Attachment 2 - SED Questionnaire Item Issues

Attachment 2: SED Questionnaire Item Issues

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Questionnaire
Item Number
A2 and A8d
Primary and
interdisciplinary
fields of
dissertation
research,
primary field of
study

Issues for Cognitive Testing
We will explore respondents’ ability to name their fields of study in their own
words and to match field of study to one of the categories on the list.
Respondent interpretation of “interdisciplinary” will be explored to gain a
better understanding of how they understand this term. We will focus on
issues of whether respondents in interdisciplinary programs have difficulty
identifying a field of study.

A2 (primary field of dissertation research), A3 (department that supervised
doctoral studies), and A8d (primary field of doctoral study) are often seen as
redundant by respondents. We will examine ways to clarify question intent
and eliminate the perceived redundancy of these questions.
A3
We will examine whether respondents have issues determining how to
Department that identify the department, interdisciplinary committee, center, or institute that
supervised
supervised their doctoral studies. This question may be more difficult for
doctoral studies respondents in interdisciplinary programs.
A8 - A9
Research on the timeline variables has revealed that discrepancies in the
Month/year
timeline data are common. Some potential causes of discrepancies include
degree started
memory erosion and nontraditional educational pathways. We are developing
and granted
new questions that address nontraditional degrees and considering options for
reordering of the educational history items, which are currently nonchronological, to accord more closely with the recall order that respondents
may prefer (forward chronological order).
A9
The term “postsecondary” may be unclear to some respondents. We will
Postsecondary
explore wording that clarifies the meaning of this term.
degree
A10
Respondent understanding of this item will be investigated. This item was
Master’s degree intended to address timeline issues that arise when students are in joint
prerequisite
programs.
A11
Respondents vary in the interpretation of this question. We will clarify what
First entry into
the question is intended to measure and revise the question to increase clarity.
grad school
These questions are intended to capture the total time to degree. We will
A12 – A13
focus in the cognitive testing on how respondents understand the questions
Years taking
and arrive at their answers. Since these items are not needed for timeline
coursework,
calculation but are often discrepant with the timeline data, we will explore
working on
whether these items could be removed from the questionnaire.
dissertation,
time off
B1
B2

The question will be explored to improve clarity. The phrases “intend to live”
and “within the next year” are confusing for some respondents.
We will explore understanding of the term “postdoc” and what it means to
“intend” to take a postdoc position.
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Questionnaire
Item Number
B3

B4a
B5 – B6
Main source of
postdoc
support, type of
principal
employer
B10

C2
C4

C7
C11

Issues for Cognitive Testing
We will investigate understanding of the response options in this question.
Several terms, such as “predoctoral employment,” “definite commitment” may
not be well understood. In addition, we will explore whether the response
options are mutually exclusive or whether more than one can apply to a
doctoral student’s situation.
The distinctions among the types of further training and study that are
represented in the response options are unclear to respondents. The cognitive
testing will focus on exploring ways to clarify these terms.
Respondents may have difficulty selecting one of the offered response
options. The cognitive testing will explore understanding of the options and
ways to clarify them.

We will investigate respondent understanding of the response options. The
term “professional services to individuals” is particularly problematic for
respondents. Further, respondents can have difficulty deciding on primary vs.
secondary work activities.
We will explore how to make the marital status question more suitable for
non-traditional families.
We will explore changes to this question to encompass non-traditional
families in which “mother” and “father” are not the correct terms for the
parents.
We will test new items to capture dual citizenship.
We will include a prompt for respondents who choose not to answer the race
question to find out if this is because they prefer not to answer or because they
do not identify with any of the races listed in the question.

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