Have you been contacted to participate in the 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) this year? Beginning this fall (August 2007), the U.S. Census Bureau began conducting SASS on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics. This website is designed to give you a general overview of the Schools and Staffing Survey, answer questions you may have about SASS and your participation, provide you with the full set of questionnaires that will be administered during this survey cycle, and present you with examples of how the information from SASS is used in brochures and publications.
The 2007–08 school year marks the 20th anniversary of SASS! Since being inaugurated in 1987–88, SASS has now been conducted six times. SASS is the nation’s largest survey of the characteristics and conditions of American schools and the teachers and principals who work in them.
SASS has five core components: the School Questionnaire, the Teacher Questionnaire, the Principal Questionnaire, the School District Questionnaire, and the School Library Media Center questionnaire. These questionnaires are sent to relevant respondents in public, private, and Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools.
Please use the following links, for Frequently Asked Questions.
Please use the following link for the full list of 2007-08 Questionnaires available on the web. This page also provides summary information on what type of information each questionnaire collects.
SASS provides a unique resource for information on elementary and secondary education. SASS links data provided by schools with their respective principals, teachers, libraries, and districts so that researchers can study the complexities of schooling from multiple perspectives. For example, researchers can study issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of teachers using information from teachers and also from their schools and principals. The integrated survey design also allows NCES to collect information from the school personnel who can best supply it, causing less inconvenience to respondents and providing more accurate information.
SASS data are used by a wide variety of people interested in K–12 education, including teacher professional organizations, private school associations, education advocacy groups, legislators, researchers, and journalists. Below are some examples of how SASS data from the 2003–04 cycle and prior cycles were used:
