DOCUMENT RESUME ED 404 370 TM 026 456 AUTHOR Mullens, John E.; Kasprzyk, Daniel TITLE The Schools and Staffing Survey. Recommendations for the Future. Conference Proceedings. INSTITUTION National Center for Education Statistics (ED), Washington, DC.; Policy Studies Associates, Inc., Washington, DC. REPORT NO ISBN-0-16-048961-X; NCES-97-596 PUB DATE Dec 96 NOTE 248p. AVAILABLE FROM U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Databases; Data Collection; Educational Change; Educational Finance; *Educational Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; *Futures (of Society); *National Surveys; Private Schools; Public Schools; *Research Utilization; Teacher Characteristics; *Teacher Supply and Demand IDENTIFIERS *Schools and Staffing Survey (NCES) ABSTRACT The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) was designed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide recurrent information about public and private elementary and secondary schools, teachers, and administrators. The NCES commissioned these papers to examine the SASS and to make recommendations about its future. The following papers, presented at 1996 NCES seminars, are included:(1) "Should SASS Measure Instructional Processes and Teacher Effectiveness?" (Susan Stodolsky);(2) "Toward an Organizational Database on America's Schools: A Proposal for the Future of SASS, with Comments on School Reform, Governance, and Finance" (David P. Baker);(3) "Technology for K-12 Education: Asking the Right Questions" (Kathleen Fulton); (4) "Linking Student Data to SASS: Why, When, How" (Phillip Kaufman); (5) "Making Data Relevant for Policy Discussions: Recommendations for Redesigning the School Administrator Questionnaire for the 1998-99 SASS" (Henry Zheng); (6) "Measures of Inservice Professional Development: Suggested Items for the 1998-99 Schools and Staffing Survey" (Dorothy M. Gilford);(7) "District-Level Data in the Schools and Staffing Survey" (J. Michael Ross);(8) "Use of Education Information Systems with the Schools and Staffing Survey: How Can SASS Be Linked to Schools?" (Rolf K. Blank);(9) "Collecting Representative Data on School Resources: Understanding the Linkage between Adequacy, Equity, and Opportunity To Learn through SASS" (Jay G. Chambers); (10) "The Schools and Staffing Survey for 1998-99: Design Recommendations To Inform Broad Education Policy" (Erling E. Boe);(11) "1998-99 Schools and Staffing Survey: Issues Related to Survey Depth" (Susan P. Choy); and (12) "Reflections on the Papers Prepared for the Schools and Staffing Survey Seminar Series" (John Howard Burkett). Each paper contains references. (SLD) TM A I A I A I I 1 I EPARTMENT OF EDUCATION U S Improvement Officef Educational Research and EDU ATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has beenreproduced as received from the person ororganization originating it CI Minor changes have beenmade to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated inthis document do not necessarilyrepresent official OERI position or policy ' - O ST COPY AVAILABLE 2 NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS Conference Proceedings December 1996 The Schools and Staffing Survey Recommendations for the Future John E. Mullens Policy Studies Associates, Inc. Daniel Kasprzyk National Center for Education Statistics U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement NCES 97-596 U.S. Department of Education Richard W. Riley Secretary Office of Educational Research and Improvement Sharon P. Robinson Assistant Secretary National Center for Education Statistics Pascal D. Forgione, Jr. Commissioner The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems; and review and report on education activities in foreign countries. NCES activities are designed to address high priority education data needs; provide consistent, reliable, complete, and accurate indicators of education status and trends; and report timely, useful, and high quality data to the U.S. Department of Education, the Congress, the states, other education policymakers, practitioners, data users, and the general public. We strive to make our products available in a .variety of formats and in language that is appropriate to a variety of audiences. You, as our customer, are the best judge of our success in communicating information effectively. If you have any comments or suggestions about this or any other NCES product or report, we would like to hear from you. Please direct your comments to: National Center for Education Statistics Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education 555 New Jersey Avenue NW Washington, DC 20208-5574 December 1996 The NCES World Wide Web Home Page is http://www.ed.gov/NCES/ Suggested Citation U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. The Schools and Staffing Survey: Recommendations for the Future, NCES 97-596, by John E. Mullens and Dan Kasprzyk. Project officer, Mary Rollefson. Washington, DC: 1996. Contact: Mary Rollefson (202) 219-1336 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328 ISBN 0-16-048961-X PREFACE The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) was first administered in 1987-88 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide recurrent information on public and private elementary and secondary schools, teachers, and administrators, especially data on conditions affecting supply and demand for teachers and the characteristics of the teacher force. By linking survey data from classroom teachers and individual school sites to information from local education agencies (LEAs), the survey provides recurrent information on public and private elementary and secondary schools, teachers, and administrators to inform state and federal decisions, and the educational research community. The data now collected fall into four general categories: Critical components of teacher supply, demand, and attrition, with attention to critical shortage areas and the policies and practices at all levels enacted to meet the demand in those areas The professional characteristics, preparation, and experience of teachers and administrators, plus their perceptions of school conditions, professional responsibilities, decision making, and compensation policies The Conditions and characteristics of the school as a work place and a learning place, including characteristics of the student body, curriculum, special programs, and organizational structure The implementation of school programs and policies such as English as a second language, bilingual education, diagnostic and prescriptive services, and programs for the gifted and talented The current survey design and process provide for a network of interlocking datasets from different organizational elements at the classroom, school, and district levels. The target population includes all elementary and secondary schools, teachers, and principals in the U.S. The process and instruments are as follows: 1. The School Administrator Survey and the School Survey are administered to a sample of 9,784 public and 3,360 private schools 2. The Teacher Demand and Shortage Survey is administered to each sampled private school (embedded in the school questionnaire) and to the 5,500 LEAs of the sampled public schools 3. The Teacher Survey is administered to a random sample of 56,736 public and 11,548 private school teachers in the sampled schools 5 This process results in a comprehensive, linkeddatabase that provides national estimates for public and private schools, districts, principals, and teachers;state-level estimates for public data and affiliation-specific estimates for private data. SASS was administered at three-year intervals from 1987-88through 1993-94, with a five year interval before its next administration in 1998-99. NCES is examining thedirection, purposes, and uses for SASS in the twenty-first century. This includesscrutinizing the current uses of its data, its relationships with other federally sponsored datacollection projects, and future nationalsurvey needs during a period of evolving policy priorities. As part of this process, NCES commissioned twelvepapers to examine SASS and make recommendations about improving the scope and utility of thesurveys. Authors were selected from the ranks of experts working to understand and describe the nation'sschools, and policymakers interested in instructional practice and professional development.They represent academia, the research community, and specialists in technology, teacher education,and state and local data collection. Authors were asked to examine the current SASS, address theeffects of specific issues on future iterations of SASS, and make recommendations about improving,focusing, or expanding the scope and utility of the surveys. The papers were presented during seminars at NCES in theearly part of 1996. The first paper, by Susan S. Stodolsky,