Appendix C—Description of Data Files

The 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data are being released in 12 data files. Those data files were created from nine survey questionnaires: the School District Questionnaire, School Questionnaire (public), Private School Questionnaire, Public School Questionnaire (With District Items),¹ Principal Questionnaire, Private School Principal Questionnaire, Teacher Questionnaire, Private School Teacher Questionnaire, and Library Media Center Questionnaire. Table C-1 identifies each data file and the questionnaire data used to build the file.

For the most part, there is a separate data file for each type of respondent (district, school, principal, teacher, and library media center) for each school type or sector (public,² private, and BIE-funded [BIE]). There are two exceptions: 1) there are no School District files for private and BIE schools as these sectors do not have districts, per se, and 2) there is no Library Media Center data file for private schools because library media centers in private schools were not included in the 2007–08 SASS (for budget reasons).

The School District data file includes responses from school districts to the School District Questionnaire along with the "district items" taken from the Public School Questionnaire (With District Items) completed by the subset of public schools that were not associated with "traditional" school districts. These schools include state-run schools, traditional public schools in single-school districts, and independent charter schools.

Rather than ask these public schools to complete two questionnaires, School and School District, NCES created the Public School Questionnaire (With District Items) to capture district data from these schools. Table C-2 shows the different respondents and questionnaires used to create the School District data file.

The "district items" gathered from the Public School Questionnaire (With District Items) were not placed on the Public School data file, but they were kept with the school items on the BIE School data file.