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SASS Principal Follow-Up Survey (PFS)



1. Overview

PRINCIPAL FOLLOW–UP SURVEY
PFS collected data on:
  • Stayers
  • Movers
  • Leavers

The Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS) is a follow-up survey of elementary and secondary school principals who participated in the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) (see the SASS chapter for details on SASS). PFS has been conducted since 2008 for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) by the U.S. Census Bureau in the school year following the SASS data collection. The 2008–09 PFS consisted of all principals interviewed in the 2007–08 SASS. The 2012–13 PFS consisted of all principals interviewed in the 2011–12 SASS and included a concurrent validation study to substantiate the 2012–13 PFS responses by reinterviewing the principals directly. Following the 2011–12 administration, SASS was redesigned and renamed the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS). The NTPS was redesigned with a focus on flexibility, timeliness, and integration with other ED data (see the NTPS chapter for details on NTPS). Unlike previous administrations of SASS, the 2015–16 NTPS did not include private schools, principals, or teachers. As a result, the 2016–17 PFS includes only public school principals.

Purpose

The purpose of the 2008–09 PFS was to provide the attrition rate for principals in K-12 public and private schools, assess how many principals in the 2007–08 school year still worked as a principal in the same school in the 2008–09 school year, how many had moved to become a principal in another school, and how many had left the principalship. The purpose of the 2012–13 PFS was to provide the attrition rate for principals in K-12 public and private schools, assess how many principals in the 2011–12 school year still worked as a principal in the same school in the 2012–13 school year, how many had moved to become a principal in another school, and how many had left the principalship. The goal of the 2016–17 PFS was to provide the attrition rate for principals in K-12 public schools, assess how many principals in the 2015–16 school year still worked as a principal in the same school in the 2016–17 school year, how many had moved to become a principal in another school, and how many had left the principal profession altogether. PFS is designed to produce national estimates for principals in public schools.

Components

The 2008–09 PFS was composed of two questionnaires: the Principal Status Form for Public Schools and the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private Schools. Each form consisted of two questions: question 1 asked about the current occupational status of the principal who had been the principal during the previous school year, when the SASS data were collected (i.e., 2007–08); question 2 collected the name of the previous year’s principal.

The 2012–13 PFS was composed of four questionnaires: the Principal Status Form for Public Schools, the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private Schools, the Principal Status Form for Public School Principals, and the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private School Principals. The Principal Status Form for Public Schools and the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private Schools were the same as the two questionnaire forms used in the 2008–09 PFS.

The Principal Status Form for Public School Principals and the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private School Principals consisted of one question, and were used for both the regular PFS and the validation study. Question 1 was the same as question 1 on the Principal Status Form for Public Schools and the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private Schools, with minor wording changes to reflect addressing the principal directly rather than any respondent at the school. The response options for the current occupational status for the PFS were used to divide the principals into four general categories: stayers, movers, leavers, and other (see Key Concepts for definitions).

The validation study information was collected on the Principal Status Form for Public School Principals and the School Head/Principal Status Form for Private School Principals. However, the response options were classified into six main categories (rather than four): stayers, movers, and 4 groups of leavers. “Stayers” and “Movers” were defined the same as above. Group 1 of “Leavers” were principals who were no longer principals in 2012–13, but were still working in a school. Group 2 of “Leavers” were principals who were no longer principals in 2012–13, but who were still working in the field of education. Group 3 of “Leavers” were principals who were no longer principals in 2012–13, but who were working in another occupational field. Group 4 of “Leavers” were principals who were no longer principals in 2012–13, and not working.

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Periodicity

PFS has been conducted three times: twice (in the 2008–09 and the 2012–13 school years) as a follow-up to SASS and once (in the 2016–17 school year) as a follow-up to NTPS.

Data Availability

Information on restricted-use data files for PFS is available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/dataproducts.asp and https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/getpubcats.asp?sid=122.

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