A New Approach for Multiway Stratification: School Sampling in Charting the Progress of Education Reform: An Evaluation of the Recovery Act's Role

• Activity Number: 413
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Louis Rizzo*+ and Jane Li and Yong Lee and Babette Gutmann and Patty Troppe
• Companies: Westat and Westat and Westat and Westat and Westat
• Keywords: balanced sampling ; multi-way stratification ; nationally representative ; education reform ; two-stage sampling ; PPS sampling

Abstract

Charting the Progress of Education Reform: An Evaluation of the Recovery Act's Role is sponsored by the Institute for Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. The evaluation assesses how states, districts, and schools are working to implement education reforms. We required a nationally representative sample of school districts and schools to examine the role that Recovery Act programs may have played in such efforts. The school sample was nested within the district sample, and we required at least two sampled schools within each district for analysis purposes. In addition, we required stratification control for grade span and school performance. This required then a multiway (three-way) stratification structure. To carry this out, we utilized the new balanced sampling theory as developed by Deville and Tillé (2004). This paper describes our new methodology for executing this theoretical approach, given the large sample sizes, and also presents evidence that the methodology was successful in meeting the desired criteria.