administrations of SASS, respectively). NCES currently plans to conduct the
next survey in the 1999 2000 school year; it will collect data from a subsample of teachers who
participate in the 1998 99 SASS.
The target population for the 1994-95 TFS was the universe of elementary and secondary school teachers who taught in schools that had a first grade and/or higher in the United States during the 1993-94 school year. This population was divided into two components those who left teaching after the 1993-94 school year (former teachers) and those who continued teaching (current teachers).
The following terms are used in this publication and are defined as they apply to TFS:
Teacher. A teacher is any full-time or part-time school staff member who teaches one or more regularly scheduled classes in any of grades K-12 (or comparable ungraded levels)./2 In addition to regular full-time teachers, the following types of teachers are also included: (1) itinerant teachers, (2) long-term substitutes who fill the role of a regular teacher on a long-term basis, (3) administrators, counselors, librarians, or other professional or support staff who teach any regularly scheduled classes, and (4) other part-time teachers.
Leavers. Teachers who left the teaching profession after the 1993-94 school year.
Movers. Teachers who were still teaching in the 1994-95 school year but had moved to a different school after the 1993-94 school year.
Stayers. Teachers who were teaching in the same school in the 1994-95 school year as in the 1993-94 school year.
Out-of-Scope TFS teachers. Teachers who left the United States or who died.
The following definitions were used in the 1993-94 SASS; they describe variables included on each TFS respondent's record to identify the school where he/she taught during the 1993-94 school year. They are also used in this publication.
Census region. The four Census regions are:
Northeast - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
Midwest - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas
South - Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas
West - Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii
Common Core of Data (CCD). The Common Core of Data (CCD) is a group of surveys that collect public elementary and secondary education data from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas). CCD is an annual survey that collects information about staff and students in public schools at the school, district, and state levels. Revenue and expenditure data are also collected at the state level.
Local education agency (LEA). LEAs, or public school districts, are government agencies that employ elementary or secondary teachers and are administratively responsible for providing public elementary/secondary instruction and educational support services. Included are education agencies that do not operate schools but employ teachers, e.g., regional cooperatives that employ special education teachers who teach in schools in more than one school district.
School, alternative. Alternative schools serve students whose needs cannot be met in a regular, special education, or vocational school. They provide nontraditional education and may serve as an adjunct to a regular school. They fall outside the categories of regular, special education, and vocational education, although they may provide similar services or curriculum. Some examples of alternative schools are those for potential drop-outs, residential treatment centers for substance abuse (if they provide elementary or secondary education), and schools for chronic truants.
School, BIA. BIA schools are schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Interior. These schools may be operated by the BIA, a tribe, a private contractor, or an LEA (or school district).
School, combined. A combined school has one or more of grades K-6 and one or more of grades 9-12; for example, schools with grades K-12, 6-12, 6-9, or 1-12 are classified as combined schools. Schools in which all students are ungraded (i.e., not classified by standard grade levels) are also classified as combined.
School, elementary. A school is classified as elementary if it has one or more of grades 1-6 and does not have any grade higher than grade 8; for example, schools with grades K-6, 1-3, or 6-8 are classified as elementary schools.
School, private. A private school is a school that is not supported primarily by public funds (i.e., it is not a public school). It must provide instruction for one of more of grades 1 through 12 (or comparable ungraded levels), have one or more teachers and be located in a building that is not used primarily as a private home. Organizations or institutions that provide support for home schooling but do not offer classroom instruction for students are not included.
School, public. A public school is an institution that provides educational services for at least one of grades 1 through 12 (or comparable ungraded levels), has one or more teachers, is located in one or more buildings, and is supported primarily by public funds. State schools (e.g., schools for the deaf or the blind), schools in juvenile detention centers, and schools located on military bases and operated by the Department of Defense are included.
School, secondary. A school is classified as secondary if it has one of more of grades 7-12 and does not have any grades lower than grade 7; for example, schools with grades 9-12, 7-8, 10-12, or 7-9 are classified as secondary schools.
School, special education. Special education schools provide educational services to students with special physical or mental needs, i.e., students with mental disabilities (such as mental retardation or autism), physical disabilities (such as hearing-impairment), or learning disabilities (such as dyslexia).
School, vocational. Vocational schools primarily serve students who are being trained for semi-skilled or technical occupations.
Typology, private school. Private schools were assigned to one of three major categories and, within each major category, one of three subcategories. The categories and subcategories are:
Teacher, itinerant. An itinerant teacher teaches at more than one school, e.g., a music teacher who teaches three days per week at one school and two days per week at another.
Ungraded students. Ungraded students are those who are not assigned to a particular grade level (kindergarten, first grade, second grade, etc.); for example, special education centers and alternative schools often classify their students as ungraded. Students in Montessori schools are also considered ungraded if the school assigns them to "primary" and "intermediate" levels instead of specific grades.
II. Sample Design
1. Public Schools
The public school sampling frame was based on the 1991-92 school year Common Core of Data
(CCD). The CCD is collected annually by NCES from all state education agencies and is believed to
be the most complete public school listing available. The frame includes regular public schools,
some schools on Department of Defense military bases, and nonregular schools such as special
education, vocational, and alternative schools. The frame also included 176 Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) schools.
2. Private Schools
The sampling frame for private schools was the 1991-92 Private School Survey (PSS)./4 This
data collection used two components to develop estimates of the number of private schools in the
United States. A list frame was the primary private school frame and an area frame
was used to identify schools not on the list frame and thereby compensate for the undercoverage of
the list frame.
List Frame
The list frame used for the 1993-94 SASS private school sample was the same list used for the 1991-92 PSS. It consisted of approximately 25,051 schools from the PSS universe, which was updated in the spring of 1993 by using lists from 24 private school associations.
Area Frame
The SASS area frame consisted of a list of private schools that had not been included on the PSS universe and had not been reported by private school associations during the list frame updating operation. These schools were located in 123 selected PSUs/5 throughout the United States.
For more information, see the technical report 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Survey: Sample Design and Estimation, by R. Abramson, C. Cole, S. Fondelier, B. Jackson, R. Parmer, S.Kaufman, (NCES 96- 089).
Duplicate schools, as well as schools that did not meet the criteria for being in-scope for
the survey (e.g., adult education centers, schools where the highest grade was prekindergarten or
kindergarten, and tutoring services) were eliminated from the files before sampling. The resulting
number of public schools on the 1993-94 public school frame was 82,746 (9,956 were sampled); the
resulting number of private schools on the 1993-94 private school universe was 25,051 (3,315 were
sampled). The list frame sample for 1993-94 SASS consisted of 3,162 schools. Additional duplicate
private schools were discovered on the PSS after sampling had taken place; these schools received
a weighting adjustment to account for their increased probability of selection. Additional
out-of-scope public and private schools were detected after processing the sample schools' SASS
school questionnaires. These schools were eliminated from further processing of the school samples
and are not part of any SASS estimates of the number of schools.
1. Public Schools
The first level of stratification divided the universe of public schools into four types: (A) BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) schools; (B) Native American schools (schools with 19.5% or more Native American students); (C) schools in Delaware, Nevada, and West Virginia (where it was necessary to implement a different sampling methodology to select at least one school from each LEA in the state because of the small number of LEAs); and (D) all other schools (i.e., all schools not included in A, B, or C.
For the second level of stratification, the type B schools were stratified by Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Washington, and all other states (except Alaska, since most Alaskan schools have high Native American enrollment). The type C schools were stratified first by state and then by LEA. The type D schools were stratified by state (all states and the District of Columbia, except Delaware, Nevada, and West Virginia).
Within each second level of stratification, regular schools were divided into three grade level strata (elementary, secondary, and combined schools), defined as follows:
Nonregular schools such as special education, vocational, technical, adult education (if part of in-scope school) or alternative/continuation schools were classified as combined schools.
2. Private Schools
For list frame private schools, the frame was partitioned into an initial set of 228 cells.
The first level of stratification was school association membership:
(1) Military - membership in the Association of American Military Colleges and Schools;
(2) Catholic - affiliation as Catholic or membership in the National Catholic Educational Association or the Jesuit Secondary Education Association;
(3) Friends - affiliation as Friends or membership in the Friends Council on Education;
(4) Episcopal - affiliation as Episcopal or membership in the National Association of Episcopal Schools;
(5) Hebrew Day - membership in the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools;
(6) Solomon Schechter - membership in the Solomon Schechter Day Schools;
(7) Other Jewish - other Jewish affiliation;
(8) Missouri Synod - membership in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod school association;
(9) Wisconsin Synod - membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church - Wisconsin Synod school association or affiliation as Evangelical Lutheran - Wisconsin Synod;
(10) Evangelical Lutheran - membership in the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches school association or affiliation as Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;
(11) Other Lutheran - other Lutheran affiliation;
(12) Seventh-Day Adventist - affiliation as Seventh-Day Adventist or membership in the General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church;
(13) Christian Schools International - membership in Christian Schools International;
(14) American Association of Christian Schools - membership in the American Association of Christian Schools;
(15) National Association of Private Schools for Exceptional Children - membership in the National Association of Private Schools for Exceptional Children;
(16) Montessori - membership in the American Montessori Society or other Montessori association;
(17) National Association of Independent Schools - member of the National Association of Independent Schools;
(18) National Independent Private School Association - member of the National Independent Private Schools;
(19) All else - member of any other association specified in the PSS or affiliated with a group not listed above or not a member of any association.
Within each association membership, schools were stratified by grade level (elementary,
secondary, or combined). Within association/grade level, schools were stratified by four Census
regions (Northeast, Midwest, South, or West).
C. TFS Stratification and Sample Allocation
The 1994-95 TFS is a survey of approximately 7,200 teachers interviewed in the 1993-94 SASS
Teacher Survey. As described earlier, the purpose of the 1994-95 TFS was to measure teacher
attrition rates one year after the 1993-94 SASS data collection. In SASS, schools were selected
first. Next, teachers were selected within each sampled school. The TFS teachers were selected
from the SASS teacher sample. The TFS sample is a stratified sample that was allocated to allow
comparisons of stayers, movers, and leavers within sector (public/private), experience groups, and
level. Therefore, for the TFS, the responding 1993-94 SASS teachers were stratified by four
variables (sector, teacher status, experience, teaching level) in the order shown:
1) Sector: (Public/Private School Indicator)
Public - teachers who taught in a public school system in the 1993-94 school year;
Private - teachers who taught in a private school in the 1993-94 school year;
2) Teacher status:
Leavers - teachers in the 1993-94 school year who left the teaching profession prior to the 1994-95 school year;
Stayers - teachers in the 1993-94 school year who were still teaching in the same school in the 1994-95 school year as they were in the previous school year;
Movers - teachers in the 1993-94 school year who were still teaching in 1994-95, but who were in a different school in the 1994-95 school year;
Don't know - teachers whose status was unknown (or was not reported) in 1994-95 by staff
at the school in which they taught in 1993-94.
3) Experience: (New/Experienced Teacher Indicator)
New - teachers who had three years or less teaching experience at the end of the 1993-94 school year;
Experienced - teachers who had more than three years of experience at the end of the 1993-94 school year;
The teacher status and the teacher's teaching experience was defined by the school.
4) Teaching level:
Elementary - teachers who taught elementary students in the 1993-94 school year regardless of the level of the school (elementary, secondary, or combined) in which they taught;
Secondary - teachers who taught secondary students in the 1993-94 school year regardless
of the level of the school (elementary, secondary, or combined) in which they taught.
The final TFS sample allocation is summarized in Table II-1.
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Table II-1.?TFS sample allocation/6
Total New Experienced
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Public 5,075 1,682 3,393
Leavers
Total 2,035 294 1,741
Elementary 697 109 588
Secondary 1,338 185 1,153
Nonleavers 3,040 1,388 1,652
Elementary
Total 1,624 692 932
Movers 700 364 336
Stayers 924 328 596
Secondary
Total 1,416 696 720
Movers 664 438 226
Stayers 752 258 494
2,097 838 1,259
Private
Leavers 641 223 418
Total 343 119 224
Elementary 298 104 194
Secondary 1,456 615 841
Nonleavers
Elementary 833 349 484
Total 290 112 178
Movers 543 237 306
Stayers
Secondary 623 266 357
Total 209 86 123
Movers 414 180 234
Stayers
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1. Public Schools
Before the sample of public schools was selected, the schools within each stratum were sorted. To facilitate the calculation of LEA weights, it was important to keep all schools within a stratum and Local Education Agency (LEA) together. To accomplish this, the first three digits of the ZIP code of all schools within a stratum and LEA were set equal to those of the first school in the stratum and LEA.
After the ZIP code was recoded, non-BIA/7 schools within each stratum were sorted by the following variables:
1) State;
2) LEA metro status:
1 = Central City of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
2 = MSA, not Central City
3 = Outside MSA
3) Recoded LEA ZIP Code (The first three digits);
4) CCD LEA ID number;
1 = < 5.5% or unknown
2 = ³ 5.5% and < 20.5%
3 = ³ 20.5% and < 50.5%
4 = 50.5% or more;
7) School enrollment; and
8) CCD School ID (the CCD ID of the last school used.)
Within each stratum, non-BIA schools were systematically selected using a probability
proportionate to size algorithm. The measure of size used was the square root of the number of
teachers in the school as reported on the CCD file. Any school with a measure of size larger than
the sampling interval was excluded from the probability sampling process and included in the
sample with certainty. This selection process produced a sample of 9,780 non-BIA public schools.
2. Private Schools
Within each stratum, private schools in the list frame were sorted on the following
variables:
1) State;
2) Highest grade in school;
3) Urbanicity:
1 = Large Central City
2 = Mid-size Central City
3 = Urban Fringe of Large City
4 = Urban Fringe of Mid-size City
5 = Large Town
6 = Small Town
7 = Rural
4) ZIP Code (The first two digits);
5) 1991-92 PSS enrollment;
6) PIN number (a unique number that identifies the school on the PSS).
Within each stratum, private schools in the list frame were systematically selected using a
probability proportionate to size algorithm. The measure of size used was the square root of the
1991-92 PSS number of teachers in the school. Any school with a measure of size larger than the
sampling interval was excluded from the probability sampling process and included in the sample
with certainty.
3. Teachers
Selecting the teacher sample in both public and private schools involved the following steps:
The public and private teacher sample selections are described together because identical
methodologies were used. The only differences were in the average number of teachers selected
within a school.
Teacher Frame
Each selected school was asked to provide a list of their teachers with selected information for each teacher. Nine percent of the private schools and four percent of the public schools did not provide teacher lists. A factor in the teacher weighting system was used to adjust for these nonparticipant schools.
The sample schools were asked to provide the following information for each teacher listed:
The above information for each teacher in a selected SASS school comprised the school teacher frame.
Within each selected school, teachers were stratified into one of five teacher types in the following hierarchical order:
1) Asian or Pacific Islander (API)
2) American Indian or Aleutian or Eskimo (AIAE)
3) Bilingual/ESL
4) New
5) Experienced
Within-School Teacher Allocation
First, the total number of sample teachers to be selected for each school without regard to strata was calculated assuming no teacher oversampling for new teachers. Then, to allocate across the strata, public school teachers were allocated to the new and experienced categories proportional to their numbers in the school. However, for private teachers, it was decided to oversample new teachers to ensure that there would be a sufficient sample of new teachers in the TFS. (This was also done in 1990-91 SASS.)
Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Aleutian or Eskimo, and bilingual teachers were oversampled at a rate to ensure a set number of each group was selected. To make sure a school was not overburdened, the maximum number of teachers per school was set at 20. When the number of sample teachers exceeded 20 in a school, the Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Aleutian or Eskimo, and bilingual teachers were proportionally reduced to meet the maximum requirement.
Within each teacher stratum, secondary teachers were sorted by teacher's main subject taught (as reported by the principal on the SASS Teacher List); and elementary teachers were sorted by general elementary, special education, or other teaching assignment. When combined schools had both elementary and secondary teachers, the teachers were sorted by grade level/main subject taught. This method was used to assure a good distribution of teachers by main subject taught.
Within each school and teacher stratum, teachers were selected systematically with equal probability.
A total of 68,284 teachers were selected for SASS (62,770 new and experienced; 1,735 Asian
Pacific Islander; 1,661 American Indian or Aleutian or Eskimo; and 2,118 bilingual/ESL). Table
II-2 shows the number of selected teachers in SASS sample by teacher type and sector.
Table II-2.?Number of selected teachers in SASS sample, by teacher type and sector
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Teacher type Public Private Total
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American Indian/Aleut/Eskimo 1,525 136 1,661
Asian/Pacific Islander 1,483 252 1,735
Bilingual/ESL 2,024 94 2,118
New 4,799 2,182 6,981
Experienced 46,905 8,884 55,789
Total 56,736 11,548 68,284
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Sorting. Within each public TFS stratum, teachers who responded to the 1993-94 SASS Teacher Survey were sorted by teacher subject, Census region, urbanicity, school enrollment, and SASS teacher control number. Within each private TFS stratum, responding teachers were sorted by teacher subject, association membership (list frame), affiliation (area frame), urbanicity, school enrollment, and SASS teacher control number.
Sample Selection. After they were sorted, teachers were selected within each stratum using a probability proportional to size sampling procedure. The measure of size was the 1993-94 SASS intermediate teacher weight, which is the product of the Basic Weight, Sampling Adjustment Factor, School Nonresponse Factor, Teacher Noninterview Factor, and the First-Stage Ratio Adjustment Factor. (See Table II.1 for more details on TFS Sample allocation.)
For more information about weights and estimation in SASS, see the technical report 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Survey: Sample Design and Estimation, by R. Abramson, C. Cole, S. Fondelier, B. Jackson, R. Parmer, S. Kaufman, (NCES 96 089).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For a complete description of the 1993-94 School and Staffing Survey, see 1993-94 Schools
and Staffing Survey: Data File User's Manual, Volume I: Survey Documentation, by Gruber, K.,
Rohr, C., and Fondelier, S., U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES 96-142-I).
[2] This definition was revised for the 1993-94 SASS and differs from the one used for previous
administrations of SASS and TFS. In previous SASS and TFS surveys, a teacher was defined as a
school staff member whose primary assignment was teaching in any of grades K-12 (or
comparable ungraded levels). School staff whose primary assignment was something other than
teaching were excluded, even if they taught some regularly scheduled classes.
[3] See M. McMillen and P. Benson, Diversity of Private Schools, Technical Report, NCES
92-082 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics,
1991).
[4] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Private School
Universe Survey, 1991-92, (E. Gerald, M. McMillen, S. Kaufman) NCES 94-350.
[5] A PSU is a primary sample unit, which is a geographic area consisting of one or more
contiguous counties or an independent city.
[6] "Don't know" strata cases are included in the "stayer" categories of this table.
[7] BIA schools were not sorted since they were designated to be in sample with certainty. All
176 BIA schools were in the 1993-94 SASS school sample.
[8] In bilingual classes, subject matter (science, math, social studies, etc.) is taught by using
a language other than English. In ESL classes, English is taught to students whose primary
language is not English.
Technical Notes