Part A NTPS 2019-20 Preliminary Activities

B Draft NTPS 2019-20 Questionnaires (these are NTPS 2015-16 questionnaires, which provide the starting point for development of the 2019-20 questionnaires; the final versions of the NTPS 2019-20 questionnaires will be provided in the NTPS 2019-20 Main Study clearance request in December 2018)

A.1 Circumstances Making Collection of Information Necessary

A.1.1 Purpose of This Submission

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

SASS, the predecessor to NTPS, was conducted by NCES seven times between 1987 and 2011. SASS was an integrated study of public 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 then again during the 2017-18 school year. The next collection will be during the 2019-20 school year.

NTPS recruitment and data collection is administered for NCES by the U.S. Census Bureau. As with prior NTPS administrations, OMB approval for NTPS 2019-20 is being requested in two parts: 1) a clearance for preliminary field activities including contacting and obtaining research approvals from public school districts with an established research approval process (“special contact districts”), where applicable, and notifying sampled schools of their selection for the survey and verifying their mailing addresses (this request); and 2) a clearance for all other data collection activities (to be requested in December 2018). Cognitive interviews to test new NTPS 2019-20 content are currently underway (OMB #1850-0803 v.218), and a generic clearance request for focus group testing of revised recruitment materials for NTPS 2019-20 will be submitted under OMB #1850-0803 in July 2018. This request is to conduct the NTPS 2019-20 preliminary activities. The NTPS 2019-20 Main Study final procedures and materials will be published for public comment in December 2018, and subsequently submitted to OMB for review.

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 2019-20 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 NTPS. NCES first conducted NTPS in 2015-16, and then again in 2017-18. In 2016-17, NCES conducted the latest PFS, a follow-up to NTPS 2015-16. In 2020-21, NCES will conduct both PFS and TFS as a follow-up to NTPS 2019-20.

A.1.4 NTPS Study Design

The sample for NTPS 2017-18 included 10,600 public schools and principals and approximately 60,000 public school teachers. For NTPS 2017-2018, NCES reintegrated a private school sample as part of a pilot test, with 4,000 private schools and principals and approximately 9,600 private school teachers. Private schools will be again included in NTPS 2019-20. 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. The sample for NTPS 2019-20 is expected to include approximately the same sample sizes for both public and private schools and teachers; however, after the 2017-18 NTPS data collection ends in July 2018, its results will inform the final NTPS 2019-20 study design – including sample sizes, precision requirements, and sampling methodologies – all of which will be fully specified in the NTPS 2019-20 Main Study submission in December 2018.

As with NTPS 2017-18, 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 2019. Also during the summer of 2019, the principal will be contacted to complete a short screener survey to verify the school’s eligibility for the survey and to establish a “survey coordinator” with whom the Census Bureau will make contacts throughout NTPS data collection. During the fall and winter of the 2019-20 school year, 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 NTPS 2015-16 versions of these instruments serve as the starting point for development of the 2019-20 versions and are included in Appendix B as NTPS 2019-20 drafts. The final NTPS 2019-20 instruments will be provided in the NTPS 2019-20 Main Study submission in December 2018.

Teacher Listing Form (NTPS-1). At the start of data collection, an invitation to complete the Teacher Listing Form (TLF) electronically using the NTPS Respondent Portal Internet Instrument will be 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. To reduce burden on schools, whenever possible, the TLF (both the electronic version in the NTPS Respondent Portal and 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, email, telephone, and in-person visits, as needed. 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.
Contact Information. Asks principals for name; home address; work, cell, and home telephone numbers; work and home e-mail addresses; the date of questionnaire completion; and how many minutes it took to complete the questionnaire. This information will be used during the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS).

Rotating Modules

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 module will be included in the NTPS 2019-20 Principal Questionnaire: Working Conditions and Principal Perceptions.

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.
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 module will be included in the NTPS 2019-20 School Questionnaire: School Staffing.

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 three rotating modules will be included in the NTPS 2019-20 Teacher Questionnaire: Early Career Experiences, Teacher Working Conditions, and School Climate and Teacher Attitudes.

A.2 Purposes and Uses of the Data

NTPS 2019-20 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 2019-20

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, 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. TFS was most recently conducted in 2012-13 and will be conducted again in 2020-21, following the 2019-20 NTPS.

In turn, PFS, conducted in 2008-09, 2012-13, 2016-17, and upcoming in 2020-12, provides information about principal attrition. All principal respondents in the base-year NTPS are surveyed during the school year following the NTPS.

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. The sections below provide examples of how NTPS data have been used to study our nation’s schools, teachers, and principals.

A.2.1.1 Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, School Principals, and Teachers in the United States

The results of each NTPS collection are used to create First Look reports that are released to the public on the NCES website and which introduce new data from each NTPS collection through statistical tables containing descriptive information. The selected findings chosen for these reports demonstrate the range of information available on the NTPS restricted use data files. The most recent First Look reports available for the NTPS are as follows: Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools in the United States: Results From the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey First Look (NCES 2017-071); Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Principals in the United States: Results From the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey First Look (NCES 2017-070); and, Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Teachers in the United States: Results From the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey First Look (NCES 2017-072).

A.2.1.2 Teacher Satisfaction

NTPS includes numerous measures of how satisfied teachers were with their jobs and their working conditions. The Teacher Satisfaction with Salary and Current Job (NCES 2018-1116) report describes the percentage of teachers who are satisfied with their salary for teaching and compares the job satisfaction of teachers who are satisfied and dissatisfied with their teaching salary.

A.2.1.3 Teacher Spending on Classroom Supplies

The NTPS teacher questionnaire asks sampled teacher about how much of their own money, if any, then spent on classroom supplies without reimbursement. In Public School Teacher Spending on Classroom Supplies (NCES 2018-097), NCES examines public school teachers’ personal spending on school supplies and differences in this spending among teachers from different community types and instructional level.

A.2.1.4 Principal Perception of Influence

The NTPS principal questionnaire asks sampled principals about how much actual influence they perceive to have as a principal on a number of decisions and policies within the school. In Public School Principals’ Perceptions of Influence by School Level and Community Type (NCES 2018-014), NCES examines public schools principals’ perception of their influence on their schools’ curriculum and budget and the differences among principals from different school instructional levels and community types.

A.2.1.5 Teacher and Principal Attrition

The SASS and NTPS, and their 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 sampled schools, speed up the teacher sample selection, and reduce data processing costs, NTPS will continue to collect TLF information electronically via the TLF application within the NTPS Respondent Portal internet instrument (paper version will be provided upon request). Whenever possible, schools will be provided TLFs that have been pre-populated with vendor-purchased teacher information, in both the electronic and paper TLFs. This will allow schools to verify the teacher roster information rather than have to provide the requested information for every teacher in their school. Schools will be assured that all teacher data will be stored on secure online servers controlled by the U.S. Census Bureau. 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 NTPS 2017-18 and has been significantly improved between each survey administration. Voluntary school-based “survey coordinators” will be invited to access this web-based tool at the onset of data collection activities.

Following successful implementation in both the 2015-16 NTPS and the 2017-18 NTPS, the Internet response option for principals, schools, and teachers will serve as the primary mode of collection in 2019-20. Nonresponding schools, principals, and teachers will eventually 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 and the 2017-18 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).

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 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:

Andy Zukerberg, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Cleo Redline, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Deanne Swan, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Maura Spiegelman, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Sharon Boivin, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Stephen Broughman, Statistician, National Center for Education Statistics

Aaron Gilary, Demographic Survey Methods Division, 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, Survey Director, Education Surveys Team, U.S. Census Bureau

Walter Holmes, 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 will be paid as necessary.

The NTPS 2017-18 data will be used to inform the NTPS 2019-20 incentive strategy. The NTPS 2019-20 Main Study request, to be submitted in December 2018, will detail the 2019-20 incentive plan that will be designed to maximize overall teacher response and a contingency plan with monetary boosts to combat potential low response rates from teachers in the later teacher mailing waves.

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality

Data security and confidentiality protection procedures have been put in place for NTPS 2019-20 to ensure that all contractors and agents working on NTPS 2019-20 comply with all privacy requirements including, as applicable:

The Inter-agency agreement with NCES for this study;
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 Protection 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 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 2019-20 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, 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, at 95.2% for principals and ranging from 85.0% to 93.62% for teachers.

Based on public comments received for NTPS 2017-18, cognitive interviews are currently underway (OMB #1850-0803 v.218) to test new NTPS 2019-20 content, including questions that ask public school principals and teachers about their sexual orientation and gender identity. Depending on the results of this testing, including whether and the degree to which respondents consider these items to be sensitive, these items may be included in the 2019-20 questionnaires, which will be provided in the NTPS 2019-20 Main Study submission in December 2018.

A.12 Estimated Response Burden

This request is to contact districts and schools in order to begin preliminary activities for NTPS 2019-20, namely: (a) contacting and seeking research approvals from special contact districts, where applicable, and (b) notifying sampled schools of their selection for the survey and verifying their mailing addresses.

Based on an initial assessment of previous NTPS data collections, we estimate that roughly 300 special contact districts will be in the sample. The special contact districts are those known to require completion of a research application before they will allow schools under their jurisdiction to participate in a study. Contacting special districts begins with updating district information based on what can be gleaned from online sources and what is known from previous cycles of collection. Individual districts will be contacted as needed to fill in gaps about where and to whom to send the completed required research application forms. The estimated number of such districts represents those with particularly detailed application forms and lengthy processes for approval. This operation should begin as soon as possible after receiving OMB’s approval, but no later than December 2018 to allow sufficient time for special districts’ review processes. We will continue to work with the districts until we receive a final response (approval or denial of request) as long as there is sufficient time for sampled schools, principals and teachers to respond to the NTPS.

The projected number of 2019-20 responses is based on the eligibility and response rates observed in NTPS 2017-18. Not all districts initially flagged as special contact districts will respond in the recruitment effort because they may not have a formal research application process and are not actually a special contact district, as such, the estimated number of responding special districts is lower than the estimated sample size for the special district operation.

The total response burden estimate for special district IRB approvals is based on 360 minutes for IRB review by one staff member, and 60 minutes per member for special district IRB panel review, assuming each panel would on average be composed of six panel members. The burden per school for reading and potentially following up on the NTPS notification letter is estimated to average about 3 minutes. Based on the estimated hourly rates for principals/administrators of $46.85², and based on 3,322 total burden hours for NTPS 2019-20 preliminary activities, the total estimated burden time cost to respondents is $155,636.

Table 1. Estimates of respondent burden for preliminary field activities for NTPS 2019-20

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
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

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 2019-20 is $16.0 million. The estimated cost to the federal government for the preliminary activities is $290,000.

Table 2. Estimates of Costs to the Federal Government

Activity	Estimated Costs
Survey Development	$3,550,000
Survey Collection	$10,917,000
Data Processing	$1,029,000
Data Reporting	504,000
TOTAL	$16,000,000

A.15 Reasons for Changes in Response Burden and Costs

Estimated respondent burden in this request shows a decrease from the last approval, because the last approval was for the full-scale NTPS 2017-18 data collection, while this request is for NTPS 2019-20 preliminary activities only.

A.16 Publication Plans and Time Schedule

Information relevant to the data collection will be part of the reports resulting from NTPS 2019-20. 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 restricted-use data files. All of the NTPS data files will be linked through the sampled school record. NTPS 2019-20 reports and publications will include a detailed methodological report describing all aspects of the data collection effort.

The estimated high-level operational schedule for NTPS 2019-20, which is based on the NTPS 2017-18 schedule, is provided in Table 3. The final schedule will be provided in the NTPS 2019-20 Main Study submission in December 2018.

Table 3. Operational schedule for NTPS 2019-20

Activity	Tentative Dates
Contact Special Districts to begin approval process	November 2018
Complete and deliver special district applications and packages	January 2019 – March 2020
Mail school notification letters where approved or no approval needed	June 2019
Mail advance screener letter to school principals	July 2019
Screener Telephone Operations to establish survey coordinator for nonresponding principals	August 2019
Begin NTPS 2019-20 Questionnaire Data Collection	September 2019
Mail questionnaires/internet invitations to schools, request teacher lists	September – October 2019
Field Operation to obtain TLF, and school and principal questionnaires	September – October 2019
Mail second questionnaire package to non-responding schools	October – November 2019
Mail reminder letter to non-responding schools	November 2019
Mail third package to non-responding schools	November 2019 – January 2020
Mail thank you letter to schools	February 2020
Mail fourth package to non-responding schools	February 2020
Telephone reminder operation	November 2019 – February 2020
Field Operation to obtain TLF	January – February 2020
Send initial and reminder emails to school principals and coordinators	September 2019 – January 2020
Mail Teacher Questionnaires as teacher samples are drawn	November 2019 – March 2020
Mail up to 3 reminder packages to teachers	December 2019 – May 2020
Send initial and reminder emails to teachers	November 2019 – May 2020
Telephone follow-up to obtain school, principal, and teacher questionnaires	February– March 2020
Field Operation to obtain teacher, school, and principal questionnaires	March – May 2020
End NTPS 2019-20 Data Collection	July 2020
Data capture of all questionnaires	September 2019 – June 2020
Data processing	March 2020 – January 2021
Release initial reports and data files	July 2021

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 2019-20.

A.18 Exceptions to the Certification Statement

No exceptions to the certification statement apply to NTPS 2019-20.

1 The TFS and PFS are conducted every four years as a follow up to sample members from the prior year’s NTPS. The latest PFS was fielded in 2016-17 as a follow up to NTPS 2015-16. TFS or PFS will be next administered in 2020-21, as a follow-up to NTPS 2019-20.

2 The average hourly earnings of principals/education administrators in the May 2017 National Occupational and Employment Wage Estimates sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is $46.85. Source: BLS Occupation Employment Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/oes/ data type: Occupation code: Education Administrators, Elementary and Secondary Schools (11-9032); Annual Mean Wage $97,440/2080 hours. Accessed on May, 18, 2018.

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Part A NTPS 2019-20 Preliminary Activities