2008 SPPA User's Guide

Appendix J

The 2008 SPPA User’s Guide was written for users of the public-use data file. The guide may
be accessed at: http://www.nea.gov/research/SPPA/users-guide.pdf
The document covers a variety of topics, including:
An overview of the survey;
Descriptions of the sample design and data collection procedures;
Explanation of how item missing data have been coded, and recommendations for how
to handle the missing data in analysis;
Information on how to use the survey weights;
Description of procedures for calculating variances and standard errors of survey
estimates;
Description some of the issues that need to be understood when doing multivariate
analysis, or when making comparisons with
estimates from prior SPPA studies;
Information on how to incorporate census variables into your analysis.
Finally, the appendices to the guide include a data dictionary that displays both weighted
and unweighted frequencies and a copy of the questionnaire.