Recruitment of Schools

I. School Recruitment Script

Form Approved

OMB No.: 0920-xxxx

Expiration Date: xx/xx/xx

GUIDELINES FOR SCHOOL CONTACTS

NATIONAL YOUTH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND NUTRITION SURVEY

PRIOR TO CALLING, VERIFY THE DATE LETTER WAS SENT AND HAVE THE LETTER AND SCHOOL'S FILE FOLDER READY TO DOCUMENT THE OUTCOME OF EACH CALL. ALSO HAVE DISTRICT FILE FOLDER CONTAINING NAMES OF CONTACT PERSONS.

1. Hello, this is [YOUR NAME]. I'm calling to follow up on a packet that was forwarded on to you from [DISTRICT CONTACT] at your district. The packet contained a letter from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notifying you that your school is invited to participate in the 2010 National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey sponsored by CDC. Do you remember having received this packet? Do you have 20 or 30 minutes to talk with me right now? [IF NOT] When would you like me to call you back or would you prefer to make an appointment?

2. The letter was dated [INSERT DATE FROM LETTER]. The letter inside the packet was from Dr. Howell Wechsler and was on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention letterhead. Along with the letter was a Fact Sheet, a copy of the questionnaire, and other materials.

(DEPENDING ON PREVIOUS ARRANGEMENT WITH DISTRICT, USE 3 OR 3A.)

3. [DISTRICT CONTACT] told me that he/she would include a note on the outside of the envelope allowing/encouraging your school’s participation. You should have also received a [LETTER, MEMO, EMAIL, PHONE CALL] or have talked with [DISTRICT OR DIOCESAN CONTACT] regarding this survey, as well as receiving a letter of support from the State Education Agency/State Department of Health.

3A. We spoke to [NAME] in the School District (or Diocesan Office) on [DATE]. (He/she) has given (his/her) approval for our contacting you today. He/She may have included a hand-written note on the outside of the packet allowing/encouraging your school’s participation.

4. (ONLY IF THERE WAS A STATE ENDORSEMENT LETTER:) A letter of support from [NAME] at the State Department of Education/Department of Health was enclosed with the letter of invitation from Dr. Howell Wechsler at CDC.

5. Have you had a chance to review the packet of materials about the project?

6. My basic reason for calling now is to make sure that you received the packet, to answer any questions that you may have, and to discuss your school's involvement in the survey. Are you the person I should be speaking with about your school’s participation?

7. Do you foresee any problems with participating or do you have any questions?

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 30 minutes per response, including time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: CDC Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS D-74, Atlanta, GA 30333, ATTN: PRA(0920-XXXX).

8. (PROVIDE BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON PROJECT.) The study is driven by nationwide concerns about the obesity epidemic among Americans, and especially among America’s youth. The survey will help us understand what key physical activity and nutrition behaviors might be contributing to adolescent obesity and putting students at greater risk for ill health into adulthood. The study will also look at the associations between student body mass index and a variety of behaviors. Study results will have significant implications for policy and program development for obesity prevention and physical activity programs nationwide.

9. (PROVIDE INFORMATION ON BURDEN AND PROCEDURES.) One class in each of grades 9 through 12 (or about 100 students total) will be randomly selected as members of intact classrooms to participate from each school. The survey will be administered by specially-trained field staff during one class period, and will take approximately 45 minutes for the students to record their responses to 120 multiple-choice questions.

On a later visit to your school, students who took the survey also will be measured for height and weight.

Anonymity will be maintained throughout the entire process. No results will be reported by student name, class, school, school district, city, or state. School districts and schools were selected randomly for this survey. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary. However, it is very important that we achieve a high participation rate for the survey results to be valid.

We are asking the schools to assist our field staff in coordinating our visit, and teachers to send home the parental permission forms, keep track of them when they are returned, and send out reminder notes when necessary.

Schools will receive $200 for participating.

10. The survey will occur between February and April. (Other schools within your area also will participate.) We will have a data collector in your area for approximately one week, but exact timing has yet to be determined.

11. Do you have any questions that I can answer for you? Are there any issues you would like to discuss? If you have no further questions, can we count on your school's participation in the survey?

12. (IF SCHOOL REFUSES PARTICIPATION: RECORD ALL REASONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES CONCERNING REFUSAL.) Thank you very much for the time you've spent talking to me today. (END CONVERSATION ON POSITIVE NOTE ALLOWING FOR FUTURE CONTACT ON THIS ISSUE.)

13. Now, I'd like to obtain some of the information from you that we need to plan your school's participation in the survey. This includes selecting classes, getting names of teachers, and some other things. Could you verify that you school contains the grade range we have listed which is [RANGE]? Is [THE PRINCIPAL'S/YOUR] name correct? Is the school's phone number and address correct?

A. CLASS SELECTION: At each grade 9-12 in the school, we want to select one class at random to be in the study. The classes have to be selected randomly so that we have a scientifically defensible and nationally representative sample.

B. TYPES OF CLASS USED: Does your school have homerooms? (IF YES:) How long are homeroom period? Could the survey be administered in homeroom? (IF NOT:), At each grade, what academic subjects do all students take? (VERIFY:) If we used the subject for (GRADE), would every student at this grade level have a chance to be selected? In other words, do all students in this grade take this subject? [ESPECIALLY FOR UPPER GRADES, CONFIRM THAT SELECTED CLASS SUBJECT IS INDEED REQUIRED FOR ALL STUDENTS IN THAT GRADE. ]

C. CLASS SECTIONS: (USE WORKSHEET.) Now I'd like to select the actual classes. First, can you tell me how many classes (sections) you have at grade (GO FROM GRADE 9 TO GRADE 12)?

I need to list each of the class sections at each grade. (IF USING HOMEROOMS, ALPHABETIZE BY LAST NAME OF TEACHER. OTHERWISE, USE NUMERICAL SECTION NUMBER SEQUENCE. AGAIN, GO FROM GRADE 9 TO GRADE 12. MAKE SELECTION AS YOU GO, USING RANDOM NUMBER TABLE.) That means that we'll be using [TEACHER NAME] 's class at [GRADE].

(REVIEW ALL TEACHERS AND SECTIONS AT CONCLUSION OF CLASS SELECTIONS. OBTAIN THE MOST CURRENT CLASS ENROLLMENT FOR EACH.)

D. SURVEY SPACE: We will be conducting the survey with one entire class at one time. If two classes end up being selected at the same time, we can come back a second day or we could put the two classes in a larger room together. What would you prefer to do? (IF LARGE ROOM, INQUIRE ABOUT ACOUSTICS/SEATING ARRANGEMENTS.)

E. HEIGHT/WEIGHT MEASUREMENT SPACE: We will conduct height and weight measurement with students individually. We would like to be in a semi-private area or behind a partition screen so that students’ privacy is respected. We need a space where the floor is uncarpeted or has flat carpet (for our scale), and a wall for height measurement has no measurable molding. Do you have a place that we can designate for height and weight measurement? Is there a space like this that is in easy distance from the selected classes? (INQUIRE AS TO THE BEST MANNER FOR STUDENTS TO REPORT TO HIS AREA FOR HEIGHT AND WEIGHT MEASUREMENT.)

F. SCHEDULING: Scheduling information will help us plan the timing of the visits to your school and the actual survey activity itself. I'd like to ask a series of questions. The reasons for most questions will be self-evident. When is each of the following:

Start of school day for most students?

End of school day for most students?

Lunch period(s)?

Time at which most teachers leave school?

Time at which most teachers leave school?

"Homeroom" meetings of classes?

14. PARENTAL PERMISSION FORMS: One very important task for which we depend on you and your teachers is the distribution of parental permission forms. We've learned that response rates depend a lot on who sends them home and how they go home. Who do you want to be responsible for the permission forms?

• Homeroom or Classroom Teacher

• Contact Person

• Principal

• Other: _____________________________

Permission forms will be available in Spanish for parents who speak and read only Spanish. Will you need any of these?

• No

• Yes--Roughly how many? ________________

15. REACHING TEACHERS: We will need to meet very briefly with [TEACHERS(s) selected in Q. 12C]. We'll need to review the status of parental permission forms with each teacher before starting to conduct the survey. We will also want to speak with them about the second visit to their classroom when we will be measuring student height and weight. To the extent that you can generalize, what are the best times to meet with the teachers? Bear in mind, we don't want to take the teachers out of their classrooms. We are talking in terms of before school, after school, or lunch periods, for the most part. We would be glad to meet with all of the teachers at the same time.

16. HOLIDAYS/INSERVICE/BAD DAYS: Our field staff member, (INSERT NAME, IF KNOWN), will be in your area for approximately one week sometime between the dates of _______ and _______. To avoid any major scheduling conflicts, we need to know what holidays you will be observing or any other school activities such as in-service, parent-teacher, conferences, standardized testing, class trips, or anything else that would prevent conducting the survey on any given day.

What dates would be bad for you in:

(MONTH):

(MONTH):

We have tentatively scheduled your school for data collection between (INSERT DATES). Do you envision any problems with this time period?

• No

• Yes--(DISCUSS)

17. MAXIMIZING PARTICIPATION: Our goal, as you know, is to come as close to 100 percent participation as possible, since we cannot replace selected students who choose not to participate. Participation rates strongly affect the validity of the survey. From our experience in many prior studies, willingness to participate depends to a large degree on the extent to which the school conveys the message that it views participation as valuable and important. What can be done in your school to help promote the study?

• School Bulletin/Newsletter/Listserv

• PTA Announcement

• Discussion in Teacher Meetings

• Student Encouragement from Principal and Teacher

• Telephone Tree

• School Website

• Email from School/Teacher

• Morning Announcements

• Note in Students’ Weekly/New Semester Folder

• Other:

18. We appreciate the time that you have taken out of your busy schedule to arrange the details of this survey. We are extremely grateful to you and your teachers for their receptiveness and willingness to participate in the survey.

Do you wish to remain the contact person in your school or would you like someone else to be the contact person from now on? It is not necessary that you or your designated representative be present during the survey. Is there a local regulation or requirement that the teacher be present in the room during the survey? (IF NO:) We do request that the teacher remain unobtrusively in the room in the unlikely event he/she may be needed to maintain discipline or provide other assistance.

Contact Person: ________________________

Telephone: _____________________________

Best Time To Reach: ______________________

19. I will complete a summary of the arrangements we just made. I will send it, along with parental permission forms and other materials, to your attention at the school 2 or 3 weeks before the anticipated start of data collection. This package will have envelopes for each of the selected teachers. These packets include the summary of school arrangements, parental permission forms, and instructions on what teachers need to do prior to arrival of the data collector. We would appreciate it if [YOU/THE CONTACT PERSON] would make sure that the packets are distributed to the teachers and that the teachers, in turn, distribute the permission forms to students.

20. Are there any other special circumstances or requirements you think are important for us to know about, concerning your staff, the students, or the school premises?

21. APPROACH SCHOOL ABOUT VOLUNTEERING FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE 24-HOUR RECALL METHODOLOGICAL STUDY. There is another component to the 2010 National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey that we’re asking schools to volunteer for. It takes place outside of school and only involves students from one of the classes we just selected. Your school’s participation in the school survey is not affected by whether or not you volunteer. Would you like to hear a little bit more about it to help you decide if you’d like to volunteer? (IF SCHOOL REFUSES TO HEAR MORE) That’s okay. We are glad that you are willing to participate in the main component of the study.

(IF YES) The out-of-school component involves students taking part in a short series of telephone interviews about their what they ate and drank the day before. We call these 24-hour recalls and they take about 20-30 minutes each to complete. Students will receive $10 for each completed interview and an additional $10 if they complete all 3 interviews.

Telephone interviews will begin about two weeks after we’ve completed the school survey and will be completed before the end of the school year.

22. Do you have any questions that I can answer for you about this part of the study? Are there any issues you would like to discuss? Is this something your school would be willing to participate in? (IF SCHOOL REFUSES PARTICIPATION) That’s okay. We are glad that you are willing to participate in the main study.

(IF YES) Wonderful. All we need to do now is randomly select the class that will participate in the 24-hour recall interviews. (USE WORKSHEET) We have selected [Teacher’s Name]’s class to participate in the 24-hour recall interviews. When we prepare materials to send to him/her, we will include additional instruction about this portion of the study. These instructions will arrive along with the permission forms for the main study 2-3 weeks before survey administration. If [Selected Teacher] has additional questions about the telephone interviews that you cannot answer, please have him/her get in contact with our office.

23. Thank you very much for your time and cooperation with us on this very important survey. Please feel free to call either Jim Ross or Alice Roberts at Macro if you have any questions. The number is (800) 675-9727. You may also contact Dr. Nancy Brener at CDC. Her number is (770) 488-6184.