Part A NTPS 2017-18

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 school districts, public and private 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, and the next collection will be conducted during the 2017-18 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.

Cognitive testing of questionnaire items to evaluate new items for several rotating NTPS 2017-18 modules on the topics of educator evaluation, professional development, classroom organization, and instructional time were conducted in 2015 and 2016 (OMB# 1850-0803 v.147). Preliminary activities for NTPS 2017-18, namely: (a) contacting and seeking research approvals from public school districts with an established research approval process (“special contact districts”), (b) notifying districts that their school(s) have been selected for NTPS 2017-18, and (c) notifying sampled schools of their selection for the survey and verifying their mailing addresses, were approved in November 2016 with revisions in March 2017 (OMB# 1850-0598 v.16-17).

This request is to conduct NTPS 2017-18, including all of its recruitment and data collection activities. Because of the overlap in time, this request also carries over the burden and materials for the approved preliminary activities. This submission includes Supporting Statement Part A and Part B, Appendix A (communication materials), Appendix B (questionnaires), and Appendix C (portal website including online screener and teacher listing form). To fulfill the last OMB terms of clearance that were provided to NCES as part of the NTPS 2015-16 approval in June 2015 (OMB# 1850-0598 v.11), and which stated that “OMB looks forward to having the results of NCES's adaptive survey design strategies included in its next submission.” we have added to this submission a report of the 2015-16 NTPS adaptive design results (Appendix D – Adaptive Design Report: NTPS 2015-2016 Analysis of Response Rates and Field Collection Experience).

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 (ESRA 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, beginning in 2008-09, the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS). 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 the PFS in 2016-17 (OMB# 1850-0934 v.1). The goal is to then follow NTPS 2019-20 with TFS and PFS in 2020-21.

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 has combined the operations in special contact districts sampled for both studies. Each of such districts receives two research approval applications and has the option of allowing its schools to participate in NTPS, SSOCS, or both. This request caries over and thus includes a description of the combined 2017-18 special contact districts operations and the respondent contact materials being used for both NTPS-only and combined NTPS/SSOCS requests for district approval.

A.1.4 NTPS Study Design

The sample for NTPS 2017-18 will include approximately 10,600 public schools and principals and 47,000 public school 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 1-12. NCES also plans to reintegrate a private school sample into the NTPS, with approximately 4,000 private schools and principals and approximately 9,000 private school teachers. 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 their mailing address, 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 – either after the school has had an opportunity to verify the vendor roster or directly from the vendor roster. 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 School, Principal, and Teacher Questionnaire instruments have separate question paths for public and private schools. The final versions of the NTPS 2017-18 questionnaires are provided in Appendix B.

Teacher Listing Form (NTPS-1). At the start of data collection, an invitation to complete the Teacher Listing Form (TLF) electronically using the NTPS Portal Internet Instrument is sent to schools. A paper version of the TLF will be sent to schools in subsequent mailings. The TLF is designed to produce a roster of the teachers in each sampled school who are eligible for NTPS. For each teacher, the TLF 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. For non-responding schools, the paper TLF will be pre-populated with vendor teacher roster data, and the school will be asked to verify the teacher information rather than provide it from scratch. The Census Bureau will follow up with nonresponding schools by mail, telephone, and in-person visits. If collection efforts with the school are unsuccessful, NTPS staff will begin clerical look up of teacher lists from vendor and internet sources to serve as a replacement for completed TLFs.

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 of 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, and 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 Evaluation. Asks about the principal’s general knowledge and perceptions of teacher evaluations, formal evaluations on tenured and non-tenured teachers, the impact of student achievement on evaluations, and the influence of evaluations on the teaching practice within the school.
Teacher Professional Development. Asks about the principal’s knowledge and perceptions of teacher professional development.
Principal Evaluation. Asks about principals’ knowledge and perceptions of principal evaluations, whether they received feedback, and the impact of student achievement on their evaluations.
Principal Professional Development. Asks about the principal’s knowledge about and participation in various principal professional development activities.
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 Evaluation, Principal Professional Development, and Principal Engagement. In addition to the NTPS core and rotating modules, a special module on School Leadership and Resources with items from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is included in the Principal Questionnaire. Responses from these items will allow NCES to explore the possibility of standardizing such items and using them for comparisons across NCES surveys, and will help researchers and policy makers compare NTPS result with those from other countries.

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 served, 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, in 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, the type of feedback they received, and the influence of evaluations on their teaching.
Teacher Professional Development. Asks about the current methods/modes of teacher professional development and other opportunities to learn, and their 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 Evaluations, Teacher Working Conditions, Teacher Professional Development, and Teacher Engagement. In addition to the NTPS core and rotating modules, a special module on Feedback and Teacher Strategies with items from the TALIS is included in the Teacher Questionnaire. As with the TALIS component in the Principal Questionnaire, responses from these teacher items will allow NCES to explore the possibility of standardizing such items and using them for comparisons across NCES surveys, and will help researchers and policy makers compare NTPS result with those from other countries.

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 TFS and PFS create a small longitudinal component. A subset of teachers who respond to NTPS are surveyed during the following school year (through 2012-13 and again planned for 2020-21), as part of TFS, 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. TFS allows researchers to study the antecedents of teacher attrition. In turn, PFS, conducted in 2008-09, 2012-13, and upcoming in 2016-17 and again in 2020-21, provides information about principal attrition. All principal respondents in the base-year NTPS are surveyed during the school year following the NTPS. Although TFS and PFS will not be conducted following NTPS 2017-18, some of the information collected in 2017-18 will help inform TFS and PFS 2020-21.

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, as of writing this document, 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.

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. Schools will be assured that all teacher data will be stored on secure online servers controlled by the U.S. Census Bureau. Non-responding schools will have an opportunity to verify a paper TLF that has been pre-populated with vendor-purchased teacher roster data, rather than manually writing in information for each teacher at the school. Questionnaires within each sampled school will be tracked using an online tool called the NTPS Respondent Portal, which was also used in NTPS 2015-16 and which has been since significantly improved. Voluntary school-based coordinators will be invited to access this web-based tool at the onset of data collection activities.

Following successful implementation in the 2015-16 NTPS, the Internet response option for principals, schools, and teachers will serve as the main mode of collection in 2017-18, reducing processing costs and editing errors. Nonresponding schools, principals, and teachers will be offered the option to respond by paper.

Principal email addresses (purchased from the vendor) and school-based coordinator email addresses (collected at the time the coordinator is established) will be utilized during data collection. Invitations to complete the principal and school questionnaires via the Internet response option will be sent to the principal and school-based coordinator by email. If they do not respond, they will also be given the option to respond by paper.

Finally, following successful implementation in the 2015-16 NTPS, schools will once again be asked to provide (or verify) teacher email addresses on TLF. Teachers will be invited by mail and by email, if available, 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 will ask all teachers and principal for their email addresses to be used in TFS and the PFS, respectively.

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 to the NTPS, 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 are sending special contact district research 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 has the option of allowing its schools to participate in NTPS, SSOCS, or both. Sending the applications together allows the special contact district to consider participation in each survey simultaneously with the aim of reducing burden for districts to review separate research applications.

A.5 Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses

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 comments 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

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 (~$50-200) to process research application requests, which is paid as necessary.

The 2017-18 NTPS will include an incentive experiment designed to examine the effectiveness of offering teachers a monetary incentive to boost overall teacher response. Teachers in the experimental treatment will receive a prepaid cash incentive at the first contact by mail. This treatment will be evaluated against the control group, which will not receive any incentive. The experimental treatment will be assigned at the school-level, with all sampled teachers from a school receiving the same treatment.

In addition, NCES seeks approval to provide monetary boosts as a contingency plan to combat potential low response rates from teachers in the later teacher mailing waves. If activated, the contingency plan would be executed as needed based on monitoring data collection status. Further details about incentives and the contingency plan are provided in the Supporting Statement Part B.

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality

Data security and confidentiality protection procedures have been put in place for NTPS 2017-18 to ensure that all contractors and agents working on NTPS 2017-18 comply with all privacy requirements including, as applicable:

The Inter-agency agreement with NCES for this study and the statement of work of NTPS contract;
Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. §552a);
Privacy Act Regulations (34 CFR Part 5b);
Computer Security Act of 1987;
U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-56);
Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9573);
Confidential Information Protect and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002;
E-Government Act of 2002, Title V, Subtitle A;
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. §151);
The U.S. Department of Education General Handbook for Information Technology Security General Support Systems and Major Applications Inventory Procedures (March 2005);
The U.S. Department of Education Incident Handling Procedures (February 2009);
The U.S. Department of Education, ACS Directive OM: 5-101, Contractor Employee Personnel Security Screenings;
NCES Statistical Standards; and
All new legislation that impacts the data collected through the inter-agency agreement and contract for this study.

The U.S. Census Bureau will collect data under an interagency agreement with NCES, and maintain the individually identifiable questionnaires per the agreement, including:

Provisions for data collection in the field;
Provisions to protect the data-coding phase required before machine processing;
Provisions to safeguard completed survey documents;
Authorization procedures to access or obtain files containing identifying information; and
Provisions to remove printouts and other outputs that contain identification information from normal operation (such materials will be maintained in secured storage areas and will be securely destroyed as soon as practical).

U.S. Census Bureau and contractors working on NTPS 2017-18 will comply with the Department of Education’s IT security policy requirements as set forth in the Handbook for Information Assurance Security Policy and related procedures and guidance, as well as IT security requirements in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publications, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards and guidance. All data products and publications will also adhere to: the revised NCES Statistical Standards, as described at the website: http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2012/.

By law (20 U.S.C. §9573), a violation of the confidentiality restrictions is a felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to 5 years and/or a fine of up to $250,000. All government or contracted staff working on the NTPS study and having access to the data, including NTPS field staff, are required to sign an NCES Affidavit of Nondisclosure and have received public-trust security clearance. 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 (a) the U.S. Census Bureau administers NTPS on behalf of NCES; (b) NCES is authorized to conduct NTPS by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9543); (c) 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 (20 U.S.C. §9573 and 6 U.S.C. §151); and (d) that their participation is voluntary.

The following language will be included in respondent contact materials and on data collection instruments:

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education, conducts NTPS as authorized by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9543).

All of the information you provide 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 and 6 U.S.C. §151).

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: [email protected], or write directly to: National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), National Center for Education Statistics, Potomac Center Plaza, 550 12^th Street SW, Room #4014 Washington, DC 20202.

A.11 Sensitive Questions

The teacher and principal questionnaires collect data on salary. 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

Preliminary activities for NTPS 2017-18, namely: (a) contacting and seeking research approvals from public school districts with an established research approval process (“special contact districts”), (b) notifying districts that their school(s) have been selected for NTPS 2017-18, and (c) notifying sampled schools of their selection for the survey and verifying their mailing addresses, were approved in November 2016 with revisions in March 2017 (OMB# 1850-0598 v.16-17) and are being carried over in this submission due to timing overlap.

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, in March 2017 we obtained approval for combined special district operations for NTPS 2017-18 and SSOCS 2018 (OMB# 1850-0598 v.17 and 1850-0761 v.11 respectively). 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 began in March 2017 to allow as much time as possible 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 NTPS.

The projected number of responses is based on the NTPS 2017-18 sample size, 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 already approved 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 for reading and potentially following up on the NTPS notification letter is estimated to average about 3 minutes.

This request is for the sample size, expected response rate, projected number of responses, estimated average response time, and the total estimates of respondent burden for the remainder of NTPS 2017-18 recruitment and data collection activities for public and private schools as provided in Table 1.

The 2017-18 NTPS data collection begins with an advance letter mailing to all sampled school principals. The principal is expected to spend the time to read the letter and log into the NTPS Respondent Portal to complete a short interview (“Screener Interview”). The purpose of the Screener Interview is to determine the school’s eligibility to participate in NTPS 2017-18 and to establish a survey coordinator. Principals who do not self-screen will be contacted by telephone.

The next step of data collection is to collect the school level questionnaires – the TLF, School Questionnaire, and Principal Questionnaire – from sampled schools. There are two paths of data collection, and the path that each school will take is dependent upon its “priority status”. Note that, throughout this section, “schools” is used to refer to both public and private schools, unless stated otherwise. Prior to the start of data collection, a propensity model will be run to identify “high priority” schools (see Part B of this submission for more detail). These “high priority” schools have characteristics of schools that have been historically difficult to collect data from and have a potential high impact on weighting.

The sampled schools that are not designated as “high priority” (the majority of sampled schools) will be mailed an initial mailout package. If the principal established a survey coordinator during the Screener Interview, this package will be addressed to the coordinator; otherwise, it will be addressed to the principal. The package contains a letter for the principal or coordinator, along with three separate, sealed envelopes that contain the login information for the TLF, Principal Questionnaire, and School Questionnaire. The TLF envelope is intended for the staff member who can best provide information about the school’s teachers. The Principal Questionnaire envelope is intended for the school principal. The School Questionnaire envelope is intended for the school staff member who can best answer questions about school enrollment and programs and services offered at the school. The principal or coordinator is expected to read the letter and distribute these three envelopes to the relevant staff, so that the staff can log into the Internet instrument(s) to complete their questionnaire(s) online. The letter also provides staff with instructions for tracking the status of their school’s questionnaires using the NTPS Respondent Portal (web instrument).

Non-priority schools that do not respond to the initial survey request will receive up to three additional requests by both mail and email. Paper questionnaires will be included in the third and fourth mailings, as needed. Schools that do not respond to these mailings will also be contacted by telephone or personal visit. These contacts will initially focus on the TLF, which is needed to draw a sample for the Teacher Questionnaire. During the call or personal visit, the survey coordinator or principal will also be encouraged to complete the NTPS School Questionnaire and Principal Questionnaire, as appropriate.

Data collection for high priority schools will begin with a personal visit from Census Bureau Field staff rather than an initial mailout package. The expectation for the personal visit is that Census Bureau Field staff will verify the school’s TLF, which will be pre-populated with vendor data, and also distribute sealed letters containing login information for the school and principal questionnaires. Schools for which the personal visit is unsuccessful will receive up to four mailings containing materials for completing the outstanding questionnaires and follow-up by telephone, as needed.

Once TLFs are received, processed, and the sample is selected, invitations to complete the teacher questionnaires will be sent out to teachers on a flow basis by email and mailed paper letters. Teachers who do not respond to the initial survey request will receive up to three additional requests by both mail and email. Teacher will receive a paper version of the questionnaire in the third and fourth mailings, as needed. As with the schools, teachers who do not respond to the mailings and emails will also be contacted by telephone or personal visit throughout data collection.

The standard procedure for estimating burden time response cost is to multiply the estimated average length of time it takes to complete the survey by the average salary. The estimated average hourly earnings of teachers is $28.48², and of principals/administrators is $44.77³ in elementary and secondary schools in the May 2015 National Occupational and Employment Wage Estimates sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS Therefore, based on 3,322 total burden hours for the already approved NTPS 2017-18 preliminary activities, the associated total estimated burden time cost to respondents is $148,726, and based on 43,427 total burden hours for the rest of NTPS 2017-18 activities; the associated total estimated burden time cost to respondents is $1,494,949.

Table 1. Estimates of respondent burden for the 2017-18 NTPS

Activity	Sample Size	Estimated Response Rate	Estimated Number of Respondents	Estimated Number of Responses	Average Burden Time per Respondent (Minutes)	Total Burden Hours
Preliminary Activities (already approved)**
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 Preliminary Activities	--	--	10,525	10,525	--	3,322
Public School Staff
Electronic Teacher listing form	10,600	0.29	3,074	3,074	30	1,537
Paper Teacher Listing form (pre-populated)	10,600	0.34	3,604	3,604	15	901
Paper Teacher Listing form (blank)	10,600	0.02	212	212	30	106
Coordinator duties	10,600	0.84	8,904	8,904	22	3,265
School questionnaire	10,600	0.72	7,632	7,632	13	1,654
Public School Principals
Screener interview	10,600	0.55	5,830*	5,830	5	486
Principal questionnaire	10,600	0.72	7,632	7,632	25	3,180
Public School Teachers
Teacher Questionnaire	47,000	0.75	35,250	35,250	40	23,500
Total Public Schools	--	--	66,308	72,138	--	34,629
Private School Staff
Electronic Teacher listing form	4,000	0.26	1,040	1,040	30	520
Paper Teacher Listing form (pre-populated)	4,000	0.00	0	0	15	0
Paper Teacher Listing form (blank)	4,000	0.20	800	800	30	400
Coordinator duties	4,000	0.84	3,360	3,360	22	1,232
School questionnaire	4,000	0.65	2,600	2,600	33	1,430
Private School Principals
Screener interview	4,000	0.55	2,200*	2,200	5	183
Principal questionnaire	4,000	0.65	2,600	2,600	22	953
Private School Teachers
Teacher Questionnaire	9,000	0.68	6,120	6,120	40	4,080
Total Private Schools	--	--	16,520	18,720	--	8,798
TOTAL	--	--	93,353	101,383	--	46,749

* Duplicative counts of individuals, not included in respondent totals.

** Gray font indicates estimated respondent burden already approved () and carried over here due to timing overlap.

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 $14.0 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	$3,390,000
Survey Collection	$9,150,000
Data Processing	$980,000
Data Reporting	$480,000
TOTAL	$14,000,000

A.15 Reasons for Changes in Response Burden

Estimated respondent burden in this request shows an increase from the last approved estimated response burden because the last approval was for the 2017-18 NTPS preliminary activities only, while this request is for all of the 2017-18 NTPS, including preliminary activities, recruitment, and data collection.

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 operational schedule for NTPS 2017-18 is provided in Table 3.

Table 3. Operational schedule for NTPS 2017-18

Activity	Tentative Dates
Contact Special Districts to begin approval process	November 2016
Complete and deliver special district applications and packages	March 2017 – March 2018 (earliest cut-off)
Mail school notification letters where approved or no approval needed	June 2017
Mail advance screener letter to school principals	July 2017
Screener Telephone Operations to establish survey coordinator	August 2017
Begin NTPS 2017-18 Questionnaire Data Collection	September 2017
Mail questionnaires/internet invitations to schools, request teacher lists	September 2017 October 2017 (Priority Schools)
Field Operation to obtain TLF, and school and principal questionnaires (Priority Schools)	September – October 2017
Mail second questionnaire package to non-responding schools	October 2017 November 2017 (Priority Schools)
Mail reminder letter to non-responding schools	November 2017
Mail third package to non-responding schools	November 2017 January 2018 (Priority Schools)
Mail thank you letter to schools	February 2018
Mail fourth package to non-responding schools	February 2018
Telephone reminder operation	November 2017 – February 2018
Field Operation to obtain TLF	January – February 2018
Send initial and reminder emails to school principals and coordinators	September 2017 – January 2018
Mail Teacher Questionnaires as teacher samples are drawn	November 2017 – March 2018
Mail up to 3 reminder packages to teachers	December 2017 – May 2018
Send initial and reminder emails to teachers	November 2017 – May 2018
Telephone follow-up to obtain school, principal, and teacher questionnaires	February 2018 – March 2018
Field Operation to obtain teacher, school, and principal questionnaires	March – May 2018
End NTPS 2017-18 Data Collection	July 2018
Data capture of all questionnaires	September 2017 – June 2018
Data processing	March 2018 – January 2019
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. PFS is 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. In NTPS 2017-18, the basic contact information will be used to: (1) verify that that the sampled teacher was, in fact, the teacher who completed the questionnaire; (2) conduct a quality control check on the vendor provided information; (3) where necessary, to follow-up with the responding teacher or principal to verify some of the information they provide on their questionnaire; and (4) examine their willingness to provide this information under the NTPS 2017-18 data collection conditions in order to better prepare for when this information will be essential for the PFS and TFS follow up collections to NTPS 2019-20.

2 The average hourly earnings of primary and secondary teachers in the May 2015 National Occupational and Employment Wage Estimates sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is $28.48. Source: BLS Occupation Employment Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/oes/ data type: Occupation code: Elementary and Middle School Teachers (25-2020) and Secondary School Teachers (25-2030); accessed on January 18, 2017.

3 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 $44.77. Source: BLS Occupation Employment Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/oes/ data type: Occupation code: Education Administrators, Elementary and Secondary Schools (11-9032); accessed on January 18, 2017.

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Part A NTPS 2017-18