"Apprentice and Trainee Outcomes 2021" provides a summary of the outcomes of apprentices and trainees who completed an apprenticeship or traineeship during 2020, with the data collected in mid-2021. The figures are derived from apprentices' and trainees' responses to the National Student Outcomes Survey (SOS), which is an annual survey…

The PPIC Statewide Survey was inaugurated in 1998 to provide a way for Californians to express their views on important public policy issues. The survey provides timely, relevant, nonpartisan information on Californians' political, social, and economic opinions. It seeks to inform and improve state policymaking, raise awareness, and encourage…

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…

IEA's International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018 is designed to assess how well students are prepared for study, work, and life in a digital world. The study measures international differences in students' computer and information literacy (CIL): their ability to use computers to investigate, create, participate, and…

This Workshop on Survey Methods in Education Research tool consists of a facilitator guide and workshop handouts. The toolkit is intended for use by state or district education leaders and others who want to conduct training on developing and administering surveys. The facilitator guide provides materials related to various phases of the survey…

International large-scale assessments of student achievement such as International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Program for International…

Written for students and researchers who wish to understand the conceptual and practical aspects of sampling, this book is designed to be accessible without requiring advanced statistical training. It covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of sampling to special topics such as sampling rare populations, sampling organizational populations,…

The "PISA 2012 Technical Report" describes the methodology underlying the PISA 2012 survey, which tested 15-year-olds' competencies in mathematics, reading and science and, in some countries, problem solving and financial literacy. It examines the design and implementation of the project at a level of detail that allows researchers to…

Recently, the Kenyan government reaffirmed its commitment to enabling majority of its citizen's access to education through establishment of free primary education program and subsidizing secondary education. However, despite all these efforts, the education sector continues to face myriads of problems, major one being skewed performance in Kenya…

Research regarding the optimal fielding of online surveys is in its infancy and just beginning to offer clear suggestions for effective recruiting of participants as well as techniques for maximizing the response rate. In this article, the authors discuss the process of recruiting participants by e-mailing invitations to a list of recipients…

The High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) is the fifth in a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) secondary longitudinal studies. The core research questions for HSLS:09 explore secondary to postsecondary transition plans and the evolution of those plans; the paths into and out of science, technology, engineering,…

This chapter provides an overview of sampling methods that are appropriate for conducting online surveys. The authors review some of the basic concepts relevant to online survey sampling, present some probability and nonprobability techniques for selecting a sample, and briefly discuss sample size determination and nonresponse bias. Although some…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys, which take place every three years, have been designed to collect information about 15-year-old students in participating countries. PISA examines how well students are prepared to meet the challenges of the future,…

The method for questionnaire construction described in this paper makes it convenient to generate as many different forms for a questionnaire as there are respondents. The method is based on using the computer to produce the questionnaire forms themselves. In this way the items or subgroups of items of the questionnaire may be randomly ordered or…

The popularity of the sample survey in educational research makes it necessary for consumers to tell a good study from a poor one. Several sources were identified that gave advice on how to evaluate a sample design. The sources are either limited or too extensive to use in a practical sense. The purpose of this paper is to recommend six important…