Part A NTPS 2017-18 Preliminary Field Activities

B NTPS 2015-16 Questionnaires and draft NTPS 2017-18 Questionnaires (to be updated with NTPS 2017-18 final questionnaires in the full-scale NTPS OMB clearance request in early 2017)

A.1 Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary

A.1.1 Purpose of This Submission

The National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), conducted biennially by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), is a system of related questionnaires that provides descriptive data on the context of elementary and secondary education. Redesigned from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) with a focus on flexibility, timeliness, and integration with other ED data, the NTPS system allows for school, principal, and teacher characteristics to be analyzed in relation to one another.

SASS, the predecessor to NTPS, was conducted by NCES seven times between 1987 and 2011. SASS was an integrated study of public and private school districts, schools, principals, teachers, and library media centers designed to provide descriptive data on a wide range of topics including teacher demand, teacher and principal characteristics, general conditions in schools, principals' and teachers' perceptions of school climate and problems in their schools, teacher compensation, and district hiring and retention practices. After 2011-12, NCES redesigned SASS and named it the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) to reflect the redesigned study’s focus on the teacher and principal labor market and on the state of K-12 school staff. NCES first conducted NTPS during the 2015-16 school year.

NTPS data collection is administered for NCES by the U.S. Census Bureau, with the special contact district recruitment contracted to Avar Consulting and its subcontractor Westat. Clearance for NTPS 2015-16 was granted in two parts: 1) a clearance for preliminary field activities including contacting and obtaining research approvals from public school districts with an established research approval process (“special contact districts”) and sending out a school notification letter to verify mailing address information (OMB #1850-0598 v.10); and 2) a clearance for all other data collection activities (OMB #1850-0598 v. 11-15). A generic clearance request for testing new content modules for NTPS 2017-18 has also been approved (OMB #1850-0803 v. 147).

This request is to contact districts and schools in order to begin preliminary activities for NTPS 2017-18, namely: (a) contacting and seeking research approvals from special contact districts, where applicable, and (b) notifying sampled schools of their selection for the survey and verifying their mailing addresses. This is the first submission for NTPS 2017-18 and it includes the following items: Part A, Part B, Appendix A (contact materials), and Appendix B (questionnaires).

A.1.2 Legislative Authorization

NCES conducts NTPS in close consultation with other offices and organizations within and outside the U.S. Department of Education. NCES is authorized to conduct NTPS by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. § 9543).

A.1.3 Prior and Related Studies

NTPS 2017-18 is the latest in a 30-year series of NCES studies on our nation’s schools and staffing. SASS was first fielded in school year 1987-88, collected every 3 years through 1993-94, and then underwent a 6-year pause for major survey design revisions, which resulted in the 1999-2000 data collection. After that, SASS was on a 4-year data collection cycle, with each SASS data collection followed one year later by the Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) and the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS) data collections. The most recent administration of SASS was in 2011-12. At the conclusion of the 2011-12 collection, NCES redesigned SASS and named it the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) to reflect its narrowed focus on the teacher and principal labor market and on the state of K-12 school staff. NCES first conducted NTPS in 2015-16 and is conducting both the TFS and the PFS in 2016-17 (OMB # 1850-0617 v.3 and OMB #1850-New, respectively).

The Survey of School Crime and Safety (SSOCS), also conducted by NCES, will next take place in 2018. Like NTPS, SSOCS seeks research approval from special contact districts prior to survey administration. To improve efficiency and reduce burden on districts, NCES plans to combine the two operations in special contact districts sampled for both studies. Such districts will each receive two research approval applications and will have the option of allowing its schools to participate in NTPS, SSOCS, or both. This request for clearance for the 2017-18 special contact districts operation includes a description of the combined operations and respondent contact materials suitable for both NTPS-only and combined NTPS/SSOCS requests for district approval. NCES will submit a modification to the SSOCS 2018 clearance (OMB# 1850-0761 v.8-10) to reflect the revised procedures and materials.

A.1.4 NTPS Study Design

The sample for NTPS 2017-18 will include approximately 9,300 schools and principals and 43,000 teachers. The respondent universe for public schools will continue to consist of all public schools in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (DC) that offer instruction in any of grades K-12. NCES also plans to reintegrate a private school sample into the NTPS. The collection of data from private schools ceased after low response rates from that sector in the 2011-12 SASS.

Data collection will begin with the sampled school. A notification letter, intended to inform the school of their selection for the survey and to verify mailing addresses, will be sent to sampled schools in the summer of 2017. Teachers will be randomly sampled from rosters obtained either through Teacher Listing Forms submitted by sampled schools to the Census Bureau, collected through a clerical look up operation, or purchased from a vendor. Teachers are ineligible for NTPS if they are short-term substitutes, student teachers, teacher’s aides, or do not teach any of grades K-12 or comparable ungraded levels.

NTPS collects information from schools, principals, and teachers in four data collection instruments: the Teacher Listing Form, the School Questionnaire, the Principal Questionnaire, and the Teacher Questionnaire. The NTPS 2015-16 versions of these instruments are described below and shown in Appendix B. Drafts of the NTPS 2017-18 questionnaires are also included in Appendix B. The final versions of these instruments for NTPS 2017-18 are still under development and will be included as part of the full-scale clearance submission in early 2017.

Teacher Listing Form (NTPS-1). The Teacher Listing Form (TLF) will be sent to sampled schools at the beginning of collection. The TLF is designed to produce a roster of the teachers in the school who are eligible for NTPS. For each teacher, it requests name, subject taught (in eight categories: special education, general elementary, math, science, English/language arts, social studies, Vocational/Technical, and other), teaching status (full- or part-time), and teacher email address. The Census Bureau will follow up by mail and telephone with nonresponding schools then they will begin clerical look up of teacher lists from vendor and internet sources.

Principal Questionnaire (NTPS-2). The Principal Questionnaire (PQ) is targeted towards the principals of sampled schools and consists of the following core modules and rotating modules:

Core Modules

Principal Experience and Training. Includes items on experience prior to becoming a principal and as a principal, participation in a development program for aspiring school principals, highest degree earned, license or certification in school administration, and current teaching status.
Goals and Decision Making. Asks principals to rate their three most important educational goals and to indicate how much influence they think they have as principals on decisions concerning school policies and processes.
School Climate and Safety. Asks principals to indicate to the best of their knowledge how often various types of problems occur at the school; to report on measures on parent involvement in school; whether teachers are required to help students with academic, social, and emotional needs outside of regular school hours; and whether the school has a formal teacher induction program for beginning teachers.
Principal Demographic Information. Asks about sex, race, ethnicity, year of birth, and current annual salary for the principal’s position at the sampled school.

Rotating Modules

Student Growth and Teacher Evaluation. Asks principals to report on whether and how student achievement is used in the performance evaluation of teachers in the school, the sources of information on teacher performance used in teacher evaluations, whether teacher performance evaluation results are used to inform decisions about teacher professional development, teacher career advancement, or low-performing teachers.
Working Conditions and Principal Perceptions. Asks principals to report the number of hours they spend on all school-related activities during a typical full week, the percentage of time spent on various tasks including administration, teaching, and student/parent interaction, the number of days he or she is required to work under contract, whether he or she is represented under a meet-and-confer or collective bargaining agreement, the principal’s agreement with measures of job satisfaction, and how long he or she plans to remain a principal.
Teacher and Principal Professional Development. Asks about current methods and modes of principal PD and other opportunities to learn, and its implications on principals' approach to school leadership.
Teacher and Principal Evaluation. Asks about principals’ knowledge and perceptions of both teacher and principal evaluations and its influence on their practice.
Principal Engagement. Asks about principals’ engagement and connection with the school and with colleagues.

In addition to the core modules, the following rotating modules will be included in the NTPS 2017-18 Principal Questionnaire: Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Professional Development, Principal Evaluations, Principal Professional Development, Principal Engagement, and Principal Demographic Information.

School Questionnaire (NTPS-3). The School Questionnaire (SQ) is targeted towards an administrator or administrative assistant in sampled schools and consists of the following core and rotating modules:

Core Modules

General Information about This School. Includes items on grade levels service, enrollment, average daily attendance, length of school year, whether the school is a regular or special program/emphasis school, kindergarten programs, library media centers, courses taught entirely online, presence of before- or after-school programs, and instruction for English-language learners.
Community Service Requirements. Asks whether the district that the school is a part of grants high school diplomas and has a community service requirement for a standard diploma. If so, the section asks for the number of community service hours required for high school graduation.
Special Programs and Services. Asks about Individual Education Plans and services for students with disabilities, prekindergarten, participation in the National School Lunch Program, and participation in Title 1.
Charter School Information. Asks if the school is considered a public charter school, and, if so, to describe its governance structure.
Contact Information. Asks for contact information for the person who completed most of the questionnaire including the date completed and how many minutes it took to complete the form.

Rotating Modules

School Staffing. Defines the types of teachers sought in NTPS reporting and then asks for the total number of teachers by full and part time teaching status and race/ethnicity; full- and part-time staffing counts for various categories including principals, librarians, student support staff, and aides; whether any of the teachers or staff at the school have special assignments or coaching responsibilities in academic subjects; teaching vacancies in the school in various subject fields and whether the vacancies were easy or difficult to fill; and the number of newly-hired and first-year teachers at the school.
Instructional Time. Asks about how much students receive instruction in certain subjects such as reading and math for a typical week.
Classroom Organization. Asks about the method in which the school organizes classes or students.

In addition to the core modules, the following rotating modules will be included in the NTPS 2017-18 School Questionnaire: Instructional Time and Classroom Organization.

Teacher Questionnaire (NTPS-4). The Teacher Questionnaire (TQ) is targeted towards teachers sampled for NTPS based on school-level teacher rosters. It consists of the following core and rotating modules:

Core Modules

General Information. Includes items confirming eligibility for the teacher sample, including their position at the school and whether they are teaching in any of grades K-12 or comparable ungraded levels. It also contains items on year began teaching (for the first time and at the sampled school), number of schools taught in, and number of years teaching.
Class Organization. Asks the teacher to report grades taught, number of students with an IEP and of limited-English proficiency, main teaching assignment subject field, looping, use of instructional software, how classes are organized, number of students taught and class size, hours spent teaching various academic subjects (for self-contained classroom teachers), and details on each class period or section taught (for subject-matter teachers).
Education and Training. Asks details about major and, if applicable, minor fields of study for all levels of educational attainment from vocational certificate through doctorate degrees; courses taken on teaching methods including classroom management and using student performance data; and student teaching including number of classrooms and number of weeks.
Certification. Asks detailed information about the content area(s) and grade range(s) in which sample members are certified to teach, and whether the teacher entered teaching through an alternative route to certification program.
General Employment and Background Information. Includes items on earnings, union membership, tenure, sex, marital status, race, ethnicity, and year of birth.
Contact Information. Asks for contact information for the sample teacher including spouse’s information (if applicable), phone numbers, and email addresses. This information is used in the TFS to track sample members.¹

Rotating Modules

Early Career Experiences. Targeted towards teachers in their first three years of teaching. It asks about their main activity prior to teaching, how well prepared they felt for various teaching-related tasks, whether they participated in a formal teacher induction program, and whether they received various kinds of support during their first year of teaching (including whether and how a master or mentor teacher supported them that year).
Teacher Working Conditions. Asks teachers to report the number of hours they are required to work under contract per week; how many of those hours are spent on delivering instruction; how many total hours (paid and unpaid) are spent each week on all teaching and school-related activities; whether the teacher serves as a coach, club sponsor, or in other department- or school-wide roles; and how much the teacher spent of his or her own money on school supplies in the last school year.
School Climate and Teacher Attitudes. Asks a series of questions about how much influence teachers think they have over school policies, how much control they have in their classroom, whether they agree with various measures of job satisfaction, the extent to which various conditions are a problem at the school, how long they plan to remain in teaching, and whether they’ve ever been threatened or physically attacked by a student from the school.
Teacher Evaluations. Asks about teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of teacher evaluations and its influence on their teaching.
Teacher Professional Development. Asks about the current methods/ modes of teacher professional development and other opportunities to learn, and its implications on teachers’ approaches to teaching.
Teacher Engagement. Asks about teachers’ engagement and connection with the school and with colleagues.

In addition to the core modules, the following rotating modules will be included in the NTPS 2017-18 Teacher Questionnaire: Teacher Working Conditions, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Professional Development, and Teacher Engagement.

Possible Changes to Design and Procedures Described in this Package

The following revisions to the materials and procedures described in this submission may be submitted to OMB as a change request or a revision at a later time as needed:

The sampling design and plan are still being researched and developed. Depending on the results of the research, NTPS may employ a change in reducing the minimum precision for states of a 30% coefficient of variation (CV) to 25% on questionnaire items, implementing a finite population correction (FPC), and oversampling in certain schools or among certain teacher groups for incentive experiment designs to help increase response rates in key domains. All of these might impact the sample size and burden estimates for the public and private school sample design.
To improve on the response rates experienced in NTPS 2015-16, NCES contracted a different research firm for the NTPS 2017-18 special contact district recruitment. The new contractor is tasked with developing a protocol and a sample research application package prior to submitting the application to the special contact districts. The protocol will serve as general guideline for contacting districts, with the expectation that it will be tailored as needed when working with each special district. Additionally, we are researching the possibility of using incentives at the district level to encourage district approval and participation. A change request will be submitted in late 2016with updated operations information and any revisions or additions to the contact materials.
Additionally, NCES is currently discussing and developing plans for NTPS to collaborate with TALIS and NAEP. The sampling plan for the collaboration may require oversampling of certain respondent subgroups or having an additional separate sample, which may impact the overall burden estimate for NTPS. The operations, questionnaire content, and contact materials may also require changes. These would be submitted as a separate OMB package or a change request to this submission.

A.2 Purposes and Uses of the Data

NTPS 2017-18 will provide rich data that are generally designed to serve two purposes: descriptive and explanatory. The overall objective of NTPS is to collect the information necessary for a comprehensive picture of elementary and secondary education in the United States. The data collected permit detailed analyses of the characteristics of schools, principals, and teachers. The linkages among the NTPS questionnaires enable researchers to examine the relationships among these elements of education. Collection of these data provide critical information to policymakers and researchers on a variety of topics including school organization, decision making, and recruitment and retention of teachers and principals.

A.2.1 Research Issues Addressed in NTPS 2017-18

NTPS builds upon and extends the series of SASS data collections that occurred seven times over the period between 1987 and 2012. Many questions from SASS continue to be asked in the NTPS questionnaires, allowing researchers to examine trends on these topics over time. In addition, the linkages of NTPS/SASS with the TFS and PFS create a small longitudinal component. A subset of teachers who respond to NTPS are surveyed during the next school year, including teachers who changed schools, left the teaching profession, and a subsample of teachers who stayed at the same school over the two school years. Thus, researchers can study the antecedents of teacher attrition. The Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS), conducted in 2008-09, 2012-13, and upcoming in 2016-17, provides information about principal attrition. All principal respondents in the base-year NTPS are surveyed during the next school year.

The large NTPS sample allows extensive disaggregation of data according to important characteristics of teachers, principals, and schools. For example, researchers can compare urban and rural settings, and the working conditions of teachers and principals of differing demographic backgrounds.

Because the NTPS 2015-16 data have not yet been released, the sections below provide examples of how SASS data have been used to study our nation’s schools, teachers, and principals.

A.2.1.1 School Management

SASS data have been used to look at school management, including the extent to which teachers feel they have influence over classroom instruction and classroom management. In Public School Teacher Autonomy in the Classroom Across School Years 2003–04, 2007–08, and 2011–12 (NCES 2015089), NCES explores how teachers’ perceptions of autonomy have changed over these three school years, as well as how levels of teacher autonomy vary across selected teacher and school characteristics.

Trends in Public and Private School Principal Demographics and Qualifications: 1987-88 to 2011-12 (NCES 2016189). This report examines the trends in principal demographics and other characteristics based on data from all seven of the SASS administrations.

A.2.1.2 Teacher Quality

Teacher quality has been a topic of discussion among education researchers for many years. SASS collected data on teacher demographics, the educational backgrounds of teachers, the subject areas in which teachers were certified to teach, and their years of experience teaching. How schools and school districts recruit and retain skilled teachers was also an important aspect of the SASS.

Education and Certification Qualifications of Departmentalized Public High School-Level Teachers of Selected Subjects: Evidence From the 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey (NCES 2015814) examines the postsecondary majors and teaching certifications of public high school-level teachers of departmentalized classes. Using data from the 2011–12 SASS, a sample survey of elementary and secondary schools in the United States, this report examines the percentages of teachers who have a major or certificate in their main assignment in a selection of 11 broad subject areas and 9 subfields. The 11 broad subject areas include English, mathematics, science, social science, French, German, Latin, Spanish, art/arts and crafts, music, and dance/drama or theater. Subfields of science include biology/life science, physical science, chemistry, earth science, and physics. Subfields of social science include economics, geography, government/civics, and history

Education and Certification Qualifications of Public Middle Grades Teachers of Selected Subjects: Evidence From the 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey (NCES 2015815) examines the postsecondary majors and teaching certifications of public middle grades teachers. Using data from the 2011–12 SASS, a sample survey of elementary and secondary schools in the United States, this report examines the percentages of public school teachers who have a major or certificate in their main teaching assignment.

A.2.1.3 Teacher Supply and Demand

SASS was designed since its inception to measure key aspects of teacher supply and demand. In Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools (NCES 2015065), NCES examines the percentages of public schools that reported that they had teaching vacancies and subject areas with difficult-to-staff teaching positions in the 1999–2000, 2003–04, 2007–08, and 2011–12 school years.

A.2.1.4 Teacher Satisfaction

SASS included numerous measures of how satisfied teachers were with their jobs and their working conditions. In Teacher Job Satisfaction (NCES 2016-131), NCES examines job satisfaction among teachers in both public and private schools in the 2003-04, 2007-08, and 2011-12 school years, both overall and also for teachers who had varying perceptions of administrative support. This Data Point uses SASS data from 2003-04, 2007-08, and 2011-12 to examine job satisfaction among teachers in both public and private schools. This study describes job satisfaction overall and also among teachers with varying perceptions of administrative support.

A.2.1.5 Teacher and Principal Attrition

The SASS and its longitudinal components, the TFS and the PFS, provide detailed information on the year to year transitions made by teachers and principals.

Teacher Attrition and Mobility: Results From the 2012-13 Teacher Follow-up Survey (NCES 2014077) describes the number and characteristics of teachers who remained at the same school, moved to another school, or left the profession in the year following the SASS administration.

Principal Attrition and Mobility: Results From the 2012–13 Principal Follow-up Survey (NCES 2014064REV) explores 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.

A.3 Use of Improved Information Technology

Technology will be applied appropriately to keep respondent burden to a minimum. To lessen the response burden on public schools, speed up the teacher sample selection, and reduce data processing costs, schools will be asked to send a list of all of their teachers via electronic files, with the alternative option of filling out a paper questionnaire. Schools will be assured that all teacher data will be stored on secure online servers controlled by the U.S. Census Bureau. Additionally, questionnaires within each sampled school will be tracked using an electronic tool which was used in NTPS 2015-16. Voluntary school-based coordinators will be invited to access this web-based tool at the outset of data collection activities. In addition, following successful implementation in the NTPS pilot test, schools will be asked to provide teacher email addresses on the Teacher Listing form. Teachers with email addresses will be invited to respond to the Teacher Questionnaire through an Internet response option. If they do not respond, they will also be given the option to respond by paper. Independently, as part of the questionnaire, we ask all teachers and principal for their email addresses to be used in TFS and the PFS, respectively.

Finally, NTPS 2017-18 will use the Internet response option tested with principals in NTPS 2015-16 as the main mode of data collection for this respondent group, reducing processing costs and editing errors. Nonresponding principals will be offered the option to respond by paper.

A.4 Efforts to Identify Duplication

A key element of the NTPS design principle was to leverage trusted data sources instead of asking schools or districts to report items on NTPS that they or their state have already provided through other collections. At the start of the SASS redesign, all SASS items were cross-walked against a variety of ED’s and external data sources. From this review, a number of duplicate or near duplicate items were identified. As a result, NCES plans to append to the NTPS files data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) in order to enrich and not duplicate data collection on these topics. In some cases a duplicate item was kept on NTPS because the extant variable from another source was not suitable for NTPS (e.g. due to an issue with periodicity, availability, item wording, reliability, or the item being needed for confirmation purposes).

To improve the efficiency of the special contact districts operations, we plan to send application packages for NTPS 2017-18 simultaneously with SSOCS 2018 when a district has schools sampled for both surveys. Each special contact district with schools sampled for both NTPS and SSOCS will have the option of allowing its schools to participate in NTPS, SSOCS, or both. Sending the applications together will allow the special contact district to consider participation in each survey simultaneously with the aim of reducing the burden for districts to review separate research applications.

A.5 Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses

The burden on small schools is minimized during the NTPS through the sample design that specifies the selection of schools as a function of size defined by the number of teachers. Small schools, therefore, will be sampled at lower rates than larger schools because they comprise a smaller proportion of the teacher population per school. A large component of the NTPS redesign was intended specifically to improve the data collected and minimize the burden imposed on respondents. NTPS questionnaires are shorter than their respective SASS questionnaires.

A.6 Frequency of Data Collection

NCES plans for the NTPS to be collected on a two year cycle. A major component of the redesign of SASS into NTPS was revising the collection periodicity. NCES received extensive feedback from experts and researchers in the field that the data collected from SASS every four years were not timely enough to capture more frequent changes in the characteristics of teachers and principals in K-12 education. In response to this feedback, NTPS is now conducted every two years. If NTPS were fielded less often, there would be a significant delay in the observation of critical changes in trends that address the key research issues affecting the teacher and principal workforces.

A.7 Special Circumstances of Data Collection

No special circumstances for this information collection are anticipated.

A.8 Consultants outside the Agency

Since its inception, the development of SASS has relied on the substantive and technical review and comment of people both inside and outside the Department of Education. Outside experts who were convened to offer comments on proposed revisions for the NTPS and their affiliation at the start of the project include:

Kelly Burling, Ph.D., Vice President and Director of the Center for Educator Effectiveness, Pearson

Steve Glazerman, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Mathematica Policy Research

Heather Hill, Ph.D., Professor in Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Patricia Hinchey, Ed.D., Professor of Education, Pennsylvania State (Worthington-Scranton)

Richard Ingersoll, Ph.D., Board of Overseers, Professor of Education and Sociology, U. of Pennsylvania

Anthony Milanowski. Ph.D., Senior Study Director, Westat

Angela Minnici, Ph.D., Managing Researcher, American Institutes for Research (AIR)

Jennifer Oliver, M.A., TAP Director, U. of Indianapolis, Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning

Eric Camburn, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education

Matthew Clifford, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, American Institutes for Research (AIR)

Laura Desimone, Ph.D., Professor, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education

H. Alix Gallagher, Ph.D., Associate Director, SRI International

Stephanie Hirsh, Ph.D., Executive Director, Learning Forward

Kwang Suk Yoon, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, American Institutes for Research (AIR)

The following experts served as part of the NTPS team in previous rounds of administration:

David Marker, Statistician, Westat

Rebecca Goldring, Statistician, Westat

Lou Rizzo, Statistician, Westat

The NTPS design has benefited from consultation with the following federal experts:

Amy Ho, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Andy Zukerberg, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Chelsea Owens, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Cleo Redline, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Deanne Swan, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Sharon Boivin, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Stephen Broughman, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Carolyn Pickering, Survey Director, Education Surveys Team, U.S. Census Bureau

James Farber, Statistician, Demographic Survey Methods Division, U.S. Census Bureau

Mary Davis, Statistician, Center for Survey Measurement, U.S. Census Bureau

Shawna Cox, Assistant Survey Director, Education Surveys Team, U.S. Census Bureau

A.9 Provision of Payments or Gifts to Respondents

Some districts charge a fee to process research application requests, which we will pay as necessary. Additionally, we are researching the possibility of using incentives at the district level to encourage district approval and participation. If this approach proves desirable, we will submit a change request to OMB in late 2016. Any incentives that may be used during the full data collection will be discussed in the regular data collection clearance request to be submitted in early 2017.

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality

NTPS data will be collected for NCES by the Census Bureau under an interagency agreement. Census will comply with ED’s IT security requirements as set forth in the Handbook for Information Assurance Security Policy; with related procedures and guidance, including the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards and guidance; and with the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002; 20 U.S.C., § 9573). These requirements include the successful certification and accreditation of the system before it can be implemented. Appropriate memoranda of understanding and interconnection security agreements will be documented as part of the certification and accreditation process.

From the initial contact with the participants in this survey through all of the follow-up efforts, potential survey respondents will be informed that all of the information they provide may only be used for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law (ESRA 2002; 20 U.S.C., § 9573). The following language will be included in respondent contact materials:

All of your responses may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law (20 U.S.C., §9573).

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this voluntary information collection is 1850-0598. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average [XX] minutes per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate, suggestions for improving this collection, or comments or concerns about the contents or the status of your individual submission of this questionnaire, please e-mail:[TBD: insert email] or write directly to: National Teacher and Principal Survey, National Center for Education Statistics, 550 12^th St. SW #4014, Washington, DC 20004.

A.11 Sensitive Questions

The teacher and principal questionnaires collect data on salary and teacher questionnaires on crime victimization. While these items might be considered sensitive, they have been used in the past and response rates for these items are traditionally high, ranging from 94.2% to 99.8% for principals and 92.3% to 98.2% for teachers.

A.12 Estimated Response Burden

Based on an initial assessment of previous NTPS data collections, we estimate that roughly 300 special contact districts will be in the sample. To reduce burden for the special contact districts and improve operational efficiency, we plan to seek research approval for NTPS 2017-18 simultaneously with SSOCS 2018². Although NCES plans to minimize overlap in the schools sampled for NTPS and SSOCS, most of the largest districts will have schools selected for both surveys. Those special contact districts with schools in both surveys will receive both research applications concurrently and be given the option to participate in NTPS, SSOCS, or both. In large districts, we do not anticipate selecting any individual schools for both surveys.

The special contact districts are those known to require completion of a research application before they will allow schools under their jurisdiction to participate in a study. Contacting special districts begins with updating district information based on what can be gleaned from online sources and what is known from previous cycles of collection. Individual districts will be contacted as needed to fill in gaps about where and to whom to send the completed required research application forms. The estimated number of such districts represents those with particularly detailed application forms and lengthy processes for approval. This operation should begin as soon as possible after receiving OMB’s approval, but no later than December 2016 to allow sufficient time for special districts’ review processes. We will continue to work with the districts until we receive a final response (approval or denial of request) as long as there is sufficient time for sampled schools, principals and teachers to respond to the NTPS.

The projected number of responses is based on the currently proposed NTPS 2017-18 sample size³, and takes into account eligibility and response rates from NTPS 2015-16. Not all districts initially flagged as special contact districts will respond in the recruitment effort because they may not have a formal research application process and are not actually a special contact district, as such, the estimated number of responding special districts is lower than the estimated sample size for the special district operation.

The total response burden estimate for special district IRB approvals is based on 360 minutes for IRB review by one staff member, and 60 minutes per member for special district IRB panel review, assuming each panel would on average be composed of six panel members. The burden per school reading and potentially following up on the NTPS notification letter is estimated to average about 3 minutes. Based on the estimated hourly rates for principals/administrators of $44.68⁴, and based on 3,322 total burden hours for NTPS 2017-18 preliminary activities, the total estimated burden time cost to respondents is $$148,427.

Table 1. Estimates of respondent burden for preliminary field activities for NTPS 2017-18

Activity	Sample Size	Estimated Response Rate	Estimated Number of Respondents	Estimated Number of Responses	Average Burden Time per Respondent (Minutes)	Total Burden Hours
District IRB Staff Review	300	80%	240	240	360	1,440
District IRB Panel Review	300*6	80%	1,440	1,440	60	1,440
Notification letter – public schools	9,300	65%	6,045	6,045	3	302
Notification letter – private schools	4,000	70%	2,800	2,800	3	140
TOTAL	--	--	10,525	10,525	--	3,322

A.13 Estimates of Cost to Respondents

There are no costs to respondents beyond their time to participate. No equipment, printing, or postage charges will be incurred by the participants.

A.14 Cost to the Federal Government

The estimated cost to the federal government for NTPS 2017-18 is $12.9 million. The estimated cost to the federal government for the preliminary activities is $275,000.

Table 2. Estimates of Costs to the Federal Government

Activity	Estimated Costs
Survey Development	$2,100,000
Survey Collection	$7,300,000
Data Processing	$2,000,000
Data Reporting	$1,500,000
TOTAL	$12,900,000

A.15 Reasons for Changes in Response Burden and Costs

Estimated respondent burden in this request shows a decrease from last approval, because the last approval was for the full-scale NTPS 2015-16 data collection, while this request is for NTPS 2017-18 preliminary activities only.

A.16 Publication Plans and Time Schedule

Information relevant to the data collection will be part of the reports resulting from NTPS 2017-18. A data file will be produced and made available to researchers through an online NCES data analysis tool, PowerStats, as well as in a restricted-use data file. Researchers who are approved by NCES’s data confidentiality office for a restricted-use license can access restricted-use data files. Codebooks and user’s manuals will be produced for use with the public- and restricted-use data files. All of the NTPS data files will be linked through the sampled school record. NTPS 2017-18 reports and publications will include a detailed methodological report describing all aspects of the data collection effort.

The tentative operational schedule for NTPS 2017-18 follows. The final operational schedule will be included in the full-scale NTPS 2017-18 OMB clearance package.

Activity	Tentative Dates
Contact Special Districts to begin approval process	November 2016
Complete and deliver special district applications and packages	November 2016 – March 2018 (earliest cut-off)
Mail school notification letters where approved or no approval needed	June 2017
Begin NTPS 2017-18 Data Collection	August 2017
Mail questionnaires/internet invitations to schools, request teacher lists	August, 2017
Mail second questionnaire package to non-responding schools	September, 2017
Mail third package to non-responding schools	December, 2017
Mail fourth package to non-responding schools	February, 2018
Telephone follow-up with schools to obtain teacher lists	September 2017 – October 2017
Clerical research operation to obtain teacher lists	October 2017 – November 2017
Mail Teacher Questionnaires as teacher samples are drawn	September 2017 – March 2018
Telephone follow-up to obtain school, principal, and teacher questionnaires	February 2018 – March 2018
Field follow-up to obtain teacher lists, school, principal, and teacher questionnaires	September 2017 – May 2018
End NTPS 2017-18 Data Collection	July 2018
Data capture of all questionnaires	September 2017 – June 2018
Data processing	January 2018 – December 2018
Release initial reports and data files	July 2019

A.17 Approval for Not Displaying the Expiration Date for OMB Approval

No exemption from the requirement to display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection is being requested for NTPS 2017-18.

A.18 Exceptions to the Certification Statement

No exceptions to the certification statement apply to NTPS 2017-18.

1 The TFS and PFS are conducted every four years as a follow up to sample members from the prior year’s NTPS. TFS and PFS are currently being fielded in 2016-17 as a follow up to NTPS 2015-16. There will not be a TFS or PFS administration following up NTPS 2017-18. TFS and PFS will return in 2020-21 as a follow-up to the NTPS 2019-20.

2 Please note the preliminary activities for SSOCS 2018 were previously approved in March 2016 (OMB#1850-0598, revised August 2016). A modification to the SSOCS 2018 clearance will be submitted to request clearance of the combined operations and related respondent materials.

3 Please note that work on the NTPS 2017-18 sample design continues. Should any change be necessary to what is proposed in this package, NCES will submit to OMB a change request in the fall 2016.

4 The average hourly earnings of principals/education administrators in the May 2015 National Occupational and Employment Wage Estimates sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is $44.68. Source: BLS Occupation Employment Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/oes/ data type: Occupation code: Education Administrators, Elementary and Secondary Schools (11-9032); accessed on April 5, 2016.

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Part A NTPS 2017-18 Preliminary Field Activities