Feedback Loops: Using Data Collection Experiences to Adapt, Inform, and Improve (303125)

Keywords: Schools and Staffing Survey, SASS, National Teacher and Principal Survey, NTPS, Feedback, Experience, Data Quality, Adapt, Inform, Improve, Data Collection

The opportunity to follow a survey over time, across employers, between clients, and through redesigns as it evolves into something new is both rare and valuable. Among survey projects, it can also be rare for workers involved in one aspect of a data collection to have the chance to participate in other aspects of that collection. For instance, questionnaire designers may never see the end product of their work or get the opportunity to inform or improve a questionnaire based on post-collection data review. Cross-sectional collections that are “one and done” leave little room to incorporate this type of review and longitudinal collections may not utilize it because of the desire to maintain a trendline. Continuing cross-sectional collections that are repeated at intervals as a sort of “time series,” however, can benefit greatly from comprehensive review that incorporates previous results in future design. The National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) and it’s predecessor, the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) exemplify this type of collection and this type of review strategy.

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) was conducted by the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics as a survey of kindergarten through 12th-grade districts, schools, principals, teachers, and library media centers that was representative at the national and state level. SASS began in the 1987-88 school year and ended after the 2011-12 school year. During this time, it was administered approximately every four years. The most recent SASS covered public and private education and included the following questionnaires:

• District Questionnaire (public only) • Principal Questionnaire • Private School Principal Questionnaire • School Questionnaire • Private School Questionnaire • Teacher Questionnaire • Private School Teacher Questionnaire • Library Media Center Questionnaire (public only)