Expected yield rates are essential to a survey's data collection plan, as they inform requisite sample sizes to meet the survey's objectives. Given an overall expected yield rate for a self-administered mail survey, this short take describes a simple method for using the Census Planning Database to assign differential yield rates to lower-level…

Over the past few decades, the survey industry has experienced a steady decline in response rates, which has posed numerous challenges for researchers, most notably concerns about nonresponse bias. We present results from three studies conducted in an attempt to increase response rates and reduce nonresponse bias for a U.S. national household…

We discuss methods that can improve response rates in large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Regardless of the specific study topic, sample member population, or method of contact, data collections should be designed with certain core principles in mind: legitimizing the study to prospective participants; presenting study…

The mail survey is a popular data collection tool in developed countries, but little is known about its use and efficacy in developing countries. Grounded on social exchange and diffusion of innovations theories, this study sought to ascertain whether the mail survey works in Nepal -- one of the developing countries, by looking at how long…

The Delphi survey technique is an iterative mail or electronic (e-mail or web-based) survey method used to obtain agreement or consensus among a group of experts in a specific field on a particular issue through a well-designed and systematic multiple sequential rounds of survey administrations. Each of the multiple rounds of the Delphi survey…

Supporting special educators' sustained use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is a priority for the field. In this study, the authors used multiple measures to evaluate the first graduated cohort from a university program 6 years after graduation with a master's degree with a specialization in autism, and at least 8 years working as…

Background: The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) is a national study periodically conducted to assess school health policies and programs at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. For SHPPS 2006, district-level questionnaires were designed for telephone administration, but mixed-mode data collection that also used…

Capturing the data that help define faculty, administrative, and student needs is but one of the many critical functions of IT professionals. Any number of means can be employed to gather the data, including physical equipment inventory, software metrics, community forums, and surveys. However, the survey, particularly the web-based survey,…

Virginia's SHARP logger program is a Cooperative Extension program currently providing training to over 1,500 loggers, foresters, and others. We conducted a mail survey of SHARP loggers to characterize program participants, assess programming needs, and evaluate program effectiveness. Results indicate a diverse group of participants in terms of…

In the present study, an examination is conducted in three school districts of how data are used to improve classroom practice. In doing so, we explore the effects that attitudes toward data, principal leadership, and computer data systems have on how data are used to affect classroom practice. Findings indicate that educators are ambivalent about…

Evaluative instruments designed to assess a university's or college's institutionalization of service-learning practices have been devised and widely utilized. These instruments often come with assumptions about aligning data with decision making. To date, attempts to document community engagement practices within a department or an entire…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) is a 10-year-long study of the characteristics, experiences, and outcomes of a nationally representative sample of youth with disabilities who were 13 to 16 years old and receiving special education services in grade 7 or above, under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the…

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the external factors that influence an organizations' business intelligence (BI) data collection strategy when mediated by BI attributes. In this dissertation, data warehousing strategies are used as the basis on which to frame the exploration of BI data collection strategies. The attributes include…

This paper reports the strategies used to track and follow 3,828 Alaska Native and American Indian study participants in the city of Anchorage and more rural areas of Alaska and provides characteristics of respondents and non-respondents. Over 88% were successfully followed-up, with 49% of respondents completed in three or fewer attempts.…

The need for greater accountability in school counseling practice is widely accepted within the profession. However, there are obstacles to making accountability efforts common practice among all school counselors. The Support Personnel Accountability Report Card (SPARC) is a tool that can be used to encourage and support these efforts. In this…