Archival Version

SSOCS 2006 was conducted as a mail survey with telephone follow-up. Four months before the onset of data collection, NCES began working with the school districts of sample schools that required prior approval to participate in the survey. On March 10, 2006, advance letters were sent to school administrators of sample schools that included the date of the first questionnaire mailing and a toll-free number to call with any questions. On March 17, 2006, questionnaires were sent via FedEx directly to the principals of the sample schools, with a cover letter describing the importance of the survey and a promotional SSOCS pen. Upon distribution of the SSOCS questionnaire to schools, letters were mailed to chief state school officers and superintendents to inform them that schools within their states and districts, respectively, had been selected for SSOCS:2006. The letters included information about the survey and were accompanied by a promotional SSOCS pen, an informational copy of the questionnaire, and the SSOCS brochure. The letters were not designed to request permission from these officials to participate in the survey, but rather as a vehicle to enhance participation. During the two weeks following the first questionnaire mailing, a screener telephone operation was conducted to verify that sample schools had received the questionnaire and were, in fact, eligible to participate. One week after the screener ended, a reminder telephone operation began, which was conducted in two 1-week phases. The primary objective of the reminder operation was to follow up with the principal or school contact to determine the status of the questionnaire. However, during the second week, the interviewer could complete the SSOCS interview over the phone at the respondent's request. Data collection ended on May 26, 2006. Returned questionnaires were examined for quality and completeness using both manual and computerized edits. If a questionnaire did not meet predetermined levels of completeness, the respondent was contacted again to resolve issues related to the missing data, irrespective of whether the items missing data were considered "critical." The criteria used to determine completeness are detailed in section 3.1 of the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2005-2006 Data File User's Manual (Bauer et al. 2007). If a satisfactory resolution could not be reached, imputation was used to resolve data quality issues for questionnaires in which at least 60 percent of all items, 80 percent of critical items, 60 percent of item 16, and 60 percent of item 22 had been completed. Questionnaires that did not meet the imputation criteria were considered incomplete and were excluded from the analyses in this report.