Questionnaire Development Down to a T: Lessons Learned from Cognitive Testing Items on Gender Identity

• Activity Number: 163 - Issues in LGBT Discrimination
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, July 31, 2017 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: ASA LGBT Concerns Committee
• Author(s): Maura Spiegelman* and Elise Christopher and Laura Burns Fritch
• Companies: National Center for Education Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics and RTI International, Inc
• Keywords: cognitive testing ; LGBT ; gender identity ; transgender

Abstract

Over the past few years, NCES has added or been in the process of adding survey items on gender identity to several of its national surveys, including the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) survey. As part of this item development process, cognitive testing has been conducted across study populations in order to understand the performance of the items. The discussion here will center on how the cognitive testing was conducted, the influence of HSLS:09 testing and findings on final item selection, training of interviewer staff to administer these items, and lessons that NCES has learned about item development for gender minority populations.