SSOCS-CRDC Incident Count Update Memo

U NITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

National Center for Education Statistics

February 4, 2020

MEMORANDUM

To: Robert Sivinski, OMB

From: Rachel Hansen, NCES

Through: Kashka Kubzdela, NCES

Re: School Survey of Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Incident Count Check Cognitive Interviews Update (OMB# 1850-0803 v.262 – revised v.250)

Introduction

The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) is a nationally representative survey of public elementary and secondary schools and is one of the nation’s primary sources of school-level data on crime and safety in public schools. Conducted by NCES, within the U.S. Department of Education (ED), SSOCS has been administered seven times starting in the 1999–2000 school year. Other federal surveys obtain information about school crime from individuals other than those who have the school-level perspective of principals. One such survey is the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). The CRDC is administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and has collected data on education and civil rights issues in U.S. public schools since 1968. The CRDC collects a variety of information from superintendents and staff at local education agencies (LEAs), most of which is disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency, and disability.

Between SSOCS and the CRDC, there is overlap in the counts of crime incidents reported, disciplinary actions, and harassment/bullying data. When SSOCS experienced a lapse in funding after the 2009–10 data collection, ED deemed it crucial to continue collecting counts of the key metrics traditionally collected in the SSOCS, and they were incorporated into the CRDC. When SSOCS resumed in 2015–16, incident counts remained in both SSOCS and the CRDC. Consequently, there are incident counts in both SSOCS and the CRDC for the 2015–16 and 2017–18 school years. This was intentional to assess how the counts obtained through both data collections compare.

Initial analyses show discrepancies in the information reported for schools that participated in both SSOCS and the CRDC. To gain a better understanding of the context around the differences in the reporting of the items in the two surveys, there was a request to conduct a two-phase cognitive interview study to explore respondents’ understanding of the incident count questions—in particular, what respondents include in, and exclude from, their calculations and what records respondents reference to answer the questions—in order to determine whether respondents are providing the intended information. NCES contracted the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to carry out the SSOCS Incident Count Check Cognitive Interviews.

The SSOCS Incident Count Check Cognitive Interviews were approved in June 2019 (OMB #1850-0803 v.250). This request is to make updates to the recruitment and data collection procedures for Phase 2 of the interview study. The updates listed below reflect results from Phase 1 of the interview study.

Originally, NCES planned to execute Phase 2 of the interview study using the same recruitment and data collection procedures as Phase 1, unless the results of Phase 1 indicated that these procedures would not lead to the successful execution of Phase 2 interviews. During Phase 1, AIR attempted to recruit approximately 10 “interview pairs” (20 respondents total)—SSOCS and CRDC respondents that represented the same school and provided incident data in both surveys during the 2017-18 school year—and offered a $50 incentive. Over the course of

Phase 1 recruitment, 120 principals and four district administrators were contacted to participate in an hour-long interview. Recruitment efforts during Phase 1 resulted in a high number of ineligible respondents and nonrespondents; this was partly due to high principal turnover in the last two school years and that principals expressed reservations with whether approval was needed from the district level to participate in the study, given the mention of the paired CRDC district respondent interview. Due to these recruitment challenges, AIR was required to release additional sample members on two separate occasions but was still unable to increase participation during Phase 1. After eight weeks of recruitment, only one SSOCS respondent and one CRDC respondent were interviewed; the two were unaffiliated.

Based on the efforts and challenges faced during Phase 1 of the interview study, this request is to update the recruitment and data collection procedures for Phase 2 to increase the recruitment timeline, to pursue interviews with SSOCS respondents and CRDC respondents separately—rather than as interview pairs representing the same school—and to increase the incentive from $50 to $75.

Changes discussed in this request consist of revisions to: (1) Volume 1 (study design, recruitment procedures and incentive amount), (2) recruitment materials in Appendix A (deletion of references to the paired survey/interview), and (3) protocols in Appendix B (deletion of reference to the paired survey/interview and the reorganization of items within the protocols). This request involves an increase to the estimated respondent burden due to the minor tweaks to the recruitment timeline and estimated sample for phase 2; the low response rate in Phase 1 suggests that the conversion rate for respondents may be lower than anticipated, so the burden increase comes entirely from an anticipated enlarged recruitment pool. In addition, this package includes the discontinuation of the use of the affidavit of nondisclosure with districts in Phase 2 because SSOCS school data will no longer be shared with the district respondent. This request does not involve any changes to the estimated cost to the federal government for this study.

The approved versions of Volume 1 as well as the recruitment materials and the protocols have been revised to reflect the updates to the Phase 2 data collection. Appendix A - Recruitment Materials and Appendix B - Protocols provides the approved Phase 1 documents and the revised Phase 2 documents. The noteworthy changes to the approved clearance package documents are listed below. Text added since the last approved version of each document is marked burgundy font color, all text deleted since the last approved version is marked in crossed-out burgundy font color, and all unchanged text is shown in black font.

The following updates were made to Vol I:

Submittal-Related Information:

The following was added on p. 1:

The request to conduct Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the School Survey of Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Incident Count Check Cognitive Interviews 2018 was approved in June 2019 (OMB #1850-0803 v.250). Based on the results of Phase 1, which was conducted from October to December of 2019, this request includes updates for Phase 2 data collection and includes revisions to: (1) recruitment procedures, (2) communication materials, and (3) Phase 2 protocols.

2. Study Design and Sample Characteristics:

The following revision was made on p. 2:

The sample will be composed of public schools and districts; interview respondents will be the staff who were responsible for filling out the school crime incident counts in the 2017-18 SSOCS:2018 and 2017-18 CRDC 2017–18 questionnaires (per the contact information provided in each data submission). SSOCS respondents will include elementary, middle, and high school principals or other school personnel designated by the principal as the person who is “most knowledgeable about school crime and policies to provide a safe environment.” The CRDC respondents will be the staff at the respective LEA for that school. For each school in the sample, the SSOCS and CRDC respondents will create an “interview pair”, but each respondent will be interviewed individually. On behalf of NCES, AIR will recruit respondents, administer interviews, and provide to NCES reports and recommendations based on analyses of findings for both phases of this study. A brief description of the sample characteristics and objectives is provided below.

Phase 1

Phase 1 will was designed to consist of approximately 10 interview pairs―one SSOCS respondent and one CRDC respondent, for a total of approximately 20 interviews—in July and August of 2019. These pairs will would represent a range of: (a) incident types, (b) which data collection(s) the incidents were reported on, and (c) school level. A purposive sample will would be drawn to ensure appropriate coverage of possible scenarios and school characteristics.

The interviews in Phase 1 will were designed to serve to evaluate the feasibility of scaling up the study methods and materials to conduct Phase 2 of the study. The Phase 1 interviews will would allow us to assess the success of the recruitment tactics and to test the interview protocols to determine if the questions produce the information necessary to be able to determine validation issues/discrepancies across the two surveys. The findings from Phase 1 will would provide recommendations for revisions to the study materials for Phase 2. A summary of the results from Phase 1 and recommendations for Phase 2 will would be developed by late August 2019. If revisions are made were needed to materials for Phase 2, a revised request with the revised materials and a memo listing the changes will would be submitted to OMB at that time for approval before Phase 2 begins.

The following was added on p. 2-3:

Phase 1 Results

Phase 1 of the cognitive interview study launched on October 16, 2019 and lasted for eight weeks, ending on December 13, 2019. AIR staff invited 120 principals and four district administrators to participate in an hour-long interview. Recruitment efforts encountered a number of challenges, and after eight weeks of recruitment, only one SSOCS respondent and one CRDC respondent were interviewed.

Central goals of Phase 1 were to determine the ease of pinpointing the correct contacts for both surveys and provide a better idea of the time frame required to successfully recruit both contacts. Locating the correct respondent who completed 2017-18 SSOCS had implications on operational activities and study eligibility. Given high principal turnover in the last two academic years among the sampled schools, AIR had limited success in reaching 2017-18 SSOCS respondents. During recruitment, AIR reviewed automatic email bounce backs and verbal communication with gatekeepers and determined that at least 38 of 120 (about 32 percent) SSOCS respondents are no longer with the school. Additionally, some SSOCS respondents who AIR was able to reach were interested in participating, however, they expressed reservations with how the SSOCS interview related to the paired CRDC district respondent interview and whether they needed approval from the district level to participate in the study. These cases ended up resulting in no interviews because of district nonresponse to communication about the study (originating from both the SSOCS respondent and AIR). Of the remaining sample members, the majority were nonrespondents after the full recruitment cycle of six outreach attempts (four emails and two phone calls) was completed. Due to the number of ineligible respondents and nonrespondents, AIR was required to release additional sample members on two separate occasions but was still unable to increase participation during Phase 1.

The following revisions were made on p. 3:

Phase 2

Phase 2 will consist of up to 100 interview pairs (for a total of approximately 200 interviews) in fall 2019spring 2020. Based on the results of conducting Phase 1, Phase 2 will pursue interviews with SSOCS respondents and CRDC respondents separately; they will not consist of interview pairs representing the same school. Respondents These pairs will represent a range of school and district characteristics, including schools in different locales, schools serving different grade levels, and schools with varying enrollment sizes. Note that while the sample will include a mix of characteristics, the results will not explicitly measure differences by these characteristics.

3. Data Collection:

3.1 Recruitment:

In both phases of the study, recruitment is anticipated to last approximately 4 weeks and the recruitment process is expected to take 5 to 20 minutes per entity. A central goal of Phase 1 is was to determine the ease of pinpointing the correct contacts for both surveys and provide a better idea of the time frame required to successfully recruit both contacts. AIR will develop developed and maintain maintained a detailed tracking sheet of recruitment efforts for each sampled district and school; this will aid in understanding the true level of effort required for recruitment prior to Phase 2 of the study.

The following revisions were made on p. 3:

Prior to the start of recruitment, OCR will provide provided AIR with a list of the points of contact for the 2017–18 CRDC. Recruitment will begin once a sample of linked SSOCS schools and CRDC districts has been drawn. After the sample of schools has been selected, a notification letter from NCES will be e-mailed to the schools and their districts informing them of the study activities and inviting them to participate. Each pair of sSchool and district contacts will be assigned an AIR staff member who will serve as their main point of contact and who will administer the interviews with the respondents.

The following revisions were made on p. 3:

During recruitment, if the SSOCS or CRDC contact indicates they were not responsible for filling out the school’s incident count data, AIR will request contact information for the correct school or district staff member and then reach out accordingly. Once an interview has been scheduled, AIR staff will send a meeting invite via e-mail to confirm the interview date and time. A consent form and non-disclosure agreement (for district administrators only, during Phase 1 only) will be attached for their signature.

The following revisions were made on p. 4:

AIR will use multiple outreach methods and resources to recruit participants. SSOCS and CRDC respondents will be contacted by e-mail and phone during recruitment, and AIR will confirm that interested individuals are eligible to participate. Our recruitment experience with cognitive interviews for 2017-18 SSOCS and the 2017–18 CRDC indicated that these respondents are a hard-to-reach population, and increased time and effort will be dedicated to meeting recruitment targets.

Phase 1

Recruitment will begin began by contacting the staff member listed as the 2017-18 SSOCS:2018 point of contact for each school to determine whether that person filled in the incident data and is the appropriate person for the interview. Once the SSOCS respondent has agreed to participate in an interview, they will be were asked to sign a consent form that requests permission for the following:

1. to share information from the school’s participation in SSOCS with the district contact.

2. to participate in the interview.

Once the SSOCS respondent has agreed to participate in an interview, a similar outreach process was will be used to contact the listed CRDC 2017–18 point of contact for that school’s district. If the school has consented to share their responses on SSOCS with their district, the CRDC respondent will be was asked to sign a non-disclosure affidavit (NDA) and a consent form that they agreed to participate in the interview. If the school did had not consent to share their responses on SSOCS, the interview will would be adjusted so that this information is not shared with the district and a non-disclosure affidavit would not be required. For more information about consent and non-disclosure procedures, see the “Assurance of Confidentiality” section below.

If a SSOCS respondent agrees agreed to an interview, but AIR is was unable to schedule an interview with the CRDC district respondent―either AIR is was unable to reach the correct respondent or the respondent declines declined to be interviewed―AIR will proceed proceeded with interviewing the school only.

The following revisions were made on p. 4-5:

Phase 2

Phase 2 will closely follow the same recruitment process as Phase 1; however, based on the challenges faced during Phase 1 recruitment the following changes to recruitment strategies will be made for Phase 2. These changes reflect the decision to pursue interviews with SSOCS and CRDC respondents independently (rather than as an interview pair):

• AIR will no longer need to contact a SSOCS respondent prior to reaching out to the CRDC respondent. A similar outreach process will be used to contact both 2017-18 SSOCS and 2017-18 CRDC respondents simultaneously throughout the recruitment period.

• SSOCS data will no longer be shared with CRDC respondents. Schools will no longer be asked to consent to sharing their data and CRDC respondents will no longer be required to sign a non-disclosure affidavit (NDA).

Recruitment for Phase 2 will last for approximately 8 weeks. The increased recruitment window is based on the limited success in recruiting participants during the shorter window in Phase 1 and the higher number of target interviews for Phase 2. This timeframe will provide AIR the opportunity to recruit from a larger sample of schools and will allow for additional follow-up outreach to be conducted with each potential participant over a longer window.

Appendix A contains the full set of recruitment materials, including a visual representation of the recruitment process (see figure 1 in Appendix A). Screening and recruiting participants for qualitative studies such as this one is a dynamic process. The recruitment email templates and scripts will be used in Phase 1¹. Materials for Phase 2 were adapted based on feedback received during Phase 1. The contact materials in Appendix A are grouped separately for each phase: Phase 1 and Phase 2.

3.2 Qualitative Interview Methods:

The following revisions were made on p. 5:

The questions in the protocol will directly address the study’s research questions by gathering data on: how districts receive incident data from schools to report for the CRDC (and what processes they use to verify these data); what formats districts and schools use to store these data; and how district and school respondents understand and respond to the incident items in the two surveys, including any cognitive issues with definitions or question format. In order to compare the reporting processes between schools and districts for the same incident count items on the two surveys, the protocols include some questions that refer to estimates for specific incident count items that the school or district respondent provided in their respective survey (SSOCS or CRDC; Phase 1 only). For example, questions in the protocol for school interviews will discuss the incident counts from SSOCS and whether certain counts were higher, lower, or equal to the counts provided on the CRDC. Given time constraints, questions comparing reporting on SSOCS and the CRDC will only focus on the most serious incident for which the school or district reported data. No exact counts reported by the school on SSOCS will be shared with the district respondent. See the “Assurance of Confidentiality” section below for additional details. Given the decision to pursue interviews with SSOCS and CRDC respondents independently (rather than as interview pairs) during Phase 2, protocols for CRDC interviews will not include any school specific incident count data from the CRDC or SSOCS.

5. Assurance of Confidentiality:

The following was added on p. 6:

Phase 1

At the time of recruiting SSOCS participants, AIR staff will also sought to obtain consent from the school to be able to share minimal information regarding the school’s participation in SSOCS during the interview with the school’s district. This would include identifying the school that responded to the survey and providing limited information about the school’s responses to select incident items. No exact counts reported by the school on SSOCS will would be shared with the district respondent. Consent to share the school’s responses on SSOCS will would be collected at the time of recruitment and prior to the interview with the CRDC respondent. If written consent is was not received from the SSOCS respondent prior to the interview with the CRDC respondent, information on the school’s responses on SSOCS will was not be shared during the district interview.

Additionally, CRDC district respondents will be were asked to sign a non-disclosure affidavit prior to the interview to affirm that they will would not reveal any identifiable information or responses from the SSOCS school(s) in their district that may be shared with them as part of the interview. If the district respondent does did not sign the non-disclosure affidavit, information on the school’s responses on SSOCS will would not be shared during the district interview. See Appendix A for recruitment materials, including the consent form and the non-disclosure affidavit.

The following was added on p. 6-7:

Phase 2

During Phase 2, AIR staff will no longer attempt to share minimal information regarding the school’s participation in SSOCS during the interview with the school’s district. As a result of this change, it will not be necessary to obtain consent from the school to share their information and CRDC district respondents will not be asked to sign a non-disclosure affidavit prior to their interview. Both SSOCS and CRDC respondents in Phase 2 will still be required to sign the basic form to consent to participating in the interview. See Appendix A for updated Phase 2 recruitment materials, including the consent form.

6. Estimate of Costs for Recruiting and Paying Respondents:

The following revisions were made on p. 7:

District- and school-level participation are vital to the success of this study, and from prior experience we expect that it will be challenging to gain district- and school-level administrators’ cooperation to participate. It has been identified in similar projects that incentives are an effective approach to district- and school-level administrator recruitment – they communicate appreciation of a respondent’s time and participation, and this may be especially important for districts and schools at the very busy time of the school year during which the study will be fielded. To encourage participation in the interviews and to thank participants for their time and effort, during Phase 1, we will offer offered each a $50 gift card that will be was sent with a thank-you note via mail within 10 business days of completion of the interview. We offered a $50 gift card for 2018 SSOCS cognitive interviews conducted remotely with this population (OMB# 1850-0803 v.171) and were able to successfully reach acceptable levels of participation.

The following was added on p. 7:

Low response rates during Phase 1 recruitment indicate that the incentive did not outweigh the anticipated burden of participation for respondents. In an effort to increase participation in Phase 2, we will offer each participant a $75 gift card. We offered a $75 gift card for past cognitive interviews with this population (OMB# 1850-0803 v.171) and were able to successfully reach acceptable levels of participation within planned recruitment timelines.

7. Estimate of Hourly Burden:

The following revisions were made on p. 7:

Up to We aimed to recruit 10 interview pairs (approximately 20 participants) will be recruited for the qualitative interviews in Phase 1, and up to 100 interview pairs (approximately 200 participants) will be recruited for the qualitative interviews in Phase 2. Each interview will take approximately 60 minutes. The initial contact and screening of potential participants is estimated at an average of 10 minutes, or 0.16 hours. On average, three recruiting attempts are expected to be needed for each SSOCS participant (thus, an estimated 30 attempts to yield up to 10 SSOCS participants for Phase 1 and 300 attempts to yield up to 100 SSOCS participants for Phase 2) and five recruiting attempts for each CRDC participant (thus, an estimated 50 attempts to yield up to 10 CRDC participants for Phase 1 and 500). Based on the results of recruitment in Phase 1, we anticipate additional attempts will be needed to obtain participants during Phase 2 – approximately 10 recruiting attempts for each SSOCS and CRDC participant (thus 1000 attempts to yield up to 100 SSOCS participants and 1000 attempts to yield up to 100 CRDC participants for Phase 2). Table 1 shows burden estimates for (a) recruiting participants (the initial contact and screening); and (b) conducting the qualitative interviews by each Phase of the study.

The following revisions were made on p. 8:

Table 1. Estimate of hourly burden for SSOCS qualitative interviews: Phase 1 and Phase 2

Activity	Number of Respondents*	Number of Responses	Burden Hours per Respondent	Total Burden Hours
Phase 1
SSOCS Recruitment
Recruitment (initial contact and screening)	30	30	0.16	5
Qualitative Interviews	10	10	1	10
CRDC Recruitment
Recruitment (initial contact and screening)	50	50	0.16	8
Qualitative interviews	10	10	1	10
Phase 1 Subtotal	80	100	-	33
Phase 2
SSOCS Recruitment
Recruitment (initial contact and screening)	1000300	3001000	0.16	48160
Qualitative Interviews	100	100	1	100
CRDC Recruitment
Recruitment (initial contact and screening)	5001000	5001000	0.16	80160
Qualitative Interviews	100	100	1	100
Phase 2 Subtotal	8002,000	1,0002,200	-	328520
Total	8802,080	1,1002,300	-	361553

Note: The subtotals for the estimated Number of Respondents do not include duplicated counts of respondents.

8. Schedule:

The following revisions were made on p. 8:

Recruitment for the cognitive interview study will was scheduled to begin in June 2019, pending the availability of CRDC 2017–18 data for matching analyses and sampling. The data collection of Phase 1 is was scheduled to begin in early July 2019, with a summary of results and recommendations for Phase 2 developed by late August 2019. Phase 2 is was scheduled to begin in October 2019. Table Tables 2 and 3 below provides provide the overall schedule for Phase 1 and Phase 2.

The following revisions were made on p. 8:

Table 2. Schedule Initial proposed schedule of high-level activities for 2017-18 SSOCS:2018 cognitive interviews study, Phase 1

Activity	Start Date	End Date
Phase 1
Training	June 24	June 26
SSOCS Recruitment	June 26	August 9
CRDC Recruitment	July 10	August 21
Interviews	July 11	August 22
Analysis	August 19	September 13
Reporting	August 26	September 29
Phase 2
SSOCS Recruitment	October 14	November 8
CRDC Recruitment	October 28	November 22
Interviews	October 21	November 29
Analysis	November 4	December 6
Reporting	November 21	December 20

The following was added on p. 8-9:

Due to delays in the availability of 2017-18 CRDC data, Phase 1 was conducted from October to December 2019 and Phase 2 is scheduled to begin in February 2020. Based on recruitment challenges faced during Phase 1, an additional 4 weeks of recruitment efforts will be added to Phase 2, and the data collection period will be 8 weeks total.

Table 3. Schedule of high-level activities for 2017-18 SSOCS cognitive interviews study, Phase 2

Activity	Start Date	End Date
Phase 2
Training	February 10	February 12
SSOCS Recruitment	February 17	April 10
CRDC Recruitment	February 17	April 10
Interviews	February 24	April 17
Analysis	March 23	May 1
Reporting	April 24	July 20

9. Cost to the Federal Government:

The following revisions were made on p. 9:

9. Cost to the Federal Government²

The estimated cost to prepare for, administer, and report the results of these cognitive interviews is approximately $364,000. The cost includes salaried labor for contractor staff and other direct costs associated with the organization of the interviews.

² Given the increased recruitment efforts and incentive costs associated with Phase 2; AIR will monitor the total cost of the cognitive interviews to ensure costs do not exceed the funded amount. If necessary, to maintain costs, Phase 2 will consist of fewer than the 200 interviews originally planned.

The following updates were made to Appendix A – Recruitment Materials:

Title Page:

The following was added on title page:

School Survey of Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Incident Count Check Cognitive Interviews

Appendix A

Recruitment Materials
(original and revised versions)

OMB #1850-0803 v.250262

Contents

The following was added on p. 1:

All Phase 1 letters have been approved (OMB #1850-0803 v.250) and all Phase 2 materials will be updated and provided to OMB as a change request in February 2020.

NCES Introduction Email

The following was added to p. 3:

Upon evaluation of the methods and materials used during Phase 1, the letter and email templates were reworded to appeal more to the sample members. This includes updating the language and shortening the length of the main email/letter content; with supplemental information included in text below the main message. Both original and revised, email templates and letters are provided in this appendix.

Revised Items for Phase 2

The following page was added on p. 40:

Revised Items for Phase 2

SSOCS Recruitment Materials

The following was updated on p. 41:

SSOCS Revised Recruitment Materials

NCES Introduction Email

The following revisions were made on p. 42:

Thank you for your response to the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) during the 2017–18 school year. As a follow up to the SSOCS data collection, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education would like to conduct an interview with your school to better understand the process involved in reporting crime incidents on SSOCS. You are part of a select number of previous SSOCS respondents that have been sampled to participate in this important study. Therefore, your input will be used to represent similar schools across the country. We hope that you will help us by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which participants you will receive a $50 75 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

In addition to interviewing your school, NCES plans to conduct a separate interview with your district, which provided similar data on crime incidents as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a district-level Department of Education survey. In order for us to fully understand the process, it is critical for us to hear from both schools and districts to understand any differences in how crime incidents are reported in the two surveys.

First and foremost, please know this is not an evaluation of your school or district, and reports of our findings will not identify participating schools, districts, or staff. Your feedback will inform potential improvements to future data collections and will not impact your current or prior responses to SSOCS. This is not an evaluation of your school or district, and reports of our findings will not identify participating schools, districts, or staff. The results from your school and district will be combined with others to help inform decisions to limit overlap betweenimprove questions on school crime and safety across the twofederal surveys, which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys. Although participation in the interview is voluntary, the success of this research depends on the willingness of selected schools and their districts to participate.

NCES has contracted with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a research companyorganization, to facilitate the interviews and analyze results. A member of the AIR team will contact you via email within the next few days to schedule your interview. If you would like to discuss this request further or if you believe another district school staff member would be in a better position to provide information about the SOCSS data collection process, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 202-245-7082 or the AIR project lead, Sidney Wilkinson-FlickerKorantema Kaleem at kkaleemswilkinson-flicker@air.org or 202-403-6137385, or the NCES project officer, Rachel Hansen, at [email protected] or 202-245-7082..

Sincerely,

Rachel Hansen James (Lynn) Woodworth, Ph. D.

NCES Project Officer Commissioner

National Center for Education Statistics National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education U.S. Department of Education James L. Woodworth

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

AIR Initial Email

The following revisions were made on p 43:

My name is [Insert District and School Leader Name] and I am a researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). Dr. James L. Woodworth, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and Rachel Hansen, the project officer for the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), NCES, recently informed you that you have been selected to participate in a follow-up interview to discuss the process of reporting crimecrime incidents for your school on School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)SSOCS during the 2017–18 school year. AIR has been contracted by NCES to conduct the interviewsthese interviews with schools and . Wwe hope that you will help us by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which participantsyou will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for theiryour time and input.

We have been contracted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to follow up with you on your school’s participation in the 2017–18 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) and to gather additional information on your experiences responding to survey questions about incidents of school crime

The purpose of this follow-up interview is to understand the process schools use to collect and report data on SSOCS.the differences in how schools and districts reported data in SSOCS and the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a district-level Department of Education survey. We are asking schools and districts that participated inthese surveys during the 2017–18 school year to answer some questionsabout how they prepared their responses to the survey. Your feedback will assist NCES develop a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing SSOCS. For more information on this study, please see the Frequently Asked Questions below. In order to have a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing these items, it is important that we interview SSOCS as well as CRDC participants. We plan to reach out to your district to schedule a separate interview with them to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided on the 2017–18 CRDC, and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation. We can schedule an interview at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date].

Your interview session can be scheduled at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date]. More information on these interviews can be found below. I will call you within the next few days to answer any questions you may have and to schedule your interview. Alternatively, you may email [Insert AIR email] or call [Insert AIR telephone number] for additional information and to schedule an interview (or to let us know if you are not the correct person to respond to this request).

Telephone Follow-up

The following revision was made on p. 44:

The following scripts should NOT be read verbatim. Interviewers should familiarize themselves with the content in advance. The text highlighted and in brackets represent fill-in-the-blanks instructions and possible scenarios for the interviewerfields to personalize the conversation or instructions and possible scenarios for the interviewer.

My name is [Insert Name] from the American Institutes for Research. May I speak with [Insert School Administrator Name]?

SPEAKING WITH GATEKEEPER – POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

1. May I speak with [Insert School Administrator Name]?

2. Can you please connect me to [Insert School Administrator Name] voicemail so that I could leave a message?

3. [If asked why you are calling…] I am calling to speak with [Insert School Administrator Name] about an invitation that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sent to [her/him] to participate in an interview on about their participation in the School Survey on Crime and Safety during the 2017-18 school yearschool crime data.

The following revision was made on p. 44:

We are conducting follow-up interviews to learn more about the process that schools go through to fill out SSOCS as well as how their districts provide answers to the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). We want to learn about your experiences with responding to questions about incidents of school crime that are included in SSOCS. In order to have a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing these items, it is critical for us to hear from both schools and districts to understand any differences in how items on school crime data are reported in the two surveys. We plan to reach out to your district to schedule a separate interview with them to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided on the 2017–18 CRDC, and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.

We hope that you will help by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for your time and input. We can schedule an interview at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date].

The following revision was made on p. 44-45:

We are conducting follow-up interviews to learn more about the process schools go through to fill out the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), as well as how districts provide answers to the Office for Civil Rights’ Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). We want to learn about your experiences with responding to questions about incidents of school crime that are included in SSOCS. In order to have a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing these items, it is critical for us to hear from both schools and districts to understand any differences in how items on school crime data are reported in the two surveys. We plan to reach out to your district to schedule a separate interview with them to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided on the 2017–18 CRDC, and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.

We hope that you will help by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for your time and input. During the interview, we will ask you to share some information on how you report crime incidents on SSOCS. The results from your school and your district will help inform decisions to improve questions on school crime and limit overlap between the twofederal surveys, which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys.

We can schedule an interview at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date].

Do you have any questions?

Would you be willing to participate in the interview?

[If asked how sample member was selected…] You were selected because your school provided data to for the 2017–18 SSOCS and your district provided data to CRDC. We would like to follow up on some of the responses your school provided in that survey. to the 2017–18 SSOCS.

Would you be willing to participate in the interview?

[If yes] Fantastic! I have a few quick questions just to make sure you are eligible for the interview:

1. Did you have primary responsibility for completing the questions on counts of crime incidents that occurred at school in the 2017–18 SSOCS?

   1. Yes (Respondent is eligible for the study. SCHEDULE INTERVIEW.)

   2. No (Respondent is not eligible for the study but PROCEED TO #2.)

2. Do you know who was responsible for completing this section of the 2017–18 SSOCS data collection?

   1. Yes

      1. What was their name? __________________________________

      2. What was their position? ________________________________

   2. No, can you recommend someone who may know who filled out this section?

1. What is their name? ______________

2. What is their position? ________________________________

(Thank them. END OF SCREENER. Contact Jana/Korantema/SidneyKathryn.)

3. Are they still employed in your school?

   1. Yes, could you provide their contact information? _________________________

(Thank them. END OF SCREENER.)

2. No (Thank them. END OF SCREENER. Contact Jana/Korantema/SidneyKathryn.)

The following revision was made on p. 45:

[If school administrator IS eligible for the study]

Before we finish scheduling your interview, we want to ask you for permission to discuss your school’s participation in SSOCS with your district during the separate interview we plan to schedule with them. When you responded to the 2017–18 SSOCS, you were assured that your school’s responses would not be shared with your district. Your district provided some overlapping counts as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and as part of these interviews we would like to share limited information about your responses to select incident items in SSOCS. No exact counts will be shared, and the district respondent will be required to sign a non-disclosure affidavit. Do you consent to us sharing this limited information about your school’s responses in SSOCS as part of the district interview?

[If soft no or sample member demonstrates concerns] We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive and we want to ensure you that your responses are protected. We will not share the actual counts your school reported on SSOCS and all district participants will have to sign a non-disclosure form. We also want to ensure you that this is not an evaluation of your answers to SSOCS or information you have provided to your district or that your district has provided in CRDC.

[If hard no] We understand. We will not share any information about your school’s responses in SSOCS 2017–18 with your district. We would still like to hear about your reporting process. If it is alright with you, I’d like to schedule an interview with you at this time.

The following revision was made on p. 45:

Thank you; we can now schedule your interview. Would you be available to participate in the interview on [Insert day] at [Insert time and time zone, if needed]?

The following revision was made on p. 46:

REFUSAL CONVERSION SUGGESTED LANGUAGE

• [If soft no or sample member demonstrates concerns] We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive and we want to ensure you your responses are protected. We also want to ensure you this is not an evaluation of your answers to SSOCS. We are hoping to gain information about your processes of reporting and gathering information.
  
  

The following revision was made on p. 46:

• To improve these federal surveys, we need your help. We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive, so we want to remind you that the information provided as part of this interview 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 [if requested: 20 U.S.C. §9573 and 6 U.S.C. §151]. Reports of the findings from the survey will not identify participating districts, schools, or staff. Individual responses will be combined with those from other participants to produce summary reports.

• As you may or may not be aware, questions on crime incidents that appear in SSOCS are also included in the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a district-level survey conducted by the Department of Education. We are exploring the context around the reporting of incident items in SSOCS and CRDC with the goal of removing the questions from one of these surveys and reducing the burden on responding schools and districts.

• While your decision to participate is voluntary, we do hope that you will participate in the interview. The data you provide will be combined with the information provided by others and will help NCES to improve the SSOCSand CRDC surveys.

The following revision was made on p. 48:

• This is not an evaluation of your answers to SSOCS. In order for us to advise NCES on which survey is best suitedthe best methods to collect this information, we need to hear your thoughtful and honest feedback. I want you to know that your participation is voluntary, and your responses will not be disclosed. They will only be used to improve future data collections. We want you to feel like you can speak freely, and what you say here will not be repeated outside of the research team.

Nonresponse Follow-up Email

The following revisions were made on p. 47:

I am writing to follow up about an email I sent [Insert date] informing you that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is seeking feedback from schools who participated in the 2017–18 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) to gain a better understanding of the process involved in reporting crime incidents. Your feedback will help improve federal surveys—including SSOCS and the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a district-level Department of Education survey—as well as reduce the burden of future data collections and ensure that the resulting data are more helpful to you, other schools, districts, states, and data users. To accomplish these goals, we need your help. We hope that you will participate in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which school administratorsyou will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

You will be asked to answer questions about how your school collects data on crime incidents that have occurred at school, and how you understand the questions on the SSOCS questionnaire and report crime incidents there. We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive, so we want to remind you that your responses will not be disclosed, and this interview is not an evaluation of your school or your district. 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). You are part of a select number of schools that have been sampled to participate in an interview. Therefore, your input will be used to represent similar schools across the country.

While your decision to participate is voluntary, your participation is crucial to improve the data collection process for schools and districts and to ensure that data on crime and safety issuesincidents in in schools in the United States are of high quality. We hope that you will participate in the an interview.

The An interview session can be scheduled at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date]. More information on these interviews can be found below. You can contact me at [Insert AIR Email] or call [Insert AIR Telephone Number] to askwith any questions you may have and to schedule your interview today.

Telephone Follow-up #2

The following revision was made on p. 48:

[This step in the recruitment process will use the same materials as the prior telephone follow-up step on page 445]

2nd Nonresponse Follow-up Email

The following revisions were made on p. 49:

We need your help to improve the collection of school crime data. We understand that this is a busy time of year, so we wanted to send you this friendly reminder about participating in a follow-up interview about your experiences with school crime questions in the 2017–18 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). We hope that you will participate in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which participants you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

We are also seeking the participation of your district in a separate interview to discuss the data on crime incidents that was provided as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a district-level Department of Education survey. It is critical for us to hear from schools and their districts to understand any differences in how incidents of crime are reported in the two surveys, so we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.

Telephone Follow-up #3

The following was added on p. 50:

Telephone Follow-Up #3

[This step in the recruitment process will use the same materials as the prior telephone follow-up step on page 44]

Screener Email

The following revisions were made on p. 51:

1. Did you have the primary responsibility for completing the section of the 2017–18 SSOCS questionnaire reporting counts of crime incidents that occurred at your school?

2. If not, do you know who was responsible for completing the incident count questions in the 2017–18 SSOCS questionnaire (or can you recommend who we should contact who might know)?

Eligibility/Scheduling Email

The following revisions were made on p. 52:

[If original sample member provides new contact] Thank you for providing the contact information for the person who completed the 2017–18 SSOCS. We will follow up with him/her. We appreciate your assistance.

[SEND NEW CONTACT INVITATION EMAIL]

[If school administrator is eligible for the study] You are eligible to participate in an interview. As a reminder the interview will take approximately one-hour (by video or phone conference) for which you will receive a $7550 gift card as a thank you for your participation.

As we have mentioned in a previous email, we will also reach out to your district to request their participation in a separate interview about the incident counts they provided for your school as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). It is critical for us to hear from both schools and districts to understand any differences in how these items are reported in the two surveys.

When you responded to the 2017–18 SSOCS, you were assured that your school’s responses would not be shared with your district. Your district provided some overlapping counts as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and as part of this interview we would like to share with your district limited information about your responses to select incident items in SSOCS. No exact counts will be shared, and the district respondent will be required to sign a non-disclosure affidavit.

Please reply to this email with your consent to us sharing this limited information about your school’s responses in SSOCS as part of the district interview and let me know if you will be available to participate in an interview on [Insert day] at [Insert time and time zone]? If this day and/or time does not work for you, please provide a day and/or time that will work for you between [Insert Date] to [Insert Date].

[If original sample member provides new contact]

Thank you for providing the contact information for the person who completed the 2017-18 SSOCS. We will follow up with him/her. We appreciate your assistance.

[SEND NEW CONTACT INVITATION EMAIL]

Confirmation Email (Outlook Invite Text)

The following revisions were made on p. 53:

Thank you again for agreeing to participate in an interview about the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). I look forward to speaking with you on [Insert day of the week, month, day, 202019] at [Insert Time] [Insert Time Zone].

Please review, sign, and return the attached consent form to me via email at [Insert AIR email] by [INSERT DATE]. This form must be completed for us to conduct your interview as scheduled.

As a note, you may find it helpful to have access to information about incident crime reports in your school from the 2017-18 school year during the interview. We have attached a copy of the incident count questions in SSOCS (“[FILE NAME].pdf”) for your reference.

The interview will be conducted through a simple-to-use web-conferencing software, GoToMeeting, To participate in the interview, which will be conducted using GoToMeeting—a simple web-based conferencing software that may need to be installed on your computer. —click on the link below and you will instantly join the GoToMeeting session. You will have the option to call in using a phone number or use computer audio through the program.You will need to join the meeting by clicking the link below; you will have the option to use your computer audio or dial in using your phone:

As a note, you may find it helpful to have access to information about incident crime reports in your school from the 2017-18 school year during the interview. We have attached a copy of the incident count questions on SSOCS (“[FILE NAME].pdf”) for your reference.

You will receive a $75 gift card as a thank-you for your time and participation. The gift card will be mailed to you within two business days after your completed interview.

Should a scheduling conflict arise with the above interview date and time, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can reschedule your interview at your earliest convenience. You can reach me at [Insert AIR Telephone Number] (weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm ESDT) or via email at [insert AIR email].

Consent Form - School

The following revisions were made on p. 54:

You are invited to participate voluntarily in this interview, which is being administered by the American Institutes for Research, a contract research firm, on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this interview is to help NCES learn about experiences schools and districts have with questions on crime incidents that were included in the 2017–18 administration of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).²

The interview and discussion will take approximately 60 minutes. During the interview, you will be asked about your processes for collecting and reporting crime data. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, and this is not an evaluation of your school or district. We just want to hear about your experience with the surveys and gain an understanding of the processes you follow to answer the survey questions.

There is no physical risk to participating and, because we use strict protocols to protect your information, only minimal risk exists associated with data protection. You may refuse to answer any question, and you may take a break at any time. 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). Although the interview session will be audio-recorded, the information collected will be used only for research purposes and recordings will be destroyed following the completion of the interviews. The information you give us will be combined with the responses of others in a summary report that does not identify you as an individual, your districtschool, or schools within your district.

These interviews will help us improve the data collection process for schools and districts and ensure that data on crime incidents in U.S. schools are of high quality. Upon completing the interview, you will receive a $750 gift card in appreciation for your time and input.

If you have questions about this interview, please feel free to contact the AIR project lead, Sidney Wilkinson-FlickerKorantema Kaleem, via phone at 202-403-6385 6137 or email at swilkinson-flickerkkaleem@air.org, or the NCES project officer, Rachel Hansen, at [email protected] or 202-245-7082.

Consent to share school information with district:

When you responded to the 2017–18 SSOCS, you were assured that your school’s responses would not be shared with your district. Your district provided some overlapping counts as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and as part of this interview we would like to share limited information about your responses to select incident items in SSOCS with your district. No exact counts will be shared, and the district respondent will be required to sign a non-disclosure affidavit.

Please select one box to indict your affirmation or refusal of consent:

☐ I consent to the sharing of information on my school’s participation in SSOCS with my district.

☐ I do not consent to the sharing of information on my school’s participation in SSOCS with my district.

Reminder Email

The following revisions were made on p. 55:

Thank you again for agreeing to participate in an interview about school crime data. I am looking forward to speaking with you [tomorrow or day], [month and date], at [Insert time and time zone]. As a reminder, the interview will last approximately one hour, and we will send you a $7550 gift card to thank you for your participation.

You will need to join the meeting by clicking the link below; you will have the option to use your computer audio or dial in using your phone:

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/XXXXXXXXX

You can use computer audio or dial in using your phone.

United States: +1 (XXX) XXX-XXX
Access Code: XXX-XXX-XXX

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first

meeting starts: https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/XXXXXXXXX

Should you need to reach me in regard toregarding your interview session, please call [Insert AIR Telephone Number] weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm (ESDT) or email me at [Insert AIR email].

Thank you Letter to Schools (Mailed)

The following paragraph was updated on p. 56:

Thank you for your participation in the interview on school crime data on [Insert Date]. As a respondent to the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to provide firsthand feedback on your experience. The results from your school [and district] will Your feedback will help improve federal surveys—including SSOCS—as well as reduce the burden of future data collections and ensure that the resulting data are more helpful to you, other schools, districts, states, and data users. help inform decisions on how to limit overlap between SSOCS and the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys. As a token of our appreciation for your participation, we have included a $7550 gift card with this letter.

Confirmation of Receipt of Gift Card Email

The following revision was made on p. 57:

I hope this email finds you well. Thank you again for taking the time to provide valuable feedback about school crime data. I’m writing to request confirmation that you received the $7550 gift card that [I/my colleague] mailed to your [home/school] address on [Insert Date]. Please reply to this email to confirm that you received the gift card.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following revision was made on p. 58:

What is the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)? CRDC is a biennial (i.e., every other school year) survey conducted since 1968 and required by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). CRDC collects data from public local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools on leading civil rights indicators related to access and barriers to educational opportunity at the early childhood through grade 12 levels.

The following revisions were made on p. 58:

Will I be paid for participating? As a token of our appreciation for your participation, you will receive a $7550 gift card within 10 business days of completing your interview.

How was my school selected? Schools that participated in the 2017–18 SSOCS and whose district also reported data in the 2017–18 CRDC were identified using a random sampling procedure.

Can I participate if my district does not participate? Yes! You can still provide valuable information by answering questions on your school’s processes for reporting crime incidents on SSOCS.

The following revisions were made on p. 58:

Will my participation affect my responses to SSOCS? No. While the interview will follow up on your school’s participation in the 2017–18 SSOCS, your feedback will be used only to inform potential improvements in future data collections and will not impact your current or prior responses to SSOCS. Your responses will be used by NCES to gain a better understanding of the process involved for respondents to report crime incidents on SSOCS and CRDC and will not change any previous responses you have provided as part of SSOCS.

The following revisions were made on p. 58:

When and where will the interview be conducted? The interview will be held in summer 2019early 2020 (February-April). All interviews will be conducted through a simple-to-use web conferencing software.

The following revisions were made on p. 58:

Who can I contact to participate or for more information? If you would like to discuss the interview further, please feel free to contact the AIR project lead, Sidney Wilkinson-FlickerKorantema Kaleem, at swilkinson-flickerkkaleem@air.org or 202-403-6385, or the NCES project officer, Rachel Hansen, at [email protected] or 202-245-7082.

CRDC Recruitment Materials (Cover page)

The following was added on p. 59:

CRDC Revised Recruitment Materials

NCES Introduction Email

The following revisions were made on p. 60:

Thank you for your recent response to the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for the 2017–18 school year. As a follow up to the CRDC data collection for the 2017–18 school year, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education would like to conduct an interview with your district to better understand the process involved in reporting crime incidents on CRDC. You are part of a select number of previous CRDC respondents that have been sampled to participate in this important study. Therefore, your input will be used to represent similar districts across the country. We hope that you will help us by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which participants you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

In addition to interviewing your district, NCES will conduct a separate interview with one or more schools in your district that provided similar data on crime incidents as part of a school-level survey conducted by NCES, the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). It is critical for us to hear from both districts and their schools to understand any differences in how crime incidents are reported in the two surveys. A school from your district has already agreed to participate in an interview and we need your help to fulfil this two-part interview operation by agreeing to participate in an interview to share information on the district’s reporting in CRDC.

Please know this is not an evaluation of your district, and reports of our findings will not identify participating districts or staff. Your feedback will inform potential improvements to future data collections and will not impact your current or prior responses to CRDC. This is not an evaluation of your district or schools, and reports of our findings will not identify participating districts or staff. The results from your district will be combined with others to help inform decisions to improve questions on school crime and safety across federal surveys, which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys.

First and foremost, please know this is not an evaluation of your district or your schools, and reports of our findings will not identify participating schools, districts, or staff. Your feedback will inform potential improvements to future data collections and will not impact your current or prior responses to CRDC. The results from your district and school(s) will be combined with others to help inform decisions to limit overlap between the two surveys, which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys. Although participation in the interview is voluntary, the success of this interview operationresearch depends on the willingness of selected districts and their schools to participate.

NCES has contracted with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a research companyorganization, to facilitate the interviews and analyze results. A member of the AIR team will contact you via email within the next few days to schedule your interview. If you would like to discuss this request further or if you believe another district staff member would be in a better position to provide information about the CRDC data collection process, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 202-245-7082 or the AIR project lead, Sidney Wilkinson-FlickerKorantema Kaleem, at swilkinson-flickerkkaleem@air.org or 202-403-6137385, or the NCES project officer, Rachel Hansen, at [email protected] or 202-245-7082.

We thank you in advance for your assistance and support.

Sincerely,

Rachel Hansen James (Lynn) Woodworth, Ph. D.

NCES project officer Commissioner

National Center for Education Statistics National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education U.S. Department of Education James L. Woodworth

Commissioner

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

AIR Initial Email

The following revisions were made on p. 61:

My name is [Insert District and School Leader Name] and I am a researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). We have been contracted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to follow up with you on your district’s recent participation in the 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and to gather additional information on your experiences responding to survey questions about incidents of school crime.

Dr. James L. Woodworth, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and Rachel Hansen, the project officer for school crime surveys, recently informed you that you have been selected to participate in a follow-up interview to discuss the process of reporting crime incidents for your district on the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) during the 2017–18 school year CRDC. AIR has been contracted by NCES to conduct these interviews with districts and wWe hope that you will help us by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which participants you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

The purpose of this follow-up interview is to understand the process districts use to collect and report data oin the CRDC. the differences in how districts and schools reported data in CRDC and the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), a school-level survey conducted by NCES. We are asking districts and schools that responded to these surveys and provided data for the 2017–18 school year to answer some questions about how they prepared their responses to the survey. In order to have a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing these items, we need to be able to interview both the school and the district. A school in your district has already agreed to participate in a separate interview, and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation. Your responses will assist NCES develop a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing the CRDC. For more information on this study, please see the Frequently Asked Questions below.

We can schedule anYour interview session can be scheduled at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date].

More information on these interviews can be found below. I will call you within the next few days to answer any questions you may have and to schedule your interview. Alternatively, you may email [Insert AIR email] or call [Insert AIR telephone number] for additional information and to schedule an interview (or to let us know if you are not the correct person to respond to this request).

Telephone Follow-up

The following revision was made on p. 62:

The following scripts should NOT be read verbatim. Interviewers should familiarize themselves with the content in advance. The text highlighted and in brackets [ ] represents fill-in-the-blank fields to personalize the conversation or instructions and possible scenarios for the interviewer.

The following revision was made on ps. 62:

3. [If asked why you are calling…] I am calling to speak with [Insert District Administrator Name] about an invitation that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sent to [her/him] to participate in an interview on school crime dataabout their participation in the Civil Rights Data Collection during the 2017-18 school year.

4. May I leave a message for [Insert District Administrator Name] with you?

IF RETURNING A PHONE CALL OR MAKING SECOND CALL TO SAMPLE MEMBER

3. I am following up with [Insert District Administrator Name] regarding a message that I left on [Insert date].

4. I am returning [Insert District Administrator Name]’s phone call. May I speak with [her/him]?

[IF NEEDED, see above for information on why you are calling]

The following revision was made on p. 62:

LEAVING A VOICEMAIL MESSAGE or LEAVING A MESSAGE WITH GATEKEEPER:

Hello [Insert District Administrator Name], my name is [Insert Your Name]. I am calling from the American Institutes for Research on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education. We would like to follow up with you about an invitation you received inviting you to participate in an interview about your recent participation in the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) during the 2017-18 school year.

We are conducting follow-up interviews to learn more about the process that districts go through to fill out the (CRDC) as well as how schools within districts provide answers to the NCES School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). We want to learn about your experiences with responding to questions about incidents of school crime that are included in CRDC. In order to have a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing these items it is critical for us to hear from both schools and districts to understand any differences in how items on school crime data are reported in the two surveys. A school in your district has already agreed to participate in a separate interview to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided on the 2017-18 SSOCS, and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.

We hope that you will help by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for your time and input. We can schedule an interview at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date].

The following revision was made on p. 68-69:

I am calling from the American Institutes for Research on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education, to follow up on a recent invitation they sent [Insert You/District Administrator]you to partake in an interview about your recent participation in the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).

We are conducting interviews to learn more about the process that districts go through to fill out CRDC. as well as how schools within districts provide answers to the NCES School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). We want to learn about your experiences with responding to questions about incidents of school crime that are included in CRDC. In order to have a complete picture of the reporting process and burden involved with completing items on school crime incidents, it is critical for us to hear from both schools and districts. to understand any differences in how these items are reported in the two surveys. A school in your district has already agreed to participate in a separate interview to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided on the 2017-18 SSOCS and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.We hope that you will help by participating in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for your time and input. During the interview, we will ask you to share some information on how you report crime incidents on CRDC. The results from your district and the schools within your district will help inform decisions to improve questions on school crime and limit overlap between the twofederal surveys, which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys.

The following revision was made on p. 63:

[If asked how Sample Member was selected…] You were selected because your district provided data for 2017-18 CRDC. We would like to follow up on some of the responses your district provided in that survey.

Would you be willing to participate in the interview?

[If asked how Sample Member was selected…] You were selected because your district provides data for CRDC, and one or more schools in your district also provided data for SSOCS. Since one or more schools in your district has already agreed to participate in a separate interview to discuss their responses on the 2017-18 SSOCS, we would like to follow up on the responses your district provided for CRDC during the 2017–18 school year.

The following revision was made on p. 63:

2. Do you know who was responsible for completing this section of the 2017–18 CRDC data collection?

   1. Yes

      1. What was their name: __________________________________

      2. What was their position: ________________________________

2. No, can you recommend someone who may know who filled out this section?

3. What is their name: __________________________________

4. What is their position: ________________________________

(Thank them. END OF SCREENER. Contact Jana/Korantema/SidneyKathryn.)

3. Are they still employed in your district?

1. Yes, could you provide their contact information? _________________________

(Thank them. END OF SCREENER.)

2. No (Thank them. END OF SCREENER. Contact Jana/Korantema/SidneyKathryn.)

The following revision was made on p. 63:

Great, you are eligible to participate in this study. Your input will help improve the data collection and reporting of crime incidents in schools districts in the United States. Would you be available to schedule the interview on [Insert day] at [tInsert time and time zone, if needed]?

[If not available] iIs there a different time that day or week that would work for you? Please suggest a time/date between [Insert a timeframe and time zone] that will work for you.

Great! I will send an email shortly confirming your participation on [Insert day of the week, month, day and time zone and time of scheduled interview], which will include the log-in information to participate in the web-based interview session. The email will also include a consent form and affidavit of non-disclosure, which we ask that you read, sign, and return to us by [INSERT DATE]. Thiese forms must be completed for us to conduct your interview as scheduled.

The following revision was made on p. 64:

• [If soft no or sample member demonstrates concerns] We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive and we want to ensure you your responses are protected. We also want to ensure you this is not an evaluation of your answers to the CRDC. We are hoping to gain information about your processes of reporting and gathering information.
  
  

The following revisions were made on p. 64:

• To improve these federal surveys, we need your help. We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive, so we want to remind you that the information provided as part of this interview 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 [if requested: 20 U.S.C. §9573 and 6 U.S.C. §151]. Reports of the findings from the survey will not identify participating districts, schools, or staff. Individual responses will be combined with those from other participants to produce summary reports.

• As you may or may not be aware, questions on crime incidents that appear in CRDC are also included in the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), a school-level survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the Department of Education. We are exploring the context around the reporting of incident items in SSOCS and CRDC with the goal of removing the questions from one of these surveys and reducing the burden on responding schools and districts.

• While your decision to participate is voluntary, we do hope that you will participate in the interview. The data you provide will be combined with the information provided by others and will help NCES to improve the CRDC and SSOCS.

• We recognize that everyone has different experiences with regard to reporting information oin the CRDC and we want to stress that there are no right or wrong answers. This interview is not an evaluation of your district or schools.

• This is not an evaluation of your answers ion the CRDC. In order for us to advise NCES on which survey isthe best methods suited to collect this information, we need to hear your thoughtful and honest feedback. I want you to know that your participation is voluntary, and your responses will not be disclosed. They will only be used to improve future data collections. We want you to feel like you can speak freely, and what you say here will not be repeated outside of the research team.

Nonresponse Follow-up Email

The following revisions were made on p. 65:

I am writing to follow up about an email I sent [Insert date] informing you that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is seeking feedback from school districts who participated in the 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) to gain a better understanding of the process involved in reporting crime incidents. Your feedback will help improve federal surveys—including CRDC and the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), a school-level survey conducted by NCES—as well as reduce the burden of future data collections and ensure that the resulting data are more helpful to you, other districts, schools, states, and data users. To accomplish these goals, we need your help. We hope that you will participate in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which district administratorsyou will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

You will be asked to answer questions about how your district collects data on crime incidents that have occurred at schools within your district, as well as onand how you understand the questions on the CRDC questionnaire and report crime incidents there. We realize that data on school crime are highly sensitive, so we want to remind you that your responses will not be disclosed, and this interview is not an evaluation of your district or your schools. 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). You are part of a select number of districts that have been sampled to participate in an interview. Therefore, your input will be used to represent similar districts across the country.

While your decision to participate is voluntary, your participation is crucial to improve the data collection process for districts and their schools and to ensure that data on crime incidents and safety issues in schools in the United States are of high quality. We hope that you will participate in the an interview.

The An interview session can be scheduled at your convenience between [Insert Start Date] and [Insert End Date]. More information on these interviews can be found below. You can contact me at [Insert AIR email] or call [Insert AIR Telephone Number] to askwith any questions you may have and to schedule your interview today.

Telephone Follow-Up #2

The following revision was made on p. 66:

[This step in the recruitment process will use the same materials as the prior telephone follow-up step on page 6224]

2nd Nonresponse Follow-up Email

The following revisions were made on p. 67:

We need your help to improve the collection of school crime data. We understand that this is a busy time of year, so we wanted to send you this friendly reminder about participating in a follow-up interview about your experiences with school crime questions in the 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). We hope that you will participate in a one-hour interview (by video or phone conference) for which participants you will receive a $7550 gift card as a “thank you” for their your time and input.

One or more schools in your district has agreed to separately participate in an interview to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided as part of a school-level Department of Education survey, the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). It is critical for us to hear from districts and their schools to understand any differences in how incidents of crime are reported in the two surveys, so we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.

Telephone Follow-Up #3

The following was added on p. 68:

Telephone Follow-Up #3

[This step in the recruitment process will use the same materials as the prior telephone follow-up step on page 62]

Eligibility/Scheduling Email

The following revision was made on p. 70:

Thank you for returning your responses. Our team has reviewed your responses.

The following revision was made on p. 70:

Would Please let me know if you willyou be available to participate in an interview on [Insert day] at [Insert time and time zone]? If this day and/or time does not work for you, please provide a day and/or time that will work for you between [Insert Date] to [Insert Date].

Confirmation Email (Outlook Invite Text)

The following paragraphs were updated on p. 71:

Thank you again for agreeing to participate in an interview about the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). I look forward to speaking with you on [Insert day of the week, month, day, 202019] at [Insert Time] [Insert Time Zone].

[If school has agreed to share their data] Since we are separately interviewing one or more schools in your district regarding their responses to school crime questions on the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), we may share some information about a school’s participation in SSOCS with you as part of your interview. We have received consent from the school to share this information, but we also need you to sign an affidavit of non-disclosure form to confirm you will not disclose this information outside of the interview.

Please review, sign, and return the attached affidavit of non-disclosure form and consent form to me via email at [Insert AIR email] by [INSERT DATE]. TheseThis forms must be completed for us to conduct your interview as scheduled.

[If school has NOT agreed to share their data] Please review, sign, and return the attached consent form to me via email at [Insert AIR email] by [INSERT DATE]. This form must be completed for us to conduct your interview as scheduled.

As a note, you may find it helpful to have access to information about incident crime reports in your district from the 2017-18 school year during the interview. We have attached a copy of the incident count questions in CRDC (“[FILE NAME].pdf”) for your reference.

To participate in tThe interview, which will be conducted using through a simple-to-use web-conferencing software, GoToMeeting,—a simple web-based conferencing software that may need to be installed on your computer—click on the link below and you will instantly join the GoToMeeting session. You will need to join the meeting by clicking the link below; you will have the option to call in using a phone number or use your computer audio through the programor dial in using your phone.:

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/XXXXXXXXX

You can use computer audio or dial in using your phone.

United States: +1 (XXX) XXX-XXX

Access Code: XXX-XXX-XXX

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/XXXXXXXXX

As a note, you may find it helpful to have access to information about incident crime reports in your district from the 2017-18 school year during the interview. We have attached a copy of the incident count questions in CRDC (“[FILE NAME].pdf”) for your reference.

You will receive a $75 gift card as a thank-you for your time and participation. The gift card will be mailed to you within two business days after your completed interview.

Should a scheduling conflict arise with the above interview date and time, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can reschedule your interview at your earliest convenience. You can reach me at [Insert AIR Telephone Number] (weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm ESDT) or via email at [insert AIR email].

Consent Form – District

The following revisions were made on p. 72:

You are invited to participate voluntarily in this interview, which is being administered by the American Institutes for Research, a contract research firm, on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this interview is to help NCES learn about experiences schools and districts have with questions on crime incidents that were included in the 2017–18 administration of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).³

The interview and discussion will take approximately 60 minutes. During the interview, you will be asked about your processes for collecting and reporting crime data. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, and this is not an evaluation of your school district or districtschools. We just want to hear about your experience with the surveys and gain an understanding of the processes you follow to answer the survey questions.

The following revisions were made on p. 80:

These interviews will help us improve the data collection process for districts and schools and ensure that data on crime incidents in U.S. schools are of high quality. Upon completing the interview, you will receive a $7550 gift card in appreciation for your time and input.

If you have questions about this interview, please feel free to contact the AIR project lead, Sidney Wilkinson-FlickerKorantema Kaleem, via phone at 202-403-63856137 or email at [email protected][email protected], or the NCES project officer, Rachel Hansen, at [email protected] or 202-245-7082.

Affidavit of Non-disclosure

The following was deleted on p. 73:

Affidavit of Non-disclosure

____________________________________

(Job Title)

____________________________________ __________________________

(Organization, State or Local Agency Name) (Organization or Agency Address)

School Survey on Crime and Safety

(NCES Database, File, or Project Providing Access to Individually Identifiable Information)

I, __________________________________________________________________________ , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that when given access to information on schools that participated in the 2018–School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), I will not:

(i) use or reveal any individually identifiable information furnished, acquired, retrieved, or assembled by me or others, under the provisions of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. §9573) and Foundations of Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Title III, Part B, Confidential Information Protection for any purpose other than the statistical purposes specified in the NCES survey, project, or agreement;

(ii) publish or disclose any information whereby a sample unit or survey respondent (including principals, teachers, and schools) could be identified or the data furnished by or related to any particular person or school under these sections could be identified; or

(iii) permit anyone other than the individuals authorized by the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to examine the individual reports.

[The penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of not more than $250,000 (under 18 U.S.C. 3571) or imprisonment for not more than five years (under 18 U.S.C. 3559), or both. The word "swear" should be stricken out when a person elects to affirm the affidavit rather than to swear to it.]

___________________________________ ____________________

(Signature) (Date)

Reminder Email

The following revisions were made on p. 73:

Thank you again for agreeing to participate in an interview about school crime data. I am looking forward to speaking with you [tomorrow or day], [month and date], at [Insert time and time zone]. As a reminder, the interview will last approximately one hour and we will send you a $7550 gift card to thank you for your participation.

[IF CONSENT FORM AND/OR NDA NOT RETURNED]. We have not received your signed [NDA/Cconsent form.], which must be completed before the start of the interview. Please review, sign, and return the attached [consent form/NDA] to me via email at [Insert AIR email address] prior to your interviewby [DATE].

You will need to join the meeting by clicking the link below; you will have the option to use your computer audio or dial in using your phone:

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/XXXXXXXXX

You can use computer audio or dial in using your phone.

United States: +1 (XXX) XXX-XXX
Access Code: XXX-XXX-XXX

New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first

meeting starts: https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/XXXXXXXXX

Should you need to reach me regarding your interview session, please call [Insert AIR Telephone Number] weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm (ESDT) or email me at [Insert AIR email].

Thank-You Letter to Districts (Mailed)

The following revisions were made on p. 74:

Thank you for your participation in the interview on school crime data on [Insert Date]. As a respondent to the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to provide firsthand feedback on your experience. Your feedback will help improve federal surveys—including CRDC—as well as reduce the burden of future data collections and ensure that the resulting data are more helpful to you, other schools, districts, states, and data users. The results from your district and school(s) will help inform decisions on how to limit overlap betweenCRDC and the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), which will reduce the amount of time required to complete the surveys. As a token of our appreciation for your participation, we have included a $7550 gift card with this letter.

Confirmation of Receipt of Gift Card Email

The following revision was made on p. 75:

I’m writing to request confirmation that you received the $750 gift card that [I/my colleague] mailed to your [home/school] address on [Insert Date]. Please reply to this email to confirm that you received the gift card.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following revision was made on p. 76:

What is the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)? SSOCS is a recurring survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that focuses on the frequency of crime and violence in public schools and the programs and practices schools have developed to provide a safe school environment. SSOCS collects data from a sample of K–12 public schools.

The following revisions were made on p. 76:

Will I be paid for participating? As a token of our appreciation for your participation, you will receive a $7550 gift card within 10 business days of completing your interview.

How was my district selected? Districts that participated in the 2017–18 CRDC and that also had a school that participated in the 2018 SSOCS were identified using a random sampling procedure.

Can I participate if schools in my district do not participate? We have contacted you because one or more schools in your district have already agreed to participate in a separate interview to discuss the data on crime incidents they provided in the 2017–18 SSOCS data collection. It is critical for us to hear from districts and their schools to understand any differences in how incidents of crime are reported in the two surveys and we need your participation to fulfill this two-part interview operation.

What will I need to do? You will be asked to answer questions on how your district collects data on crime incidents that have occurred at schools in your district, as well as on how you understand the questions on the CRDC questionnaire and report crime incidents in CRDC. You will be asked to sign and return a consent form and an Affidavit of Non-disclosure in order to participate. All personal identifying information will be destroyed at the conclusion of all of the interviews.

Will my participation affect my responses to CRDC? No. While the interview will follow up on your district’s participation in CRDC during the 2017–18 school year, your feedback will be used only to inform potential improvements in future data collections and will not impact your current or prior responses to CRDC. Your responses will be used by NCES to gain a better understanding of the process involved for respondents to report crime incidents on CRDC and SSOCS and will not change any current or previous responses you have provided as part of CRDC.

The following revision was made on p. p. 76:

When and where will the interview be conducted? The interview will be held in summer early 2020 (February-April)2019. All interviews will be conducted through a simple-to-use web conferencing software.

The following revision was made on p. 76:

Who can I contact to participate or for more information? If you would like to discuss the interview further, please feel free to contact the AIR project lead, Sidney Wilkinson-FlickerKorantema Kaleem, at swilkinson-flickerkkaleem@air.org or 202-403-63856137, or the NCES project officer, Rachel Hansen, at [email protected] or 202-245-7082.

Recruitment Flowchart

12 business days week later:

Send 2^nd follow-upPHONE follow-up #3 EMAIL

No response

The following revision were made on p. 78:

Recruitment/Interview Scenarios and Steps

The following was deleted from p 79:

Recruitment/Interview Scenarios and Steps

Paired interview			Solo school interview (regardless of consent)
With school consent & with NDA	With school consent & without NDA	Without school consent; NDA n/a
1. Contact school	1. Contact school	1. Contact school	1. Contact school
2. School agrees to participate - ask for consent to share info with district	2. School agrees to participate - ask for consent to share info with district	2. School agrees to participate - ask for consent to share info with district	2. School agrees to participate - ask for consent to share info with district
3. School consents	3. School consents	3. School does not consent	3. School does or does not consent
4. Full school interview protocol	4. Full school interview protocol	4. Full school interview protocol	4. Full school interview protocol
5. Contact district - do not provide school name	5. Contact district - do not provide school name	5. Contact district - do not provide school name	5. Contact district - do not provide school name
6. District agrees to participate and signs NDA	6. District agrees to participate but does not sign NDA	6. District agrees to participate - NDA is not applicable	6. District does not agree to participate (dead end or refusal)
7. Full district interview protocol	7. Modified district interview protocol	7. Modified district interview protocol	No district interview
• Able to discuss school participation in and responses in SSOCS	• Cannot discuss school participation in and responses in SSOCS	• Cannot discuss school participation in and responses in SSOCS
• Ask process questions as pertain to response for specific school	• Only ask process questions as pertain to CRDC responses for a "typical" school/whether this would differ for any schools in their district (see "CRDC Incidents Counts Handout - No School lnfo" in Appendix B)	• Only ask process questions as pertain to CRDC responses for a "typical" school/whether this would differ for any schools in their district (see "CRDC Incidents Counts Handout - No School lnfo" in Appendix B)
Ask questions comparing CRDC to SSOCS responses (same, lower, higher) (see "CRDC Incidents Counts Handout - With School lnfo" in Appendix B)

The following updates were made to Appendix B – Protocols:

Interview Protocols

The following was added on p. 15:

Revised Interview Protocols for Phase 2

SSOCS Interview Protocol

Interview Introduction

The following revisions were made on p.16:

We are conducting interviews to learn more about the process schools go through to fill out the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). We have been hired by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to administer these interviews, with the goal of learning about your experiences with reporting information focused on school crime incidents that are required to be filled out as part of SSOCS. As you may or may not be aware, similar questions are also included on the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), another Department of Education data collection, which is completed at the district level. We are exploring the context around the reporting of incident items on SSOCS and CRDC with the goal of removing the streamlining questions from one of theseon crime incidents across various federal surveys and in order to reduceing burden on responding schools and districts.

You were chosen to participate in this interview because your school participated in the SSOCS data collection during the 2017–18 school year. As a principal, we value your opinion and would like to hear your perspective on providing counts of crime incidents at your school on surveys such as SSOCS. We recognize that everyone has different experiences or procedures when it comes to reporting information for SSOCS, as well as how school crime and safety incidents are tracked and recorded, and we want to stress that there are no right or wrong answers. Your responses during this interview will be used by NCES to gain a better understanding of the process involved for respondents to report crime incidents on SSOCS and CRDC. Nothing you say will change any previous responses you have provided as part of SSOCS. This is not an evaluation of your answers on SSOCS.

The interview should take about an hour. I will be asking the questions, and [INERT NAME OF NOTETAKER_______________ will be taking notes. We would like to record audio from our conversation to make sure that weI catch all of the important information that you will share with ustoday and to serve as our a back up to the notes that _______________ will taken today. This recording will only be used for note-taking purposes, will be stored securely, and will be destroyed after the project is over. Is it okay for me to record you?

STEP 2: INTERVIEW

Background Questions:

The following revisions were made on p. 17:

Before we get started, we have a few background questions about your role at your school and your experience with SSOCS.

1. How would you describe your overall role at your school?

2. What are your day-to-day activities?

3. Please describe your involvement in school safety and discipline at your school.

4. Did you complete any special training or certification for data collection and/or data entry procedures for tracking school crime incidents? If so, what was it?

5. This school participated in the 2017–18 SSOCS data collection during the 2017-18 school year. and wWhen we spoke previously you indicated that you had the primary responsibility for completing the section reporting counts of crime incidents that occurred at school. Is this correct?

   1. If yes, were there other staff who assisted you in completing the section reporting counts of crime incidents that occurred at your school, and those that were reported to police?

      1. If yes, what positions did these staff hold?”

   2. If no, proceed to the questions on the last page of the protocol for situations where the respondent was not primarily responsible for completing SSOCS.

6. Are you familiar with any other federal surveys that may collect crime incident datathe Civil Rights Data Collection, also known as CRDC? (If yes, ask respondent to elaborate if necessary.)

2017–18 Incident Count Questions:

The following revision was made on p. 18:

At this time, you should refer to the SSOCS Incidents Count Sheet for questions 16 through 23 which will ask about the 2017–18 Specific Item Data Collection and 2017–18 CRDC Comparison. Do not share this sheet with the respondent.

Current Data Collection Process:

The following revision was made on p. 18:

If respondent has already answered the following questions during the process of answering the previous questions, skip ahead.

26. How doDo you currently report data on incident counts to your district?

1. [If yes, Ssuggested probe] Is this required of all schools in your district?

2. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about this system/process?

3. [Suggested probe] Do you report incidents to the district on a rolling basis as they occur or at periodic intervals (like at the end of the semester or school year)?

Conclusion:

The following revision was made on p. 19:

For situations where the respondent was NOT primarily responsible for completing SSOCS

My apologies! I was under the impression from our prior conversation that you were primarily responsible for completing the 2017–18 SSOCS questionnaire. [Pause and see if respondent offers an explanation.]

1. Who was involved in that process? Are they still at this school?

   1. If yes, can you provide me with their do you have their contact information?

Thank you so much! I appreciate your time today.

[END OF INTERVIEW; do not mention the gift card; let SidneyKathryn/Jana/Korantema know what happened ASAP]

SSOCS Incident Count Sheet

The following revision was made on p.20:

[FORMATTING NOTE: All highlighted portions are examples; data will be pulled from the SSOCS & CRDC data files and will be linked to each other automatically generating the entire document.]

The following revisions were made on p.21:

Other Federal Survey CRDC Comparison

[FORMATTING NOTE: This incident type discussed in this section will not be consistent across schools. Instead it will be dependent upon the most serious offense reported for that school.]

Your district may also reported counts of crime incidents for your school on CRDC for the same 2017–18 school yearon other federal surveys. In reviewing their response for the number of incidents of rape or attempted rape, we found that the district reported a higher/lower/the same number of incidents on CRDC than your school reported on SSOCSsome instances, incident counts reported may vary from those the school reported on SSOCS.

22. Do you know how counts of incidents from your district are aggregated?

    1. [Suggested probe] Could you tell me more about that process?
       
       

23. IF LOWER/HIGHER: What are some reasons you can think of for why counts reported by the district the CRDC count may differ from what was reported by schools onfor SSOCS?

24. IF EQUAL: What are some reasons you can think of for why the CRDC count may be the same as that reported for SSOCS?

Do you know how the district acquires counts of incidents from your school?

[Suggested probe] Could you tell me more about that process?

CRDC Interview Protocol

The following revisions were made on p. 22:

School:
District:
State:
Respondent’s Name:
Date:
Interviewers:

Consent Form:	☐Signed copy received	☐ Waiting on signed copy
NDA:	☐Signed copy received	☐ Waiting on signed copy	☐ N/A

Materials:

• Protocol

• CRDC Offenses Section Handout (respondent should have as well)

• CRDC Incident Counts Sheet – With School Info [for districts where school(s) has given consent] (not shared with district)

• CRDC Incident Counts Sheet – No School Info [for districts where school(s) DID NOT give consent, or district respondent has NOT signed NDA] (not shared with district)

Interview Introduction:

The following revisions were made on p. 23:

We are conducting interviews to learn more about the process districts go through to fill out the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). We have been hired by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to administer these interviews, with the goal of learning about your experiences with reporting information focused on school crime incidents that are required to be filled out as part of CRDC. As you may or may not be aware, similar questions are also included on other federal surveysthe School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), another Department of Education data collection, which is completed at the school level. We are exploring the context around the reporting of incident items on CRDC and SSOCS with the goal of removing the streamlining questions from one of theseon crime incidents across various federal surveys and in order to reduceing burden on responding schools and districts.

You were chosen to participate in this interview because your district provided crime incident data for the 2017–18 CRDC and one or more schools in your district also provided similar data on SSOCS. As a district representative, we value your opinion and would like to hear your perspective on providing counts of crime incidents at schools in your district on surveys such as CRDC. We recognize that everyone has different experiences or procedures when it comes to reporting information for CRDC and want to stress that there are no right or wrong answers. Your responses during this interview will be used by NCES to gain a better understanding of the process involved for respondents to report crime incidents on CRDC and SSOCS. Nothing you say will change any previous responses you have provided as part of CRDC. This is not an evaluation of your answers on CRDC.

The following revisions were made on p. 23:

The interview should take about an hour. I will be asking the questions, and _______________ will be taking notes. We would like to record audio from our conversation to make sure that weI catch all of the important information that you will share with ustoday and to serve as our a back up to the notes that _______________ will taken today.

STEP 2: INTERVIEW

Background Questions:

The following revision was made on p. 24:

7. Are you familiar with the School Survey on Crime and Safety, also known as SSOCSany other federal surveys that may collect crime incident data? (If they just say yes, ask them to elaborate.)

2017–18 Incident Count Questions:

The following Incident Count questions were updated on p. 24:

12. How did you gather the information required to answer these incident count items?

    1. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about this system/process?

13. Are schools required to provide this information to the district?

1. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about this system/process?

2. [Suggested probe] Do schools report incidents to the district on a rolling basis as they occur or at periodic intervals (like at the end of the semester or school year)?

The following Incident Count questions were updated on p. 25:

[If the school provided consent to share their information and the district respondent signed the NDA] At this time, you should refer to the CRDC Incidents Count Sheet – With School Info for questions 18 through 25 which will ask about the 2017–18 Specific CRDC Item Data Collection and 2017–18 SSOCS Comparison. Do not share this sheet with the respondent.

[If the school did not provide consent to share their information OR the district respondent did not sign the NDA] At this time, you should refer to the CRDC Incidents Count Sheet – No School Info for questions 1819 through 2526 which will ask about the 2017–18 Specific CRDC Item Data Collection. Do not share this sheet with the respondent.

Current Data Collection Process:

The following was deleted on p. 25:

26. Are schools required to provide this information to the district?

1. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about this system/process?

Conclusion

The following updates were made on p. 25-26:

For situations where the respondent was NOT primarily responsible for completing CRDC

My apologies! I was under the impression from our prior conversation that you were primarily responsible for completing the 2017–18 CRDC questionnaire. [Pause and see if respondent offers an explanation.]

1. Who was involved in that process? Are they still employed with this district?

   1. If yes, can you provide me with do you have their contact information?

Thank you so much! I appreciate your time today.

[END OF INTERVIEW; do not mention the gift card; let SidneyKathryn/Jana/Korantema know what happened ASAP]

CRDC Incident Count Sheet – WITH SCHOOL INFORMATION

The following were deleted on p. 27-28:

CRDC Incident Count Sheet – WITH SCHOOL INFORMATION

DO NOT SHARE WITH RESPONDENT

[FORMATTING NOTE: All highlighted portions are examples; data will be pulled from the SSOCS & CRDC data files and will be linked to each other automatically generating the entire document.]

School: [SCHOOL NAME]________________________________________________

District: ________________________________________________

CRDC Process Questions

[FORMATTING NOTE: The incident types discussed in questions 18, 20, and 22 will be consistent across all interviews and chosen based on frequency across all schools.]

Incident Type	CRDC Count
Rape or attempted rape	1
Homicide	0
Shooting	0

18. Based on your district’s response to the 2017–18 CRDC, 1 incident(s) of rape or attempted rape was reported for [SCHOOL NAME]. Could you tell me how you arrived at this answer?

1. [Suggested probe] Tell me more about why you answered 1.

2. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about that?

18. Did your process for reporting counts of homicide and shootings differ from that you took to report rape or attempted rape?

1. If yes: Could you describe how the process differed in reporting these different types of incidents?

-----------------------

Incident Type	CRDC Count
Sexual assault	1
Robbery with a weapon	2
Robbery without a weapon	17
Physical attack or fight with a weapon	8
Threat of physical attack or fight with a weapon	12

18. Based on your district’s response to the 2017–18 CRDC, 8 incident(s) of physical attacks or fights with a weapon were reported for [SCHOOL NAME]. Could you tell me how you arrived at this answer?

1. [Suggested probe] Tell me more about why you answered 8.

2. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about that?

18. Did your process for reporting counts of sexual assault, robbery with or without a weapon, or threat of physical attack or fight with a weapon differ from the process that you took to report physical attack or fight with a weapon?

1. If yes: Could you describe how the process differed in reporting these different types of incidents?

-----------------------

Incident Type	CRDC Count
Physical attack or fight without a weapon	68
Threat of physical attack without a weapon	92
Possession of a firearm or explosive device	2

18. Based on your district’s response to the 2017–18 CRDC, 68 incident(s) of threat of physical attack without a weapon were reported for [SCHOOL NAME]. Could you tell me how you arrived at this answer?

1. [Suggested probe] Tell me more about why you answered 68.

2. [Suggested probe] Can you tell me more about that?

18. Did your process for reporting counts of physical attack or fight without a weapon or possession of a firearm or explosive device differ from the process that you took to report threat of physical attack without a weapon?

1. If yes: Could you describe how the process differed in reporting these different types of incidents?

SSOCS Comparison

[FORMATTING NOTE: This incident type discussed in this section will not be consistent across schools. Instead it will be dependent upon the incident type that is chosen for that school.]

[SCHOOL NAME] also reported counts of crime incidents on SSOCS for the same 2017–18 school year. In reviewing their response for the number of incidents of rape or attempted rape, we found that the school reported a higher/lower/the same number of incidents on SSOCS than the district reported on CRDC.

24. IF LOWER/HIGHER: What are some reasons you can think of for why the SSOCS count may differ from what was reported for CRDC?

IF EQUAL: What are some reasons you can think of for why the SSOCS count may be the same as that reported for CRDC?

24. Do you know how the district acquires counts of incidents from [SCHOOL NAME]?

    1. [Suggested probe] Could you tell me more about that process?

CRDC Incident Count Sheet

The following revision was made on p. 27:

CRDC Incident Count Sheet – NO SCHOOL INFORMATION

The following revision was made on p. 27:

SSOCS Other Federal Survey Comparison

Schools in your district may also reported counts of crime incidents on other federal surveysSSOCS for the same 2017–18 school year. In some instances, incident counts reported by schools on SSOCS may be higher or lower thanmay vary from those the district reported on the CRDC.

24. What are some reasons you can think of for why these counts may differ from what was reported for on the CRDC?

If respondent has already answered the following questions during the process of answering previous questions, skip ahead.

1 In all phases of the study, in cases when an email or a phone call follow a prior interaction with the addressee, short personalized statements may be interwoven into the email and/or phone script, adjusted to the tone and subjects of prior communications with the respondents.

2 NCES is authorized to conduct the study on school crime and safety datathe [study (abr)] by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9543), and this study has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB# 1850-0803 v.250XXX). 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).

3 NCES is authorized to conduct the [study on school crime and safety data (abr)] by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA 2002, 20 U.S.C. §9543), and this study has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB# 1850-0803 v.250XXX). 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).