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ContactSchools are scientifically selected to be in the SASS sample according to demographic characteristics that make them collectively representative of states or types of private schools as well as of the entire nation. Because the sample is drawn to be representative of specific geographic areas or levels of schools, it's not possible to ask another school or district, principal or school head, teacher, or school library to participate as a replacement for those sampled. Everybody's participation counts!
By participating in SASS, administrators and teachers provide important data that will increase the information available to educators and policymakers about schools and districts and the teachers who staff them. The school and teacher samples are carefully designed to accurately represent the nation's 3.7 million teachers in public and private schools. The participation of each school and teacher selected helps ensure that SASS truly reflects the great diversity of our nation's school and teacher populations.
The SASS sample design took into consideration the response burden for schools, while remaining representative of the nation. To make sure that the samples contain sufficient numbers for reliable data, SASS uses a stratified probability sample design. The main design objective of the school survey was to provide estimates of school characteristics by the following key analytical domains: the nation; elementary and secondary levels by public and private sectors; BIA schools and schools with a student population which is at least 25 percent American Indian or Alaska Native; school levels of public schools by state; and private schools by private school association group, region and school level.
SASS covers both public and private schools. On the public side, SASS requests data from districts, schools, principal, teachers, and library media center staff. On the private side, SASS requests data from schools, principals or school heads, and teachers.
If your school district has been chosen, a district questionnaire will be sent to a district representative and a small sample of schools will also be selected to participate. Each participating school will be sent a school questionnaire, a principal or school head questionnaire, a library media center questionnaire (public only), and teacher questionnaires provided to a small sample of teachers. In addition, SASS requests a listing of all teachers in the sampled schools, which is how teachers are then sampled. All SASS questionnaires are available here. While blank questionnaires are available for download here, we prefer that you fill out the questionnaire that we send to you.
Schools are asked about their staff, the programs and services they offer, and general characteristics of their school. Principals are asked about their own career, their attitudes and opinions about the school and decision-making, as well as about school policies. Teachers are asked about their preparation and current assignments, their professional development, as well as their attitudes and opinions about their classes and the school as a workplace. Districts are asked about hiring policies, benefits offered, graduation requirements and general characteristics of the district's students and teachers. School libraries are asked about their materials and acquisitions, their staff and policies.
The U.S. Census Bureau will conduct this survey for the NCES as authorized by law (Title I, Part E, Sections 151(b) and 153(a) of Public Law 107-279, the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved this survey. The OMB approval number is 1850-0598 and the expiration date is 02/28/2010.
NCES is the statistical agency for the U.S. Department of Education and has no enforcement authority for the state requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act or any other legislation. Under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 and earlier authorizing legislation, NCES cannot disclose the identity of its survey participants to anyone outside of the data collection process. The results from the survey may only be used in aggregate statistics, such as are shown in the brochures and publications listed on the Data Use and Publications page (make this a link).
SASS tries to make it easy for districts and schools to participate. While the surveys will vary in length, participation will require between 25 and 45 minutes to complete each questionnaire.
Education leaders, policymakers, the press, teachers, education researchers, and others use SASS reports and data for a variety of purposes. But SASS can play this important role only with your help. There are many other activities that compete for available time of those within the school system; this sometimes makes participation difficult, even though it is very important that districts and their schools participate.
Only a small percentage of districts, schools, principals or school heads, teachers, and library media centers are selected to participate in SASS. Therefore, your response represents many others and it is important for the success of this survey. By sharing information about your district or school in the questionnaires, your school will help to create representative data on our schools and educators. All participation is voluntary.
Please be assured that all survey data are strictly confidential. All responses will be reported only in statistical summaries that preclude the identification of individual characteristics and will not be used for any other purpose unless otherwise mandated by law (Title I, Part E, Section 183 of Public Law 107-279, the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002.) In addition, all survey respondents receive envelopes to seal their completed questionnaires to return to the survey coordinator or to send in themselves.
Please contact the Census Bureau at 1-800-221-1204 if you have any questions about participating in the survey. The Census Bureau can provide lost questionnaires to survey participants and information about responding and returning the survey questionnaires. Someone will be available to take your call Monday through Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).
Please feel free to contact NCES at sassdata@ed.gov to ask questions about what's covered in the survey and the methods used to collect data for SASS.
