FRSS Arts Educ OMB Section A

Request for OMB Clearance

Fast Response Survey System (FRSS)

Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Section A. Justification

A.1. Importance of the Information

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education proposes to employ the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) to conduct a set of seven surveys on arts education in public elementary and secondary schools during 2009-10. The surveys were requested by Congress (Senate Report 110-107/House Bill report H16251), which specified that the surveys be conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) and NCES, using FRSS. FRSS was used to conduct previous national surveys on arts education in 1999-2000 and 1994. Although interest in arts education among policymakers, educators, and families has not abated during this decade, no national-level data have been gathered on this topic since the 1999-2000 FRSS surveys. To fill this information void, Congress requested the new FRSS arts education surveys, and specified that the new FRSS surveys were to borrow from and build on these prior studies.

The seven new FRSS surveys will be administered during the 2009–10 school year and will address topics in K–12 arts education at the elementary and secondary school- and teacher-levels. Specifically, a survey will be conducted for each of the following populations:

• Elementary school principals;

• Secondary school principals;

• Elementary general classroom teachers;

• Elementary visual arts specialists;

• Elementary music specialists;

• Secondary visual arts specialists; and

• Secondary music specialists.

An important goal for the new surveys is to allow for an examination of change in arts education from a decade ago. In order to do so, the 2009–10 elementary and secondary school surveys and the elementary teacher surveys address many of the same topics and retain many of the same items from their respective 1999–2000 surveys. At the school level, this includes topics and questions on the availability and characteristics of instructional programs in visual arts, music, dance, and drama/theatre; staffing; and funding sources. At the teacher level, this includes topics and questions on teachers’ educational backgrounds (e.g., degrees, certification, years of experience), participation in professional development activities, teaching load, teaching practices, collaboration and integration of the arts into other areas of the curriculum, and involvement in arts-related activities outside of school.

New for the 2009-10 data collection are two teacher surveys at the secondary school level. These surveys will provide baseline data for secondary school music and visual arts specialists and will report on topics similar to the elementary music and visual arts specialist surveys. While most questions on the secondary teacher surveys were modified from a comparable item on the elementary music and visual arts specialist surveys, a few new items were developed specifically for teachers at the secondary level. This includes items on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes, and on music and visual arts classes taught outside regular school hours.

The FRSS survey is authorized under Section 153 (a) of the Education Science Reform Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-279), which states that the purpose of NCES is “to collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistical data related to education in the United States and in other nations.”

Overview of Data Collection. Westat has been contracted by NCES to conduct the FRSS. Westat is responsible for the questionnaire development; sample design and selection; data collection by mail and web; telephone follow-up; editing, coding, keying, and verification of the data; and production of tabulations and the report detailing the results of the survey.

A nationally representative sample of 1,800 public elementary schools and 1,600 public secondary schools will be selected to participate in the surveys. The sample will be selected from the 2006-07 NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) Public School Universe file. Of the 1,800 elementary schools, 1,200 will be asked to complete the elementary school survey, and to provide a list of their music and visual arts teachers and their teachers in self-contained classrooms. The remaining 600 elementary schools will be asked only to provide a list of their music and visual arts teachers. Of the 1,600 secondary schools, 1,200 will be asked to complete the secondary school survey, and to provide a list of their music and visual arts teachers. The remaining 400 secondary schools will be asked only to provide a list of their music and visual arts teachers. This approach is being used because the 1999-2000 FRSS arts surveys found that visual arts teachers were available in 67 percent of public elementary schools, and music teachers were available in 88 percent of public elementary schools. While no teacher surveys were conducted at the secondary level in 1999-2000, visual arts instruction was offered in 93 percent of public secondary schools, and music instruction was offered in 90 percent of public secondary schools. In addition, information received during the pretests of the 2009-10 FRSS arts surveys indicates that availability of arts specialists may be somewhat lower in 2009-10 than previously. Since arts specialists are not available in all public elementary and secondary schools, it is necessary to increase the number of schools from which visual arts and music teachers can be selected, particularly at the elementary level, beyond the number of schools needed for the school-level questionnaires and the survey of elementary school classroom teachers.

Prior to contacting schools or teachers, a courtesy information packet consisting of a cover letter, the list collection forms, and copy of the questionnaire will be mailed to the superintendent of each district with schools selected for participation. The packet also will include a list of the schools within the districts that are in the sample. Any special requirements that districts have for approval of surveys will be met before schools in those districts are contacted.

The school survey will be a self-administered survey addressed to the school principal. Respondents will have the option of completing the survey on a traditional paper and pencil questionnaire or a web version of the questionnaire that will be accessed through the Internet. The questionnaires (see Appendix A) are limited to three pages of information readily available to respondents and can be completed by most principals in 30 minutes. These procedures are typical for FRSS surveys and result in minimal burden on respondents. Questionnaires will be mailed to principals in September 2009. The cover letter (see Appendix B) will include information about the option to complete a web version of the survey on the Internet.

The first stage of data collection for the teacher surveys will be to collect lists of eligible teachers from the sampled schools. These lists will provide the sampling frame to select teachers. In September 2009, the principal of each sampled school will be asked to have a list of eligible teachers prepared and sent to Westat by mail or fax, according to written instructions. Appendix C contains two types of documents that will be used for teacher list collection: (1) instructions for preparing the list; and (2) a form to be returned with the list of teachers. There are two versions of each of these documents, one version to be used when a list of classroom teachers is being requested, and another version to be used when only a list of arts specialists is being requested. For confidentiality reasons, this form does not include the name of the survey and will contain a random ID number (Westat ID) that only Westat staff can use to identify the school. To minimize the burden on schools, Westat will coordinate the collection of teacher sampling lists with the collection of the school surveys. Collection and followup activities for the teacher lists and school surveys will be handled by the same Westat staff to minimize the number of contacts made to principals and other school staff. Telephone followup for nonresponse for the teacher lists and school surveys will begin about 3 weeks after these materials are mailed in September.

The second stage of data collection for the teacher surveys will be to collect a self-administered survey from the sampled teachers. Respondents will have the option of completing the survey on a traditional paper and pencil questionnaire or on a web version of the questionnaire that will be accessed through the Internet. The questionnaires (see Appendix A) are limited to three pages of information readily available to respondents and can be completed by most teachers in 30 minutes. These procedures are typical for FRSS surveys and result in minimal burden on respondents. Questionnaires will be mailed to teachers starting in January 2010. The cover letter (see Appendix B) will include information about the option to complete a web version of the survey on the Internet. Telephone followup for nonresponse will begin about 3 weeks after the questionnaires have been mailed to the teachers. Experienced telephone interviewers will be trained to conduct the nonresponse followup and will be monitored by Westat supervisory personnel during all interviewing hours.

A.2. Purposes and Uses of the Data

The surveys will provide valuable national data for OII and other educational policymakers at the national, state, and district levels. These surveys were requested by Congress to provide current nationally representative data about the status of arts education in U.S. public schools. Information from these surveys will address both ongoing and emergent issues in arts education at the elementary and secondary levels.

The most recent national data on the topic was collected in the 1999-2000 FRSS surveys. The current school-level surveys will allow an examination of change in arts education, including the availability and characteristics of arts education programs, supplemental arts-related activities, and administrative support for arts education. In addition, the current elementary teacher surveys will provide insights into changes in selected characteristics of arts specialists and classroom teachers, the work environment, and curricula and instruction in the arts.

In addition to examining ongoing issues in arts education, the surveys will provide new insights into emergent issues. The school-level surveys, for example, will collect information on the adequacy of support for arts instruction, the availability of arts-related professional development for teachers, arts partnerships and collaborations, and types of support for arts education from outside sources. The elementary teacher surveys will provide new information on the types of music and visual arts classes taught by specialists, and the use of virtual field trips to teach arts education. Information from the secondary teacher surveys will address a research gap in arts education by focusing on topics examined at the elementary level as well as issues that are unique to music and visual arts instruction in secondary schools.

NCES reports containing survey results will be published on the NCES website. In addition, public use and restricted use data files will be made available to researchers.

A.3. Improved Information Technology

Sampled schools and teachers will be given the option of completing the survey using a traditional pencil and paper questionnaire, or using a web version of the questionnaire accessed through the Internet. When paper versions of the questionnaire are used, they will be transmitted to and from respondents by fax whenever possible. In addition, the email address for the contractor (Westat) responsible for answering respondent questions will be included on the front of the questionnaire and in the materials for preparing the list of teachers. These procedures are all designed to minimize the burden on respondents.

A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

Background and literature searches did not identify any other sources of current national data on arts education in U.S. public schools.

A.5. Methods Used to Minimize Burden on Small Entities

The teacher surveys will be collected from individuals (teachers). Teachers will be sampled from lists collected from sampled public schools of all sizes. To minimize the teacher list collection burden on elementary schools providing lists of classroom teachers as well as visual arts and music teachers, we will suggest that respondents use existing staff lists, editing them as needed. For schools providing only lists of visual arts and music teachers, we will request that schools provide just those few names. We will accept lists in all formats and provide list collection assistance to respondents by telephone and email. In addition, smaller schools generally will be sampled at a lower rate than large schools.

A.6. Consequences of Not Collecting the Information

If these data are not collected, OII and other education policymakers will not have current national data about the status of arts education in public schools, and will not be able to determine how arts education has changed since the earlier surveys were conducted in 1999-2000. Congress requested these surveys to fill this information gap.

A.7. Adherence to the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5

Data collection will be conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5. The only exception is that responses will be requested in fewer than 30 days, following the well-developed procedures for NCES quick response surveys such as FRSS, which are intended to collect data quickly.

A.8. Consultations Outside NCES

Substantial development work was conducted on these surveys. This work included reviewing the 1999-2000 surveys to identify which items should be retained in their existing form, which items might need to be revised, and which items should be dropped to provide space for new items of current interest to OII and the arts education community. In addition, development work was done to identify survey items for the new surveys of secondary school arts specialists, and to explore the feasibility of collecting data on these items. Development work included conducting a literature review and a search of existing survey instruments. In addition, input was sought from the arts education community through a meeting in September 2008. More extensive written feedback was also obtained during fall 2008 from the following representatives of arts organizations:

• Deborah Reeve of the National Art Education Association;

• Michael Blakeslee of the National Association for Music Education;

• Jim Harmon of the National Council of Supervisors of Music Education;

• Jane Bonbright of the National Dance Education Organization;

• James Palmarini of the Educational Theatre Association; and

• Leigh Jansson of the American Alliance for Theatre & Education;

Feasibility calls were conducted to improve the instruments. Principals and teachers with various characteristics were asked to review and discuss the survey relevant to them in brief telephone interviews. Respondents were asked about the clarity and relevance of the survey items, and whether they could answer each question without too much burden. Fewer than 10 respondents of each type were asked to participate in each round of feasibility calls, and respondents were asked to review but not complete the survey. After the calls, the instruments were reviewed and revised.

Based on feedback from the NCES Questionnaire Review Board (QRB), the surveys were revised. Pretests of the two school-level surveys were conducted with elementary and secondary school principals in February and March 2009. Pretests of the five teacher surveys were conducted in April and May 2009. The purpose of the pretest was to verify that all questions and corresponding instructions are clear and unambiguous, to determine if the information is readily available to respondents, and to determine whether the burden on respondents could be further reduced. Responses and comments on the pretest were collected by fax and telephone. Following the pretest, the surveys were revised for submission with this clearance package

A.9. Payments to Respondents

Not applicable. No payments or gifts to respondents will be made.

A.10. Assurance of Confidentiality

Data to be collected will not be released with institutional or personal identifiers attached. Data will be presented in aggregate statistical form only. A statement to this effect is included in the cover letter accompanying each questionnaire. In addition, the public use data file will undergo extensive disclosure risk analysis and be reviewed by the NCES/IES Disclosure Review Board before release.

Respondents will be assured that all information identifying them or their school will be kept confidential in compliance with the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-279), which requires that no person may:

• use any individually identifiable information furnished under the provisions of this section for any purpose other than the statistical purposes for which it is supplied;

• make any publication whereby the data furnished by any particular person under this section can be identified; or

• permit anyone other than the individuals authorized by the Commissioner to examine the individual reports.

All Westat staff members working on the study are required to sign the NCES Affadavit of Nondisclosure, as well as Westat's confidentiality pledge, which appears as Exhibit 1.

A.11. Sensitive Questions

There are no questions of a sensitive nature included in the surveys.

Exhibit 1. Westat confidentiality statement

WESTAT, INC.

EMPLOYEE OR CONTRACTOR'S ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY OF SURVEY DATA

Statement of Policy

Westat is firmly committed to the principle that the confidentiality of individual data obtained through Westat surveys must be protected. This principle holds whether or not any specific guarantee of confidentiality was given at time of interview (or self-response), or whether or not there are specific contractual obligations to the client. When guarantees have been given or contractual obligations regarding confidentiality have been entered into, they may impose additional requirements which are to be adhered to strictly.

Procedures for Maintaining Confidentiality

1 All Westat employees and field workers shall sign this assurance of confidentiality. This assurance may be superseded by another assurance for a particular project.

2. Field workers shall keep completely confidential the names of respondents, all information or opinions collected in the course of interviews, and any information about respondents learned incidentally during field work. Field workers shall exercise reasonable caution to prevent access by others to survey data in their possession.

3. Unless specifically instructed otherwise for a particular project, an employee or field worker, upon encountering a respondent or information pertaining to a respondent that s/he knows personally, shall immediately terminate the activity and contact her/his supervisor for instructions.

4. Survey data containing personal identifiers in Westat offices shall be kept in a locked container or a locked room when not being used each working day in routine survey activities. Reasonable caution shall be exercised in limiting access to survey data to only those persons who are working on the specific project and who have been instructed in the applicable confidentiality requirements for that project.

Where survey data have been determined to be particularly sensitive by the Corporate Officer in charge of the project or the President of Westat, such survey data shall be kept in locked containers or in a locked room except when actually being used and attended by a staff member who has signed this pledge.

5. Ordinarily, serial numbers shall be assigned to respondents prior to creating a machine-processible record and identifiers such as name, address, and Social Security number shall not, ordinarily, be a part of the machine record. When identifiers are part of the machine data record, Westat's Manager of Data Processing shall be responsible for determining adequate confidentiality me assures in consultation with the project director. When a separate file is set up containing identifiers or linkage information which could be used to identify data records, this separate file shall be kept locked up when not actually being used each day in routine survey activities.

6. When records with identifiers are to be transmitted to another party, such as for keypunching or key taping, the other party shall be informed of these procedures and shall sign an Assurance of Confidentiality form.

7. Each project director shall be responsible for ensuring that all personnel and contractors involved in handling survey data on a project are instructed in these procedures throughout the period of survey performance. When there are specific contractual obligations to the client regarding confidentiality, the project director shall develop additional procedures to comply with these obligations and shall instruct field staff, clerical staff, consultants, and any other persons who work on the project in these additional procedures. At the end of the period of survey performance, the project director shall arrange for proper storage or disposition of survey data including any particular contractual requirements for storage or disposition. When required to turn over survey data to our clients, we must provide proper safeguards to ensure confidentiality up to the time of delivery.

8. Project directors shall ensure that survey practices adhere to the provisions of the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974 with regard to surveys of individuals for the Federal Government. Project directors must ensure that procedures are established in each survey to inform each respondent of the authority for the survey, the purpose and use of the survey, the voluntary nature of the survey (where applicable) and the effects on the respondents, if any, of not responding.

PLEDGE

I hereby certify that I have carefully read and will cooperate fully with the above procedures. I will keep completely confidential all information arising from surveys concerning individual respondents to which I gain access. I will not discuss, disclose, disseminate, or provide access to survey data and identifiers except as authorized by Westat. In addition, I will comply with any additional procedures established by Westat for a particular contract. I will devote my best efforts to ensure that there is compliance with the required procedures by personnel whom I supervise. I understand that violation of this pledge is sufficient grounds for disciplinary action, including dismissal. I also understand that violation of the privacy rights of individuals through such unauthorized discussion, disclosure, dissemination, or access may make me subject to criminal or civil penalties. I give my personal pledge that I shall abide by this assurance of confidentiality.

Signature

A.12. Estimates of Response Burden

This set of surveys includes three types of collections: questionnaires collected from sampled schools, lists of eligible teachers collected from sampled schools, and questionnaires collected from sampled teachers. A nationally representative sample of 1,800 public elementary schools and 1,600 public secondary schools will be selected to participate in the surveys. Of the 1,800 elementary schools, 1,200 will be asked to complete the elementary school survey, and to provide a list of their music and visual arts teachers and their teachers in self-contained classrooms. The remaining 600 elementary schools will be asked only for their music and visual arts teachers. Of the 1,600 secondary schools, 1,200 will be asked to complete the secondary school survey, and to provide a list of their music and visual arts teachers. The remaining 400 secondary schools will be asked only for their music and visual arts teachers. This approach is being used because the 1999-2000 FRSS arts surveys found that visual arts teachers were available in 67 percent of public elementary schools, and music teachers were available in 88 percent of public elementary schools. While no teacher surveys were conducted at the secondary level in 1999-2000, visual arts instruction was offered in 93 percent of public secondary schools, and music instruction was offered in 90 percent of public secondary schools. In addition, information received during the pretests of the 2009-10 FRSS arts surveys indicates that availability of arts specialists may be somewhat lower in 2009-10 than previously. Since arts specialists are not available in all public elementary and secondary schools, it is necessary to increase the number of schools from which visual arts and music teachers can be selected, particularly at the elementary level, beyond the number of schools needed for the school-level questionnaires and the survey of elementary school classroom teachers. The following assumptions, based on the 1999-2000 FRSS arts education surveys, were used in deriving the sample sizes and estimates of response burden shown in the table below.

• School questionnaire response rate will be 85 percent for both elementary and secondary schools.

• List collection response rate will be 85 percent for both elementary and secondary schools.

• Teacher questionnaire response rate will be 85 percent for all types of teachers.

• Visual arts specialists will be available in 60 percent of elementary schools.

• Music specialists will be available in 79 percent of elementary schools.

• Visual arts and music specialist will be available in 81 percent of secondary schools.

• School and teacher questionnaires are estimated to take 30 minutes to complete.

• List collections that include classroom teachers are estimated to take 20 minutes to complete.

• List collections of arts specialists only are estimated to take 10 minutes to complete.

Type of collection	Sample size	Estimated response rate	Estimated number of respondents	Estimated time to complete	Respondent burden hours	Respondent cost (@ $30 each)
Questionnaires collected from elementary schools	1,200	85%	1,020	0.50	510	$15,300
Questionnaires collected from secondary schools	1,200	85%	1,020	0.50	510	$15,300
Lists of classroom teachers and arts specialists collected from elementary schools	1,200	85%	1,020	0.33	337	$10,110
Lists of arts specialists only collected from elementary and secondary schools	2,200	85%	1,870	0.17	318	$9,537
Questionnaires collected from elementary school classroom teachers	1,020	85%	867	0.50	434	$13,020
Questionnaires collected from elementary visual arts specialists (based on 60% availability)	918	85%	780	0.50	390	$11,700
Questionnaires collected from elementary music specialists (based on 79% availability)	1,209	85%	1,028	0.50	514	$15,420
Questionnaires collected from secondary visual arts specialists (based on 81% availability)	1,102	85%	937	0.50	469	$14,070
Questionnaires collected from secondary music specialists (based on 81% availability)	1,102	85%	937	0.50	469	$14,070
Total	11,151		9,479		3,951	$118,530

A.13. Estimates of Cost Burden for Collection of Information

Not applicable. Respondents will not need to purchase or maintain equipment or services.

A.14. Estimates of Cost to the Federal Government

The set of surveys is estimated to cost the Federal government about $2.7 million, including about $2.6 million for contractual costs and $100,000 for salaries and expenses. Contractual costs include the costs for survey preparation, teacher list collection and processing, school and teacher sampling, data collection from schools and teachers, data analysis, and report preparation and dissemination.

A.15. Changes in Burden

This is a new survey; no adjustments are being requested.

A.16. Publication Plans/Time Schedule

Plans for Tabulation and Publication

Most of the analyses of the questionnaire data will be descriptive in nature, providing OII and other data users with tables and appropriate explanatory text. Survey responses will be weighted to produce national estimates. Separate analyses will be conducted for each of the seven surveys (elementary schools, secondary schools, elementary classroom teachers, elementary visual arts specialists, elementary music specialists, secondary visual arts specialists, and secondary music specialists). Tabulations will be produced for each data item. Crosstabulations of data items will be made with selected classification variables. This includes school-level characteristics and teacher characteristics, such as the following.

School Characteristics:

• School enrollment size;

• Type of locale;

• Geographic region;

• Percent minority enrollment; and

• Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Teacher Characteristics:

• Years of teaching experience;

• Employment status at the school (full-time or part-time); and

• Current teaching arrangement (teach visual arts or music full-time or part-time).

NCES reports containing survey results will be published on the NCES website. In addition, public use and restricted use data files will be made available to researchers.

Time Schedule

Collection of school questionnaires and teacher sampling lists will begin in September 2009 and continue through March 2010. Collection of teacher questionnaires will be begin in January 2010 and continue through June 2010. Dates of key activities for list collection, survey collection, and tabulation and publication are listed below.

School Survey Collection

• September 2009: Mail survey to principal.

• Two weeks after mailout, send a thank you/reminder postcard thanking those who responded and reminding those who have not yet responded.

• About 3 weeks after mailout, begin telephone followup for nonresponse and data retrieval.

• March 2010: End school survey collection.

Teacher List Collection

• September 2009: Mail package to principal with request for teacher list.

• About 3 weeks after mailout, begin telephone followup for nonresponse and data retrieval.

• March 2010: End list collection.

Teacher Survey Collection

• January 2009: Begin mailing surveys to sampled teachers. Mailing will continue through March on a flow basis.

• Two weeks after mailout, send a thank you/reminder postcard thanking those who responded and reminding those who have not yet responded.

• About 3 weeks after mailout, begin telephone followup for nonresponse and data retrieval.

• June 2010: End teacher survey collection.

Tabulation and Publication

Key activities are listed below by number of weeks after the end of survey collection.

• 8 weeks – submit initial draft of tables to NCES.

• 12 weeks – submit first draft of complete report for NCES Project Officer review.

• 20 weeks – submit revised report to NCES Chief Statistician for technical/peer review.

• 32 weeks – submit revised report for review by IES.

• 45 weeks – NCES releases report.

A.17. Approval to Not Display Expiration Date

Not applicable. The survey will display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection.

A.18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement

Not applicable. No exceptions to the certification statement are being sought.

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