Background Questionnaires

In addition to assessing subject-area achievement, NAEP collects background information that serves to fulfill reporting requirements of federal legislation and to provide a context for reporting student performance. The legislation requires that, whenever feasible, NAEP include information on special groups (e.g., information reported by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, and limited English proficiency).

As part of most NAEP assessments, four types of questionnaires are used to collect background information:

• student questionnaires collect information on students' demographic characteristics, classroom experiences, and educational support (completed by students);
• teacher questionnaires gather data on teacher background, training, and instructional practices (completed by teachers at grades 4 and 8. NAEP typically does not collect teacher information for grade 12);
• school questionnaires gather information on school policies and characteristics (completed by the principal or assistant principal); and
• SD/ELL (students with disabilities or English language learners) questionnaires collect information about students selected in the sample who have disabilities or limited English proficiency (completed by special education teacher, bilingual education/ESL teacher, or staff member who is most familiar with the student).

The Background Information Framework, developed by the National Assessment Governing Board in 2003, now guides the collection and reporting of non-cognitive assessment information. In addition, subject-area frameworks provide guidance on subject-specific non-cognitive assessment questions to be included in the questionnaires. Questions being considered for inclusion in the background questionnaire are reviewed by experts and are tested with students, teachers, and schools before the actual administration. When developing the questionnaires, NAEP ensures that the questions do not infringe on respondents' privacy, that they are grounded in educational research, and that the answers can provide information relevant to the subject being assessed.

Students complete the background questionnaires voluntarily, and their responses are kept confidential. Student names are never reported with their responses or with the other information collected by NAEP.

Students are given ten minutes to complete the background questions, typically located at the end of their student assessment booklets. The two sections of student background questions each take about five minutes to complete. The teacher, school, and SD/ELL questionnaires are printed in separate booklets. With increasing frequency, teacher and school questionnaires are completed electronically via the MySchool website.

In the web-based NAEP Data Explorer, the results of the background questionnaires are sorted into eight broad categories: Major Reporting Groups, Student Factors, Factors Beyond School, Instructional Content and Practice, Teacher Factors, School Factors, Community Factors, and Government Factors.

The following questionnaires are available in PDF format.

You may also download questionnaires from 2003. To obtain earlier questionnaires, please contact Sherran Osborne in the NCES Assessment Division at 202-502-7420 or 202-502-7400, or specify the questionnaires you need by writing to Contact Us.

Background questionnaires are also available in the Sample Questions booklets, which contain other assessment information and are distributed to schools before each assessment.

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Last updated 15 May 2008 (NB)