Change Sheet Memo

Memorandum United States Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for Education Statistics

DATE: October 15, 2021

TO: Robert Sivinski, OMB

THROUGH: Carrie Clarady, NCES

FROM: Julia Merlin, NCES

SUBJECT: 2021-22 TFS/PFS Fall 2021 School Recruitment Material Change Request (OMB# 1850-0617 v.7)

The Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS) is a follow-up survey of public and private elementary and secondary school teachers who participated in the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) during the previous school year. The purpose of the survey is to determine how many teachers remained at the same school, moved to another school, or left the profession. Historically, the TFS has also been conducted the school year following the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the predecessor survey to the NTPS. Redesigned from the SASS with a focus on flexibility, timeliness, and integration with other ED data, the NTPS system allows for school, principal, and teacher characteristics to be analyzed in relation to one another. The major objectives of the TFS are to measure the attrition rate for teachers; examine the characteristics of teachers who stayed in the teaching profession and those who changed professions or retired; obtain activity or occupational data for those who left the position of a K-12 teacher; obtain reasons for moving to a new school or leaving the K-12 teaching profession; and collect data on job satisfaction.

The TFS/PFS main study was approved in July 2021 (OMB# 1850-0617 v.4). Two change requests to update teacher recruitment materials (OMB# 1850-0617 v.5) and add special district contact materials (OMB# 1850-0617 v.6) were approved in August 2021. The 2020-21 NTPS (OMB# 1850-0598 v.28-30) finished data collection in late July 2021, but while in the field, NCES added additional e-mails to the NTPS data collection plan (OMB# 1850-0598 v.36-37, 39) due to recruitment concerns given that staff may not be physically present at their schools on a regular basis due to disruptions in building operations associated with the global coronavirus pandemic. The TFS-1, the initial TFS data collection operation, has previously been conducted via paper and telephone follow operations and has historically had a very high response rate. Given uncharacteristically low response rates to the TFS-1 at this time, NCES thinks that we may be seeing a repeat of the response difficulties experienced in the NTPS data collection and is concerned that staff may not be physically present at their schools to answer phone calls. To address this, NCES is proposing the addition of two emails, one for the TFS and one for the PFS, in order to better reach school staff.

All changes in the attached materials are shown in full in the pages to follow. This requested change does not affect the approved total cost to the federal government for conducting this study nor the estimated respondent burden.

Appendix A

TFS-1 School Reminder Email (page 30)

School Reminder Email (TFS-1)

TFS-13E

Subject: Help the U.S Department of Education and U.S. Census Bureau Understand Teacher Attrition

Body:

Dear <PRINCIPAL NAME>,

Thank you for your participation in last year’s National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS). Your school’s cooperation helped to make this important survey a success!

As an NTPS follow-up study this school year, the U.S. Census Bureau is conducting the Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics, the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Education, in order to obtain measures of teacher attrition and retention. We need your help to better understand staffing at your school.

We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed tremendous strain on schools, staff, and the education system in general. Many schools continue to struggle with maintaining appropriate staffing levels due to high rates of turnover. As such, the data collected by the TFS are more important than ever: the TFS will help us analyze changes in the teacher labor force over the past year and can increase the understanding of the effects of many factors – including the COVID-19 pandemic – on teachers’ decisions to remain in or leave the teacher profession.

At this time, we are asking you to assist with this important effort by providing the current occupational status of each teacher who was selected for last year’s NTPS. This will only take a few minutes of your time. You can assist us in ONE of two ways:

• You can provide the teacher status information to a Census Bureau representative directly by calling 1-888-595-1338. Census Bureau staff will be available between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), Monday through Friday.

• You can complete one of the Teacher Status Forms that were mailed to your school in late September and early October and mail it back using the postage-paid return envelope that was included with your form.

Thank you, in advance, for your assistance with this important survey.

Sincerely,

Teacher Follow-up Survey Team

U.S. Census Bureau, on behalf of the

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

1-888-595-1338 | [email protected] | http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps

PFS Reminder School Email (page 70)

Reminder School Email

PFS-32E

Subject: Help the U.S Department of Education and U.S. Census Bureau Understand Principal Attrition

Body:

Dear <PRINCIPAL NAME>,

Thank you for your participation in last year’s National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS). Your school’s cooperation helped to make this important survey a success!

As an NTPS follow-up study this school year, the U.S. Census Bureau is conducting the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS) on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics, the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Education, in order to obtain measures of principal attrition and retention. We need your help to better understand principal career paths.

We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed tremendous strain on schools, staff, and the education system in general. Many schools continue to struggle with maintaining appropriate staffing levels due to high rates of turnover. As such, the data collected by the PFS are more important than ever: the PFS will help us analyze changes in the principal labor force over the past year and can increase the understanding of the effects of many factors – including the COVID-19 pandemic – on principals’ decisions to remain in or leave the education profession.

At this time, we are asking you to assist with this important effort by providing information about the principal who was at this school during the 2020-21 school year. This will only take a few minutes of your time. You can assist us in ONE of two ways:

• You can provide the requested information to a Census Bureau representative directly by calling 1-866-325-4957. Census Bureau staff will be available between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), Monday through Friday.

• You can complete one of the Principal Status Forms that were mailed to your school and mail it back using the postage-paid return envelope that was included with your form.

Thank you, in advance, for your assistance with this important survey.

Sincerely,

Teacher Follow-up Survey Team

U.S. Census Bureau, on behalf of the

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

1-888-595-1338 | [email protected] | http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps

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