Skip Navigation

2007-08 SASS Questionnaires

For help viewing PDF files, go to the Technical Issues page.

Teacher Listing Form

The SASS Teacher Listing Form collects the full list of teachers from a school, along with information on subject matter taught, full or part-time teaching status and teaching experience. A question about teachers’ race/ethnicity was replaced in 2007-08 by a question about teacher’s status for the next school year. This information is necessary to select a representative teacher sample and send out the Teacher Questionnaires. In 2007-08, the Teacher Listing Form restored a section that was removed in 2003-04, which had asked about the school name and grade range for verification purposes. In 2003-04, this section was not included in the survey questionnaire, as it was verified at the school, using a laptop-collected form.

School District Questionnaire

The SASS School District Questionnaire consists of questions on topics such as: district information (grades offered, student enrollments, and staffing items), recruitment and hiring practices, principal and teacher compensation, school choice, magnet programs, school attendance boundaries, oversight of homeschooled students, high school graduation requirements, and migrant education. New or revised topics in 2007-08 include items on district performance, teacher tenure and dismissal, principal salary, length of the contract year for teachers and type of retirement benefits for teachers.

School Questionnaires

The SASS School Questionnaires are administered to all types of elementary and secondary schools, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools (BIA) and private schools. Examples of topics covered by this set of surveys include: grades offered, number of students enrolled, counts of all types of staff, admission requirements, private school affiliations and associations, tuition, student and class organization, methods of covering teaching vacancies, special programs and services offered, and charter school information. Examples of new topics for 2007-08 include: beginning time of students’ school day and length of school year for students, school websites, and math, reading or science specialist assignments.

As it did in 2003-04, the 2007-08 data collection for the private school component of SASS coincided with the administration of NCES' Private School Survey (PSS). PSS were administered to all of the nation's private schools every two years and is the sampling frame for SASS as well as other NCES surveys of private schools.

Since both PSS and SASS are being administered in 2007-08, to reduce respondent burden, the private schools in the SASS sample are not being sent a PSS questionnaire. Instead, the SASS Private School Questionnaire contains the PSS items.

School Principal Questionnaires

The SASS School Principal Questionnaires collect information about principals’ or school heads’ years of experience and training, goals and decision making, professional development for teachers and instructional aides, school climate and safety, student instructional time, principal perceptions and working conditions, and demographic information. Examples of new or revised topics for 2007-08 include: experience prior to becoming a principal, teacher and school performance, and time allocation for students during the week.

Teacher Questionnaires

The SASS Teacher Questionnaires collect data from teachers about their positions in the school (i.e., regular full-time teacher, student teacher, support staff, etc.), hours spent per week for all teaching duties, number of students taught, educational background, certification, professional development, working conditions, school climate and attitudes about teaching, and general employment and background information. Examples of new or revised topics in 2007-08 include: grade range of teaching certification, use of electronic communications with parents, and out-of-pocket expenses for school supplies.

Library Media Center Questionnaire

The SASS School Library Media Center Questionnaire is only distributed to public schools (including since 2007, the Bureau of Indian Education or BIE-funded schools) and asks about access to and use of a variety of information technologies. This questionnaire collects data on: library facilities, services and polices, library staffing, technology, information literacy, collections and expenditures, and media equipment. New or revised topics include access to online licensed databases, resource availability and additional information literacy elements.

Top