ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) National Benchmark Study 2017

National Center for Education Statistics

ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS)

National Benchmark Study 2017 Updated

Appendix C

EDSCLS Platform and Administration Instructions

OMB# 1850-0923 v.4

Revised April 2016

Table of Contents

Platform Instructions PI-1

Administration Instructions AI-1

EDSCLS Platform Instructions

EDSCLS Platform Instructions
English Instructions	Spanish Instructions - Student Version
Mark One Response.	Selecciona solo uno.
Please Check All that Apply.	Por favor marca todas las que aplican.
How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Mark One Response.	¿Qué tan de acuerdo o en desacuerdo estas con las siguientes frases? Marca una respuesta.
How much of a problem are the following at this school? Mark One Response.	¿Qué tanto problema son los siguientes en esta escuela? Marca una respuesta
How often do the following occur? Mark One Response.	¿Con que frecuencia sucede lo siguiente? Marca una respuesta.
You have opted out of the survey. This username is no longer valid.	Tú has elegido no participar en esta encuesta. Este nombre de usuario ya no es válido.
Please click the “Log Out” button to exit the survey.	Por favor has click en “cerrar sesión” para salir de la encuesta.
The survey has closed.	La encuesta se ha cerrado.
The survey has not started yet.	La encuesta no ha comenzado todavía.
If you understand this information and are willing to take this survey, please select “Yes, I am ready to begin.” If you are not willing to take the survey, please select “No I do not want to participate.”	Si entiendes esta información y estás dispuesto a tomar esta encuesta, por favor selecciona "Sí, estoy listo para comenzar." Si no estás dispuesto a participar en la encuesta, por favor selecciona "No, yo no quiero participar."
Please make note of the PIN below. It will allow you to log back into the survey if the session times out or you need to stop and come back later. The session will time out if left idle for more than 5 minutes. PIN:XXXX For your security, we will not be able to reset the PIN if lost or forgotten.	Por favor, toma nota del PIN a continuación. Esto permitirá que puedas volver a iniciar la sesión en la encuesta si la sesión se ha cerrado automáticamente o si necesitas parar y volver más tarde. La sesión se cerrara automáticamente si esta inactiva durante más de 5 minutos. PIN: XXXX Por tu seguridad, no podemos restablecer tu PIN en caso de pérdida u olvido.
Thank you! You have successfully submitted your survey. If you wish, you may go back to review your responses up to the last point you logged in. If you do not want to review your responses, you may log out of the survey at this time.	¡Gracias! Tu encuesta se ha enviado correctamente. Si deseas, puedes volver a revisar tus respuestas hasta el último punto que iniciaste la sesión. Si no deseas revisar las respuestas, podrás cerrar la sesión de la encuesta en este momento.
Thank you. You are logged out of the ED School Climate Survey. When you return to the survey, use the PIN you were given when you started the survey. When you re-enter the survey, you will be taken to the point in the survey where you logged off. To protect your confidentiality, you will be unable to go back to previous questions to review your responses.	Gracias. Has cerrado la sesión de la Encuesta sobre el clima escolar. Cuando regreses a la encuesta usa el PIN que se te proporciono al principio de la encuesta. Cuando entres de nuevo a la encuesta te llevara al lugar donde saliste de la encuesta. Para proteger tu confidencialidad no podrás volver a preguntas anteriores para revisar tus respuestas.
Which of the following grade groupings best describes the grade that you are currently in? 5th to 8th grade 9th to 12th grade	¿Cuál de las siguientes agrupaciones de años describe mejor el grado que actualmente cursas? 5o al 8o grado 9o al 12o grado
Welcome back to the ED School Climate survey. Please enter your PIN below. When you re-enter the survey, you will be taken to the point in the survey where you logged off. To protect your confidentiality, you will be unable to go back to previous questions to review your responses.	Bienvenido a la Encuesta sobre el clima escolar. Por favor ingresa tu PIN a continuación. Cuando entres de nuevo a la encuesta te llevara al lugar donde saliste de la encuesta. Para proteger tu confidencialidad no podrás volver a preguntas anteriores para revisar tus respuestas.
Ungraded (this term refers to a student not being in a traditional school grade)	sin grado escolar (este termino se refiere a un estudiante que no esta en un grado escolar tradicional)
Throughout the survey, "at this school" means activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that hold school- sponsored events or activities. Unless otherwise specified, this refers to normal school hours or to times when school activities/events were in session.	Durante la encuesta “en esta escuela” se refiera a actividades que pasan en los edificios de la escuela, en las instalaciones de la escuela, en los buses de la escuela, y otros lugares en donde se dan actividades y eventos patrocinados por la escuela. A menos que se especifique lo contrario, esto se refiere a las horas normales de la escuela o para ocasiones en que las actividades de la escuela /eventos estén en sesión.
The ED School Climate Survey (EDSCLS) is being administered by [school name]. Your responses are important in understanding the environment of this school and the conditions for teaching and learning. To start the survey, please type in your username below.	La Encuesta sobre el clima escolar (EDSCLS, por sus siglas en inglés) se está administrado por [school name]. Sus respuestas son importantes a entender el ambiente de esta escuela y las condiciones de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Para empezar la encuesta, por favor ingresa tu nombre de usuario a continuación.

EDSCLS Platform Instructions
English Instructions - Student Version	Spanish Instructions - Student Version
Informed Consent	consentimento informado
What is this survey about? The ED School Climate Survey asks questions about how connected you are to your school, about other students in your school, and about school staff. The survey is also being given to other students like you. This is not a test. There are no wrong answers. The survey should take about 40 minutes to complete. Do you have to take the survey? This survey is voluntary. If you or your parents do not want you to take this survey, you can let your school know and you don't have to take the survey. You do not have to answer any questions you do not want to answer, and you can stop taking the survey at any time. We hope you will do your best to answer as many questions as you can. Please be honest when answering each question. What if your parents don't want you to complete this survey? If your parents do not want you to take this survey, they can let your school know. Who will see your answers? [For students at schools that are not requesting individual student data, the following text is shown on the informed consent page for the student survey:] “The experiences of students are critical to understanding school climate, and the best way to understand those experiences is to ask students themselves. Apart from improving your school climate, the information that you provide will be combined with responses from students in other schools like yours and will be used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide national data that can be compared to data of individual schools, districts, and states. Data provided to NCES may be used only for statistical purposes and will not be disclosed or used in identifiable form for any other purpose, except as required by law (Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, 20 U.S.C., § 9573). The data you provide may also be used by your school, district, and/or state to better understand the current climate in your school. Your answers will be combined with the answers of other students at your school and district and used to create records about the climate of your school. These reports will not identify any person or their responses.” [For students at schools that request student data without directly identifying PII, the following text is shown on the informed consent page for the student survey:] “The experiences of students are critical to understanding school climate, and the best way to understand those experiences is to ask students themselves. Apart from improving your school climate, the information that you provide will be combined with responses from students in other schools like yours and will be used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide national data that can be compared to data of individual schools, districts, and states. Data provided to NCES may be used only for statistical purposes and will not be disclosed or used in identifiable form for any other purpose, except as required by law (Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, 20 U.S.C., § 9573). The data you provide may also be used by your school, district, and/or state to better understand the current climate in your school. Answers to individual questions will not identify any person and the only people who may see answers to individual questions are authorized personnel at your school and district (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99). Your answers will be combined with the answers of other students at your school and district and used to create records about the climate of your school. These reports will not identify any person or their responses. [For students at schools that request student data with directly identifying PII for linkage with other data the schools may have, the following text is shown on the informed consent page for the student survey:] “The experiences of students are critical to understanding school climate, and the best way to understand those experiences is to ask students themselves. Apart from improving your school climate, the information that you provide will be combined with responses from students in other schools like yours and will be used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide national data that can be compared to data of individual schools, districts, and states. Data provided to NCES may be used only for statistical purposes, except as required by law or described here (Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, 20 U.S.C., § 9573). The data you provide may also be used by your school, district, and/or state to better understand the current climate in your school. The only people who may see your answers to individual questions are authorized personnel at your school and district (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99). Your answers will be combined with the answers of other students at your school and district and used to create records about the climate of your school. Although these reports will not identify any person or their responses, your data may be combined with other data about you to help improve the climate of your school.” Who should you ask if you have any questions? If you have questions you can ask your teacher or other adults at your school. American Institutes for Research (AIR) is collecting the benchmark data for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. This survey is estimated to take an average of 40 minutes, including time for reviewing instructions and completing and reviewing the collection of information. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1850-#### (expires ##/##/2018).” If you understand this information and are willing to take this survey, please select "Yes, I am ready to begin". If you are not willing to take the survey, please select "No I do not want to participate."	¿De qué se trata esta encuesta? La Encuesta sobre clima escolar hace preguntas sobre la conexión que tienes con tu escuela, sobre los estudiantes que asisten a tu escuela, y sobre el personal de la escuela. La encuesta también se está dando a otros estudiantes como tú. Esta no es una prueba. No existen respuestas incorrectas. Debería tomar alrededor de 40 minutos completar la encuesta. ¿Tienes que tomar la encuesta? Esta encuesta es voluntaria. Si tu o tus padres no quieren tomar esta encuesta, pueden informarle a la escuela y no tienes que tomar la encuesta. No tienes que responder a ninguna pregunta que no quieras responder, y puedes dejar de tomar la encuesta en cualquier momento. Esperamos que hagas tu mejor esfuerzo por responder todas las preguntas que puedas. Por favor se sinceró al responder cada pregunta. ¿Qué sucede si tus padres no quieren que hagas esta encuesta? Si tus padres no quieren que hagas en esta encuesta, ellos pueden informar a la escuela sobre su decisión. ¿Quién verá tus respuestas? [For students at schools that are not requesting individual student data, the following text is shown on the informed consent page for the student survey:] Las experiencias de los estudiantes son fundamentales para comprender el clima de la escuela, y la mejor manera de entender esas experiencias es preguntarles a los propios estudiantes. Aparte de mejorar su clima escolar, la información que proporciones será combinada con las respuestas de estudiantes de otras escuelas similares a la tuya, y serán utilizadas por el Centro Nacional para Estadísticas de la Educación (NCES por sus siglas en Inglés) para proporcionar datos a nivel nacional que puedan compararse con los datos de escuelas, distritos y estados individuales. Los datos proporcionados a NCES sólo podrán ser utilizados con fines estadísticos y no podrán ser divulgados o utilizados de forma identificable para cualquier otro fin, excepto cuando sea requerido por la ley (Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, 20 U.S.C., § 9573). Los datos usted proporcione pueden también ser utilizados por su escuela y el distrito para entender mejor el clima actual en su escuela. Sus repuestas serán combinadas con las repuestas de otros estudiantes en su escuela y distrito y se utilizan para crear registros sobre el clima de su escuela. Estos informes no identificarán a ninguna persona o repuestas. [For students at schools that request student data without directly identifying PII, the following text is shown on the informed consent page for the student survey:] Las experiencias de los estudiantes son fundamentales para comprender el clima de la escuela, y la mejor manera de entender esas experiencias es preguntarles a los propios estudiantes. Aparte de mejorar su clima escolar, la información que proporciones será combinada con las repuestas de estudiantes de otras escuelas similares a la tuya, y serán utilizadas por el Centro Nacional para Estadísticas de la Educación (NCES por sus siglas en Inglés) para proporcionar datos a nivel nacional que puedan compararse con los datos de escuelas, distritos y estados individuales. Los datos proporcionados a NCES solo podrán ser utilizados con fines estadísticos y no podrán ser divulgados o utilizados de forma identificable para cualquier otro fin, excepto cuando sea requerido por la ley (Education Sciences Reforrm Act (ESRA) of 2002,20 U.S.C., § 9573). Los datos que usted proporcione pueden también ser utilizados por su escuela y el distrito para entender major el clima actual en su escuela. Las repuestas a preguntas individuales no identificarán a cualquier persona y las únicas personas que pueden ver las repuestas a las preguntas individuales son el personal autorizado en su escuela y el distrito (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99). Sus repuestas serán combinadas con las repuestas de otros estudiantes en su escuela y el distrito y se utilizan para crear registros sobre el clima de su escuela. Estos informes no identificarán a ninguna persona o repuestas. [For students at schools that request student data with directly identifying PII for linkage with other data the schools may have, the following text is shown on the informed consent page for the student survey:] Las experiencias de los estudiantes son fundamentales para comprender el clima de la escuela, y la mejor manera de entender esas experiencias es preguntarles a los propios estudiantes. Aparte de mejorar su clima escolar, la información que proporciones será combinada con las repuestas de estudiantes de otras escuelas similares a la tuya, y serán utilizadas por el Centro Nacional para Estadísticas de la Educación (NCES por sus siglas en Inglés) para proporcionar datos a nivel nacional que puedan compararse con los datos de escuelas, distritos y estados individuales. Los datos proporcionados a NCES solo podrán ser utilizados con fines estadíisticos, excepto cuando sea requerido por la ley o describe aquí (Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, 20 U.S.C., § 9573). Los datos que usted proporcione pueden también ser utilizados por su escuela y el distrito para entender mejor el clima actual en su escuela. Las únicas personas que pueden ver las repuestas a las preguntas individuales son el personal autorizado en su escuela y el distrito (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99). Sus repuestas serán combinadas con las repuestas de otros estudiantes en su escuela y el distrito y se utilizan para crear registros sobre el clima de su escuela. Aunque estos informes no identificar a cualquier persona o sus repuestas, sus datos podrán ser combinados con otros datos sobre usted para ayudar a su escuela mejorar el clima de su escuela. ¿A quién puedes hacerle preguntas? Si tienes preguntas, puedes ir con tu maestro/a o a otros adultos en tu escuela. El American Institutes for Research está recopilando los datos del estudio referencia national para el Centro Nacional para Estadísticas de la Educación (NCES por sus siglas en Inglés) del Departamento de Educación de los Estados Unidos. Esta encuesta debe tomar un promedio de 40 minutos para completar, revisar y recopilar esta información. De acuerdo ley de Simplificación de Trámites Administrativos de 1995, ninguna persona tiene que responder a la recolección de información a menos que esta tenga un número valido de OMB. El número de control de OMB para la recolección de información es 1850-#### (expiración ##/##/2018). Si entiendes esta información y estás dispuesto a tomar esta encuesta, por favor seleccione "Sí, estoy listo para comenzar." Si no estás dispuesto a participar en la encuesta, por favor seleccione "No, yo no quiero participar."

EDSCLS Platform Instructions
English Instructions - Staff Version	Spanish Instructions
What is this survey about? The ED School Climate Survey asks instructional and non-instructional staff like you about the environment of the schools where you work. We want to know your opinions about the school climate and the environment for teaching and learning for staff and students in your school. The survey should take about 30 minutes to complete. Do you have to take the survey? This survey is voluntary. You do not have to answer any questions you do not want to answer, and you can stop taking the survey at any time without penalty. Who will see your answers? The experiences of students and staff are critical to understanding school climate, and the best way to understand those experiences is to ask all members of the school community. Apart from improving your school climate, the information that you provide will be combined with responses from staff in other schools like yours and will be used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide national data that can be compared to data of individual schools, districts, and states. NCES will receive individual-level responses from participating schools and districts without the names or other direct personal identifiers of the respondents. Data you provide to NCES 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 (Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002, 20 U.S.C., § 9573). The results of this survey are confidential. The data you provide may also be used by your school and district to better understand the current climate in your school. The only people who may see your answers to individual questions are authorized personnel at your school and district. Your answers will be combined with the answers of other respondents in your school and district and used to create reports about the climate of your school. These reports will not identify any person or their responses. Are there risks or benefits associated with taking this survey? There are no anticipated or known risks involved in participating in this survey. The information that you provide will help inform our understanding of conditions for working and learning in your school. Who should you ask if you have any questions? If you have questions, you can speak with the school principal or survey coordinator at the contact information that accompanied your survey invitation. American Institutes for Research (AIR) is collecting the benchmark data for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. This survey is estimated to take an average of 30 minutes, including time for reviewing instructions and completing and reviewing the collection of information. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1850-#### (expires ##/##/2018).” If you understand this information and are willing to take this survey, please select "Yes, I am ready to begin". If you are not willing to take the survey, please select "No, I do not want to participate."	N/A (Instructional and Noninstructional staff versions only)

EDSCLS Platform Instructions
English Instructions	Spanish Instructions - Student Version
YES, I AM READY TO BEGIN	Sí, estoy listo para comenzar
NO, I DO NOT WANT TO PARTICIPATE	No, yo no quiero participar
CONTINUE	CONTINUAR
CLEAR	BORRAR
NEXT	SIGUIENTE
BACK	ATRÁS
LOG IN	INICIAR SESIÓN
If you have any questions about the EDSCLS, please contact [Admin] at (###) ###-####.	Si tienes alguna pregunta sobre la EDSCLS, comunícate con [Admin] a (###) ###-####.
Username	Nombre de usuario
You have already completed the survey.	Encuesta completada
Logged out	SESIÓN CERRADA
You have chosen to not participate in the ED School Climate Survey. Your opinions are important to us. If you would like to participate in the EDSCLS, please click the "BACK" button to return to your previous response. Otherwise, please click the "LOG OUT" button to exit the survey. Thank you for your time.	Elegiste no participar en la Encuesta sobre el clima escolar. Tus opiniones son importantes para nosotros. Si te gustaría participar en la EDSCLS, por favor haz clic en el botón "ATRÁS" para regresar a tu respuesta anterior. De lo contario, haz clic en el botón "CERRAR LA SESIÓN" para salir de la encuesta. Gracias por tu tiempo.
SURVEY COMPLETED	ENCUESTA COMPLETADA
Invalid username or PIN.	Nombre de usuario o PIN no válido.
Please fill out this field.	Por favor llena esta casilla

Administration Instructions¹

Standardized administration procedures are critical to conducting a scientifically sound survey data collection. School Coordinators should read these instructions and contact the American Institutes for Research (AIR) (e-mail [email protected] or call 1-844-849-5252 toll free) with any questions or concerns prior to launching an EDSCLS administration. Guidance for specific EDSCLS survey populations (students, instructional staff, and noninstructional staff [including principals]) is indicated where appropriate.

Specifically, the following topics are addressed:

• Preparing for the survey administration for the respondent groups (students, instructional staff, and noninstructional staff (including principals);

• Selecting and training survey proctors for the student survey;

• Applying respondent eligibility criteria to determine number of eligible respondents in each respondent group (student, instructional staff, and noninstructional staff (including principals);

• Setting the dates of the administration window;

• Coordinating the data collection;

• Administering the student survey; and

• Participation rates and encouraging respondents who have not taken the survey.

Preparing for the Survey Administration

This section contains recommended practices for preparing for EDSCLS administrations, beginning with specific guidelines for each survey:

Student survey

• The school’s own technology capacity plays a large part in considering whether computer labs, media centers, or classrooms (with computer or tablet access) are the best options for administering the survey. If multiple options are available, consider which venue in your school affords the most privacy to each student.

• Regarding parental consent, please use the standard practice of the state/district/school to acquire the proper parental consent for any surveys or testing. The student survey questions are available in paper form in both English and Spanish for parents/guardians to review. It is recommended that parents/guardians be given the opportunity to review the student survey prior to the start of data collection. The student survey questions and parental consent forms can be e-mailed or printed and mailed along with report cards or other school documents. As a reference, two sample parental consent forms (passive and active)² are included in the communication materials sent to your school.

  1. If your state law or school system policies do NOT require parents/guardians to “opt in” for surveys of their child, you can provide the passive Parental Consent Form.

  2. If your state law or school system policies do require parents/guardians to “opt in” for surveys of their child, you will need to provide the active Parental Consent Form.³

Instructional and Noninstructional staff surveys

• If your school does not provide instructional and noninstructional staff access to computers in their classrooms or offices, consider creating a sign-up sheet for the available computers through which staff can rotate.

• The web-based survey platform allows staff to complete the survey at home if they wish. Technically students could also take the survey at home but that is strongly advised against as unsupervised students may provide less reliable data.

• Some noninstructional staff, such as custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers, may need to use school computers at designated times to complete their surveys. Schools should provide personnel to assist with this as necessary.

• Staff meetings provide an opportune time to both explain the surveys to staff and to have them complete the survey. Consider setting aside time and/or computers during the meeting for staff to use to complete the survey.

• If staff have designated times in the school day for planning, professional activities, or administrative tasks, consider allowing them to use that time to complete the survey.

Selecting and Training Survey Proctors for the Student Survey:

• EDSCLS student survey administrations must be supervised, necessitating Survey Proctors. The Survey Coordinator should select the Survey Proctors and furnish them with the proctor script and the student usernames (which AIR will randomly generate through the EDSCLS platform and deliver to the Survey Coordinator).

• Eligible Survey Proctors may include teachers, student-teachers, noninstructional staff, school counselors, school nurses, computer lab technicians, or outside consultants. If instructional staff are used, please consider having them proctor for classes of students that they do not teach. Despite overt privacy procedures, students may not be as open to providing honest responses in the vicinity of their regular classroom teacher.

• Training the Survey Proctors is critical to ensuring that the students finish the survey within a single class period. Provide the Survey Proctors with the Survey Proctor Script and hold an in-person or virtual meeting prior to the start of the administration window to review the materials and field any questions the proctors may have.

• All individuals involved in administering the EDSCLS, including the Survey Proctors, should sign the Confidentiality Pledge. This reinforces the commitment to confidentiality and the signed form can be shown to parents/guardians to address privacy concerns.

Applying Respondent Eligibility Criteria

• A school may choose to have this survey administered to all of the students in grades 5-12, teachers, and noninstructional staff. In this case, the school will receive a school-specific climate report at the end of the national benchmark study.

• Alternatively, the school may choose to have this survey administered to a sample of students in grades 5-12 and teachers. In this case, one randomly selected class of students from each eligible grade (grade 5 or above), or from up to four grades if a schools has 5 or more eligible grades, will take the student survey; and two randomly selected teachers from each eligible grade will take the instructional staff survey.

  • To draw the student and teacher samples, the School Coordinator will need to provide AIR with a list of classes between grade 5 and grade 12. AIR will sample the classes and grades if necessary.

• Even with a census or universe data collection, decisions should be made by the education agency regarding respondent eligibility. For example, consider:

  • All students in grades 5-12 are eligible respondents.

  • All staff, instructional and noninstructional (including the principal), are eligible to respond, regardless of which grades of students they are affiliated. All staff contribute to school climate and experience school climate.

Setting the Dates of the Administration Window

School Year Schedule

• The study is best administered no later than April, if possible. Later administrations face the challenge of competing for time with standardized tests, increasingly busy school schedules, and higher absentee rates (an especially acute problem when surveying 12th grade students).

Other Considerations

• Holidays. It is best to avoid conducting the EDSCLS after long school breaks, especially after the winter holiday and spring break. In general, surveys should not be conducted on the day immediately before or after a holiday because absentee rates may spike.

• Days of the Week. If possible, avoid administering the student surveys on Mondays and Fridays as they often have unusually low attendance rates. This is particularly prevalent on Fridays before a Monday holiday.

• Adjusting the Dates of the Data Collection Window. If the submission rates⁴ are low, AIR and the School Coordinator may want to consider extending the data collection window period. This is a particularly attractive feature when encountering a situation where there are a high number of respondents who have logged in to the survey but have not finished it yet (i.e., have not submitted it). Their status can be seen as “logged-in, not submitted”. This group of people has shown interest by logging in, and may be convinced to finish the survey if reminded and given a little more time. For students, this may mean scheduling a make-up time to finish up surveys (this is especially helpful for slow readers). AIR will provide the Survey Coordinator with weekly updates of the submission rates and will make the necessary adjustments to the EDSCLS platform to adjust the data collection window as necessary.

Coordinating the Data Collection

At least three school days before the survey window starts, the Survey Coordinator should distribute the following materials to each Survey Proctor:

• Class roster of eligible student respondents (to keep track of absentees);

• Usernames randomly generated for each respondent groups;

• Proctor Instructions; and

• Survey Proctor Script.

Administering the Student Survey

Students should take the EDSCLS survey in the controlled environment of a school, not at home or in any other uncontrolled environment. This section guides Survey Coordinators and Survey Proctors in effectively and consistently administering the EDSCLS. Instructions include:

Scheduling resources (e.g., time in computer labs; survey support staff)

• The student survey portion of the EDSCLS has been designed to be completed in a single, 50- to 60-minute class period. This includes the time needed for the Survey Proctor to read the script to students and for the students to log in and complete the survey. The survey administration procedures are designed so that School Coordinators can follow typical computer lab/media center reservation procedures at their respective schools.

Accommodations for students

• The EDSCLS surveys are 508 compliant⁵ and schools should provide the same accommodations for students as are usually provided for student testing. These accommodations include, but are not limited to, magnifying devices, bilingual dictionaries, extended time, and small group administration.

The EDSCLS student survey is provided in both English and Spanish. Other language accommodations such as small group administrations with translators should be offered to students who are not fluent in either English or Spanish.

Make-up dates for absent students and those needing additional time

• For student surveys, it is important to fold make-up dates into the data collection window, especially for large school administrations. Absentees are inevitable, and a large enough number of them could introduce a non-response bias; for example, students who are frequently absent may not be as engaged in the school as others. Have at least one make-up day set aside for absent students as well as those who are not able to complete the survey in one class session. If possible, consider setting aside multiple make-up dates for larger administrations.

Setting the ground rules of the administration

• Students should be instructed to take a seat at a computer terminal of their choice and should be provided with a username for logging into the survey.

Students should be told to have a pen or pencil and paper handy to write down their PIN, in case they do not finish the survey (see below).

Students should be reminded to stay quiet throughout the survey to avoid distracting fellow classmates. If they have a problem logging into the survey, they should raise their hands. If they have a question about the meaning of language used in the survey, they should do their best to figure out the intent—in order to ensure privacy and standardized administration, proctors cannot provide individualized help.

When the above instructions have been given, the proctor should begin reading the Survey Proctor script.

Assigning log-in credentials and ensuring all students can log into the survey platform

• Consider placing a username at each computer before the students arrive, and then allowing them to choose where they sit. If assigned seating is preferred, have students pick up a username from a stack as they walk into the room.

• The proctor should be free to move around the room until every student has successfully logged in and reached the welcome page. If a student has trouble, ask him/her to try the username again, paying careful attention to special characters and capitalization. If the problem persists, provide the student with a new username, make note of the problematic username, and pass it on to the Survey Coordinator. Once a student logs in, the system will generate a PIN for re-entry into their survey. The PIN cannot be recovered by the Survey Coordinator. Please instruct students to write down their PINs in case they need to re-enter the survey.

Accessing the survey in Spanish

• The EDSCLS platform has a bilingual toggle feature for student survey. Student can click on the “English/Español” links, present on every page of their surveys, to select their preferred language.

Answering students’ questions

• The proctor should help students log in. Once students are logged in, the proctor should not try to come up with answers to any questions about the wording of any questions in the survey in order to maintain privacy and standardized protocols. In case of student confusion, please tell students to try their best to respond based on their best guesses. Proctors should note questions that students have about specific items and pass the information on to AIR through the Survey Coordinators.

Closing out when the survey period ends

• It is best not to allow students to leave the class or surf the Web upon finishing the survey as this may incentivize them to rush through it too quickly. Either ask them to sit quietly or give them an activity that will not disturb others (e.g., a reading assignment).

Response Rates and Encouraging Participation

It is important to obtain high response rates in the national benchmark study data collection. School survey coordinators will receive response rate reports weekly from AIR staff with a list of usernames that haven’t been used to log in to the survey. To Increase response rates, general or targeted reminder e-mails and/or letters can be sent to respondent groups to increase participation.

1 Because the benchmark study will be conducted by NCES, the instructions to survey administrators only include guidance on how to support the data collection at the school level. Compared with the guide used in the 2015 pilot test, the instructions don’t include information irrelevant to the benchmark study, such as platform installation, data collection management and nonresponse bias analysis.

2 Passive consent means parents must notify the school if they want their child to not take (i.e., opt out of) the survey. Active consent means parents must notify the school if they want their child to take (i.e., opt into) the survey.

3 Note that acquiring active parental consent requires more advance notice than passive consent, as schools need to note which parents have sent in forms and send reminders as necessary, in order to maximize the number of students who will take the survey.

4 The submission rate is the number of surveys that have been completed (i.e., submitted to the EDSCLS system) over the number of usernames randomly generated by the system.

5 Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, requires that all federal information that is accessible electronically must be accessible for those with disabilities.

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