Supporting Statement B: Tracked Changes

School Pulse Panel
OMB# 1850-0969 v.1618

Supporting Statement Part B

National Center for Education Statistics
Institute of Education Sciences
U.S. Department of Education

February 2024
revised May 2024
revised August 2024
revised November 2024

Contents
Section B. Methodology

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B1. RESPONDENT UNIVERSE AND SAMPLE DESIGN AND ESTIMATION .............................................. 1 
B2. PROCEDURES FOR THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION .............................................................. 4 
B3. METHODS TO MAXIMIZE RESPONSE RATES ............................................................................... 7 
B4. TESTS OF PROCEDURES .............................................................................................................. 7 
B5. INDIVIDUALS RESPONSIBLE FOR STUDY DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE ....................................... 7 

Section B. Methodology
The U.S. Census Bureau will collect the School Pulse Panel (SPP) data on behalf of the National Center for
Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of
Education. Data collection will be a self-administered, online survey. The survey is estimated to require, on
average, 30 minutes of school staff time each month. The sampled school will be offered a reimbursement of
$200 each month that they complete a survey over the course of 11 months between August 2024 and June
2025. The reimbursement will be paid out monthly in the form of a debit card. If a school district does not
permit its schools to receive any form of incentive, the reimbursement will be sent to a point of contact in the
district or the reimbursement will be withheld. Principals, or the school staff most knowledgeable about their
school environment and experiences within the school, can complete the survey. No classroom time is
involved in the completion of this survey.
The resulting data will provide aggregate estimates for public schools across the nation. The goal will be to
have responses from at least 1,200 schools each month in order to report out nationally representative
estimates. To achieve this, a stratified sample design will be used to select approximately 4,000 U.S. public
schools. In addition, a reserve sample of 4,000 replacement schools will be selected to boost the number of
responses if a notable number of schools from the initial sample do not respond. The sample is designed to
provide nationally representative estimates of public primary, middle, and high schools, taking into account
the type of locale (urbanicity) and racial/ethnic student enrollment.
B1. Respondent Universe and Sample Design and Estimation
The sampling frame for the School Pulse Panel is derived from the National Teacher and Principal Survey
(NTPS) 2023-24 frame, which itself was largely derived from the 2021-22 Common Core of Data (CCD),
the file of public schools supplied annually by state educational agencies to NCES. The sample frame used
for the 2024-25 SPP was updated with the 2022-23 CCD to account for school openings and closures
between survey administrations. Only public schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia will be
included in the School Pulse Panel sampling frame. A universe collection (115 public schools) from the
Outlying Areas (Guam, Northern Marianas, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa) will be administered as
well. Certain types of schools are excluded, including closed schools, target services, adult correctional
facilities, private schools, and schools with a highest grade of kindergarten or lower. Regular public schools,
charter schools, alternative schools, special education schools, vocational schools, ungraded schools, virtual
schools, and schools that have partial or total magnet programs are included in the frame. For sample
allocation purposes, strata are defined by instructional level, and the sample is sorted to achieve a unique sort
by geographic region (Census region), percent minority enrollment, type of locale (urbanicity), school
district, size of school (student enrollment), charter status, and unique school identifier.
Tables 1-3 show the estimated expected distribution of the public-school sampling universe for the School
Pulse Panel by school level and region (Table 1), school level and urbanicity (Table 2), and by school level,
percent minority enrollment (Table 3), and school level and size (enrollment [Table 4]), respectively. At the
time of submission, the update to the 2024-25 SPP frame using the 2022-23 CCD has started but has not
been completed.
Table 1. Respondent universe for the SPP sample, by school level and region, based on the estimated
2024-25 School Pulse Panel Frame
Region
Northeast
Midwest

Elementary
Middle/Combined/Other High/Grade 9-11 Total
8,282
2,956
3,313
14,551
12,343
4,544
6,045
22,932
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South
West
Total

18,136
13,001
51,762

7,555
4,859
19,914

7,755
5,290
22,403

33,446
23,150
94,079

Table 2. Respondent universe for the SPP sample, by school level and urbanicity, based on the
estimated 2024-25 School Pulse Panel Frame
Urbanicity
City
Suburb
Town
Rural
Total

Elementary
Middle/Combined/Other High/Grade 9-11 Total
15,468
5,109
5,955
26,532
17,616
6,438
5,975
30,029
5,677
2,979
3,530
12,186
13,001
5,388
6,943
25,332
51,762
19,914
22,403
94,079

Table 3. Respondent universe for the SPP school sample, by school level and percent minority
enrollment, based on the estimated 2024-25 School Pulse Panel Frame
Percent Minority Elementary
Middle/Combined/Other High/Grade 9-11 Total
0 to less than 25
14,113
5,422
6,566
26,101
25 to less than 50
11,095
4,584
4,226
19,905
50 to less than 75
9,280
3,825
3,663
16,768
75+
17,274
6,083
7,948
31,305
Total
51,762
19,914
22,403
94,079
Table 4. Respondent universe for the SPP school sample, by school level and size (enrollment), based
on the estimated 2024-25 School Pulse Panel Frame
School Size
Less than 300
students
300-499 students
500-999 students
1,000+ students
Total

Elementary
Middle/Combined/Other High/Grade 9-11 Total
13,629
5,711
8,446
27,786
20,568
16,688
877
51,762

4,141
7,883
2,179
19,914

3,560
4,482
5,915
22,403

28,269
29,053
8,971
94,079

Sample Selection and Response Rates
A stratified sample design will be used to select approximately 4,000 U.S. public schools. The sample will be
designed to provide cross-sectional national estimates of primary, middle/combined, and high schools, taking
into account the type of locale (urbanicity), percent minority enrollment, school size (student enrollment),
and geographic region (Census region). Note that combined schools will be grouped with middle schools for
the purposes of measurement and estimation.
There are two stages of sample selection. A base sample of 4,000 schools will be drawn as an initial stage as
well as another reserve sample (second stage) of 4,000 schools with similar characteristics to our base
sample. In case we do not get the necessary number of schools to participate out of the base sample, we plan
to reach out to the reserve sample schools to complete the panel.

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Roughly 115 Outlying Areas (OA) schools will be a part of the SPP data collection. It is planned for the
collection of these schools to be a universe collection, so they are separated from the sample of stateside
schools. All study operations will be identical for the collection from these schools, except that OA schools
will not receive the initial letter that is sent to schools each month because, based on proximity to the mail
facility, they are not delivered in a timely fashion.
Recruitment for the panel study began in February 2024, where districts that require applications and
approval for their schools’ participation in the study were contacted. For those schools and districts that do
not have this requirement, recruitment will begin in July of 2024. Learning from the 2023-24 SPP collection
and response patterns, the goal for the 2024-25 collection will be to obtain commitments from 1,200 schools
to participate in the study throughout the duration of the 11 monthly collections (roughly 30 percent response
rates each month).
Sample Design for the School Pulse Panel
The main objective of the School Pulse Panel sampling design is to obtain nationally representative estimates
that can be disaggregated by various school characteristics. For sample allocation and sample selection
purposes, strata were defined by instructional level. In addition, geographic region (Census region), percent
minority enrollment, type of locale (urbanicity), school district, size of school (student enrollment), charter
status, and unique school identifier were used as implicit stratification variables by sorting schools by these
variables within each stratum before sample selection. The explicit stratification and the first three implicit
stratification variables (region, percent minority enrollment, and locale) are priorities for evaluation for this
panel. Schools are proportionally allocated to the different sampling strata according to the overall U.S.
public school population.
Calculation of Weights
For data representative of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (stateside), wWeights will be attached to
each surveyed school so that the weighted data will represent the population (provide unbiased estimators).
The final weight for completed cases will be composed of a sampling base weight (the reciprocal of the
probability of selection) and adjustments for nonresponse and coverage. Nonresponse weighting adjustment
cells for the SPP data will be defined by the three grade-level categories (which are the sampling strata).
(stratum). Coverage adjustments will be made along using the following school characteristics as
dimensions: Census region, percent minority enrollment, locale, and grade-level categories. The final,
adjusted weights will be raked calibrated to these dimensions (using iterative proportional fitting, also called
raking) so that the sum of the weights in each dimension’s cells exactly matches the number of schools
within these cells derived from the School Pulse frame.
Data from the Outlying Areas will be weighted separately from the main SPP sample. A simplified
weighting procedure that only includes a nonresponse adjustment within the three grade-level categories will
be used.
A set of 50 replicate groups will be created by sorting the sample cases in their order of selection, then
systematically dropping out 1/50 of the sample cases. For the first replicate group, records 1, 51, 101, 151,
… are dropped. For the second replicate group, records 2, 52, 102, 152, … are dropped, etc. A factor of
50/49 is then applied to the remaining sample cases, and the full weighting procedure is repeated to create a
set of 50 jackknife replicate weights to be used for variance estimation.
Data from the Outlying Areas (Guam, Northern Marianas, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa), will be
weighted separately from the main SPP samplestateside data. A simplified weighting procedure that only
includes a nonresponse adjustment within the three grade-level categories will be used..

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Methods for Variance Estimation
For the stateside data, sStandard errors of the estimates will be estimated using jackknife replication (JK1). A
set of 50 replicate groups will be created by sorting the sample cases in their order of selection, then
systematically dropping out 1/50 of the sample cases. For the first replicate group, records 1, 51, 101, 151,
… are dropped. For the second replicate group, records 2, 52, 102, 152, … are dropped, etc. A factor of
50/49 is then applied to the remaining sample cases, and the full weighting procedure is repeated to create a
set of 50 jackknife replicate weights to be used for variance estimation. The jackknife variance estimator is
designed to be a consistent variance estimator (approximately unbiased).
For the outlying area data, standard errors of the estimates will be estimated using the Taylor series
linearization method. The Taylor series linearization method is used to calculate an approximately unbiased
variance estimator of a complex, non-linear statistic by approximating it with an approximating linear
function using a Taylor series expansion. As there is no sampling for the outlying area data, the only source
of variability is nonresponse (we assume nonresponse is a type of pseudo stratified sampling with the
nonresponse cells as pseudo-strata).
Replicate codes that indicate the replicate group to which each sample unit belongs will be developed, as will
the weights for all replicates that were formed in order to calculate variances.
B2. Procedures for the Collection of Information
B.2.1 Preliminary Field Activities
B.2.1.1
Special Contact District Operation
Special contact districts require that a research application be submitted to and reviewed by the district
before they will allow schools under their jurisdiction to participate in a study. Districts are identified as
“special contact districts” prior to data collection because they were flagged as such during previous cycles
of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), NTPS, the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), or the
2023-2024 SPP. Special contact districts are also identified during data collection when districts indicate that
they will not complete the survey until a research application is submitted, reviewed, and approved.
Once a district is identified as a special contact district, basic information about the district is obtained from
the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD). The basic information includes the NCES LEA ID number, district
name, city, and state. The next step is to search the district’s website for a point of contact and any
information available about the district’s requirements for conducting external research. Some districts
identified as being a special contact district from the previous cycle may be incorrect and staff will verify
whether a given district has requirements for conducting external research before proceeding.
The following are examples of the type of information that will be gathered from each district’s website in
order to prepare a research application for submission to this district:
 Name and contact information for the district office or department that reviews applications to
conduct external research, and the name and contact information of the person in charge of that
office;
 Information about review schedules and submission deadlines;
 Whether application fees are required, and if so, how much;
 Whether a district sponsor is required;
 Whether an online application is required, and if so, the link to the application, if possible;
 Information about research topics and/or an agenda on which the district is focusing;
 The web link to the main research department or office website; and
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Research guidelines, instructions, application forms, District Action Plans, Strategic Plan or Goals, if
any.

Recruitment staff will contact districts by phone and email to obtain key information not listed on the
district’s website, (e.g., requirements for the research application, research application submission deadlines,
etc.). OMB approval to contact these districts was obtained in January 2024 (OMB#1850-0969 v.12)
SPP staff developed a generic research application that covers the information typically requested in district
research applications. Staff will customize the generic research application to each district’s specific
requirements that need to be addressed or included in the research application (e.g., how the study addresses
key district goals, or inclusion of a district study sponsor), or submit the generic application with minimal
changes to districts that do not have specific application requirements.
Using the information obtained from the district website or phone or email exchanges, a district research
request packet will be prepared. Each research application will include the following documents, where
applicable:
 District research application cover letter;
 Research application (district-specific or generic, as required by the district);
 Study summary;
 FAQ document;
 Special contact district approval form;
 Participant informed consent form (if required by the district);
 SPP Project Director’s resume;
 Copy of questionnaires; and
 Application fee (if required by the district).
Where required or requested, applications will include draft 2024-25 SPP questionnaires. The SPP content
that most closely matches the 2024-25 SPP that has been fielded in 2023 may be provided as an exemplar of
questionnaires to be administered in school year 2024-25. Additionally, SPP staff will recommend district
staff to reference this package to review draft items provided in the item bank in Attachment B. Other
information about the study may be required by the district and will be included with the application or
provided upon request.
Approximately one week after the application is submitted to the district (either electronically or in hard
copy, as required by the district), SPP district recruitment staff will contact the district’s research office to
confirm receipt of the package and to ask when the district expects to review the research application and
when a decision will be made. If additional information is requested by the district (e.g., the list of sampled
schools), recruitment staff will follow up on such requests and will be available to answer any questions the
district may have throughout the data collection period.
Some districts charge a fee (~$50-200) to process research application requests, which will be paid as
necessary. Special district operations began by contacting up to 100 “certainty” special contact districts for
which, due to their size, it was certain that at least one school from their jurisdiction would be randomly
sampled. Other special contact districts were contacted after the sample was drawn in spring of 2024.
B.2.1.2
School and District Precontact notification
The school and district precontact notification includes mailing a two-sided, full-color letter to sampled
schools to introduce the survey, to promote survey recognition, and to verify the school’s mailing address.

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B2.2 Screener Surveys
A school screener survey will be sent via mail and email to principals to obtain point of contact information
for the delivery of the monthly data collections. This information will collect principal information,
designated point of contact information, and reimbursement mailing address information.
B2.3 Monthly Data Collections
The School Pulse Panel data collection will begin in August of 2024. The U.S. Census Bureau, acting as a
contractor for NCES, is responsible for the data collection operation. For each month, each sampled school
will be sent a letter and an email notifying them of the survey, which will include information necessary to
complete the online questionnaire. Respondents will have a two-week window to respond to the survey.
Reminder emails will be sent during the data collection window. Schools in the Outlying Areas will not
receive the initial letter.
The SPP estimates will be released on the SPP dashboard (https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/spp/)
within 6-8 weeks after the end of each monthly data collection. Due to the expedited development of this
study and release of data, NCES considers the SPP data collections as experimental. Experimental data
products are innovative statistical tools created using new data sources or methodologies. Experimental data
may not meet all of NCES’s quality standards but are of sufficient benefit to data users in the absence of
other relevant products to justify release. NCES clearly identifies experimental data products upon their
release. A nonresponse bias analysis will be conducted at the conclusion of the 2023-24 collection to
determine if substantial bias is found as a major concern.
Drawing the Sample
The sample of schools was drawn in spring of 2024. Many districts (known as “special contact districts”)
require research applications to be submitted and reviewed for approval before contact can be made with
schools within their districts. Special contact district outreach was cleared in January 2024 (OMB# 18500969 v.12) and recruitment began in February 2024.
School Communication
The School Pulse Panel will be conducted via a self-administered web-based survey instrument. A clerical
operation prior to data collection will be conducted to obtain e-mail addresses for all the sampled school
principals, and these e-mail addresses are used to contact the school principals for the screener and
throughout the monthly data collections. For each month, an initial letter and initial email are sent requesting
their participation in the study and to inform schools about reimbursements of $200 a month offered to
schools over the course of the school year for their continued participation in the study. Reminder e-mails
are sent throughout the two-week data collection window.
An example of the types of letters and e-mails that will be sent to school principals throughout the SPP data
collection are included in Appendix A.
Protocol for Follow-up Calls
During the monthly data collections, Census Bureau staff will initiate phone calls with nonrespondents,
reminding them to complete their questionnaire.
Refusal Conversion for Schools That Will Not Participate
If a school expresses strong concerns about participating at any time during data collection, these concerns
will be directed to the Census Project Director (and possibly to NCES) for formal assurance. All materials
will include the project’s toll-free number. In addition, initial emails will include information about why the
participation of each sampled school is important and how respondent information will be protected.

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B3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates
NCES is committed to obtaining a high response rate in a short data collection window for the School Pulse
Panel survey that allows for reporting national-level estimates on a monthly basis. In general, a key to
achieving this is to track the response status of each sampled school, with telephone follow-up, as well as
follow-up by e-mail, of those schools that do not respond promptly. To help track response status, survey
responses will be monitored through an automated receipt control system. Telephone interviews will be
conducted only by Census Bureau interviewers who have received training in general telephone interview
techniques as well as specific training for SPP.
B4. Tests of Procedures
As part of the development of the SPP instruments, the monthly instruments will regularly undergo cognitive
testing and expert review. New items proposed in this package will go through cognitive testing with 20-30
school personnel. This testing will occur in late spring and early summer of 2024. A generic package wase
submitted for review and approval in April 2024, prior to recruitment for testing with 20 – 30 school
personnel. For any new items that are developed that are not included in the generic package, quarterly
monthly instruments with the new items will be posted for 30-day comment and may simultaneously
undergo cognitive testing with 8-9 school personnel. Change requests reflecting modifications to items based
on feedback from cognitive testing will be submitted and approved prior to each monthly collection.
B5. Individuals Responsible for Study Design and Performance
Several key staff responsible for the study design and performance of the School Pulse Panel. They are:
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Erin Tanenbaum, National Center for Education Statistics
Ryan Iaconelli, National Center for Education Statistics
Kerri Vasold, National Center for Education Statistics
Chris Chapman, National Center for Education Statistics
Andrew Zukerberg, National Center for Education Statistics
Cassandra Logan, U.S. Census Bureau
Elke McLaren, U.S. Census Bureau
Aimee Donnelly, U.S. Census Bureau
Alfred Meier, U.S. Census Bureau
Mandi Martinez, U.S. Census Bureau
Kathleen Kephart, U.S. Census Bureau
Jonathan Katz, U.S. Census Bureau
Kristin Flanagan, Westat
Jim Green, Westat
Lou Rizzo, Westat
Robert Finnegan, ETS
Laura Jerry, ETS

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