Survey Methodology

The following page describes the data sources, data label definitions, and methods used to process and display all of the data in the Bento Survey Explorer. This information is categorized as:

• Data Sources

• Definitions

• Methods & Data Notes

RAND American Youth Panel (AYP) Survey

RAND launched the American Youth Panel (AYP) in 2024. The panel currently includes 1,138 youth ages 12-21 from across the country. The American Youth Panel surveys are administered multiple times per year. For more information about the American Youth Panel, visit https://www.rand.org/education-and-labor/survey-panels/ayp.html.

RAND American Educator PAnels (AEP)

Several surveys in Bento contain responses from the American Educator Panels (AEP), collected by the RAND Corporation. The AEP consists of the American Teacher Panel (ATP), the American School Leader Panel (ASLP), and the American School District Panel (ASDP). The ATP is a nationally representative sample of K-12 public school teachers. The panel includes more than 25,000 teachers who respond to several online survey requests each year. The ASLP is a nationally representative sample of K-12 public school principals. The panel includes more than 8,000 principals who respond to several online survey requests each year.

• For more information about the ATP and ASLP survey panels, visit https://www.rand.org/education-and-labor/projects/aep/methods.html.

• Researchers looking for disaggregated .csv or stata files from the AEP Surveys can learn more about RAND’s AEP Data Portal here.

AMerican SCHOOL DISTRICT PANEL SURVEY

RAND researchers administer the American School District Panel (ASDP) Survey to a representative sample of school district leaders across the country twice a year. The 2024 ASDP surveys included questions about a variety of education topics, including staffing, revenue, navigating current events, math instruction, and summer programming.

AMerican TEACHER PANEL OMNIBUS SURVEY

RAND researchers administered the 2023 American Teacher Panel Fall Omnibus Survey to a representative sample of K-12 teachers (members of the American Teacher Panel, ATP) across the country. The Omnibus Survey included questions about a variety of education topics, including school leadership, school boards and school board elections, students with ADHD, school safety, and AI use in classrooms. You can find responses to questions from just one section of the survey – AI use in classrooms – visualized in Bento.

AMerican Instructional Resources Surveys (AIRS)

RAND researchers administered surveys to a sample of American Teacher Panel (ATP) and American School Leader Panel (ASLP) members who work in K-12 schools. The American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS) focused on instructional resources used and supported in English language arts, mathematics, and science across the United States.

• The 2020, 2021, and 2022 AIRS included questions related to instruction during school closures as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. 

• For the 2023 AIRS, some ATP respondents were sampled in one state but reported teaching in a different state; ATP respondents are only included in state oversamples if they were sampled and teach in the same state.

AIRS IMPD Network Indicators: Regular Use and Requirement/Recommendation of Standards-Aligned Materials

RAND combines teachers' responses to the AIRS with instructional material ratings provided by EdReports to produce two indicators of the take-up of standards-aligned materials. More information about EdReports can be found here. To calculate each indicator, RAND:

• Generates a list of all comprehensive curriculum materials teachers indicate that they (1) regularly use or (2) are required or recommended to use by their school or district; "regular use" is defined in the survey as at least once per week.

• Matches each comprehensive curriculum material to its EdReports ratings

• Identifies which teachers reported (1) regularly using or (2) being required or recommended to use at least one material rated by EdReports as "Meeting Expectations" in terms of their alignment to college and career-ready standards

This process is used to generate two separate indicators:

• (1) The percentage of teachers regularly using one or more standards-aligned instructional materials ("Percent Use")

• (2) The percentage of teachers whose school or district requires or recommends them to use one or more standards-aligned instructional materials ("Percent Required/Recommend")

AIRS IMPD Network Indicators: Teacher Frequent Participation in Professional Learning Focused on Use of Curriculum Materials

RAND asks teachers to indicate the frequency with which they participate in three types of professional learning "focused on their use of main materials":

• Professional development workshops or trainings focused on use of my curriculum materials

• Coaching focused on use of my curriculum materials

• Collaborative learning with other teachers (e.g., professional learning communities or instructional planning time) focused on use of my curriculum materials

Teachers are asked to indicate the frequency of their participation by selecting one of the following response options: (1) Never, (2) 1-3 times per year, (3) 4-6 times per year, (4) 1-3 times per month, (5) Weekly or more often. 

Teachers are considered to frequently participate in professional learning focused on use of curriculum materials if they report participating in at least one of the three forms of professional learning listed above at least 4-6 times per month.

American Mathematics Educator Study (AMES)

The 2023 American Mathematics Education Study (AMES) Surveys utilized the American Educator Panels (AEP) to field surveys to samples of teachers (American Teacher Panel, or ATP) and principals (American School Leader Panel, or ASLP) about mathematics instructional practices and materials. The surveys were completed in Spring 2023 by nationally representative samples of K-12 public school math teachers and public school principals. Note that the Washington state oversample only includes high school principals.

Learning Together surveys (LTS)

The Learn Together Surveys (LTS) focus on several topics, including social and emotional learning, teaching math, postsecondary transitions, student voice, and supports for students with disabilities. The LTS is a survey of middle and high school educators, including only teachers who report teaching one or more of Grades 6-12 and principals of schools serving one or more of Grades 6-12 (Note that some teachers and principals were located in schools that include elementary grades (e.g., K-8 schools). LTS has been fielded in Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, and Spring 2022. In 2022, the sample was expanded to include K–12 teachers and principals.

COVID-19 Surveys

RAND researchers administered surveys to principals and teachers via RAND's American Educator Panels in Spring 2021, Fall 2020, and Spring 2020 to analyze the operational models of K-12 schools across the United States during the trying 2020-2021 school year. The COVID-19 surveys, with responses from the AEP, document how schools navigated these challenging circumstances and examine disparities in the supports and resources schools were able to provide to students. 

The data and definitions for the school- and district-level attribute filters in the survey explorer are sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD).

For the  2022 LTS Surveys and 2022 AIRS Surveys: Reference the 2020-21 Common Core of Data (CCD) files, documentation for which can be found online at https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2021122rev 

For the 2021 LTS Surveys and 2021 AIRS Surveys: Reference the 2019-20 Common Core of Data (CCD) Universe Files, documentation for which can be found online at https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2021150 

For the 2020 LTS Surveys, 2020 AIRS Surveys, Fall 2020 COVID-19 Response Surveys, and 2021 COVID-19 Response Surveys: Reference the 2018-19 Common Core of Data (CCD) Universe Files, documentation for which can be found online at https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020150. 

For the 2019 LTS and AIRS Surveys, and for the Spring 2020 COVID-19 Response Surveys: Reference the 2017-18 Common Core of Data (CCD) Universe Files, documentation for which can be found online at https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pubschuniv.asp. 

American Educator Panel (AEP) Methodology

• How each survey was administered:

  • Each survey is administered to members of RAND’s American Teacher and the American School Leader Panels (ATP and ALSP). RAND established these two educator panels in 2014 when new policies such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well as new forms of assessments and evaluations, sparked the need to understand how these policies affect schools and student achievement. Since their initiation, the panels have continued to grow to better represent the voices of teachers and school leaders.

  • Currently, the AIRS and LTS surveys are being administered once per year. The content of both surveys has also been changing over time to emphasize different areas such as curriculum, social & emotional learning, and professional development.

  • Each survey took about 10-30 minutes to complete online.

  • For more information about the American Education Panel Surveys, please visit About Bento.

• Definition of a complete survey:

  • For 2019/2020 LTS and 2019/2020 AIRS Surveys: Respondents had to complete 10% of the core survey.

  • For Spring/Fall 2020 COVID-19 Response Surveys: Respondents had to complete 20% of the core survey.
    

• What is included in the Sample Size (N-size) of a survey question?

  • The n-size for a given question is the unweighted number of respondents who were not logically skipped out of a question. The n-size includes cases when a school leader or teacher was asked a question but did not provide a response.

  • The n-size excludes logical skips, or questions that were not asked of certain school leaders or teachers due to skip logic of the questionnaire (e.g., not asking elementary school school leaders about college preparation).

  • The n-sizes are provided as ranges in order to protect the confidentiality of the respondents.

  • Other than the first module (Your School Assignment) and last module (Demographics), the order in which modules appeared to a respondent was randomized. Consequently, the missingness for respondents who did not reach the end of the survey is not concentrated in any one module.
    

• Sample size and warning labels:

  • Bento displays warning labels when the question sample size of a particular visualization is less than or equal to 50 participants.

  • Bento suppresses a visualization if the question sample size is less than or equal to 20 participants.

    • Note: the question sample size includes respondents who responded to the question and those who saw but did not respond to the question. It excludes respondents that did not respond due to logical skips. In the cases where sample sizes varied for sub-question items, the question sample size is equal to the maximum sub-question item sample size.

  • High rate of non-response warning: If 20% or more of respondents who saw a given survey question did not respond to part or all of that question, Bento displays a warning sign to caution viewers when interpreting this particular question’s results.
    

Spring/Fall 2020 COVID-19 Methodology

• Margin of error and calibrated weighting:

  • For more information on the Spring 2020 COVID-19 Surveys, click here.

  • For more information on the Fall 2020 COVID-19 Surveys, click here.
    

• Sample size:

  • The AEP consists of the American Teacher Panel (ATP), the American School Leader Panel (ASLP), and the American School District Panel (ASDP). The ATP and ASLP are nationally representative samples of K–12 public school teachers and principals, respectively. The ATP includes more than 25,000 teachers, and the ASLP includes more than 7,500 school principals.

  • The panels are designed to generate samples of sufficient size to facilitate national analyses and analyses of prevalent sub-groups at the national level (e.g., elementary school teachers, high school mathematics teachers, teachers in city schools).

2019/2020 AIRS Methodology

• Margin of error and calibrated weighting:

  • For more information on the 2019 AIRS Surveys, click here.

  • For more information on the 2020 AIRS Surveys, click here.

• Sample size:

  • The AEP samples are designed to be of sufficient size to facilitate national analyses as well as analyses of prevalent subgroups at the national level (e.g., elementary school teachers, high school mathematics teachers, teachers in urban schools).

  • Similarly, the ATP is designed to permit analyses of the following geographic areas based on state oversamples: California, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Wisconsin

  • The AEP sample is not designed to permit analyses within geographic areas not listed above or among subgroups not specified above.

2019/2020 LTS Methodology

• Margin of error and calibrated weighting:

  • For more information about the 2019 LTS Surveys, click here.

  • For more information about the 2020 LTS Surveys, click here.

• Sample size:

  • Using probabilistic sampling methods, the AEP samples are designed to be of sufficient size to facilitate national analyses and analyses of prevalent subgroups at the national level (e.g., elementary school teachers, high school mathematics teachers, teachers in urban schools).

  • Similarly, the ATP is designed to permit analyses of the following geographic areas based on state oversamples: California, Florida, New York, Tennessee, and Texas.

  • The AEP sample is not designed to permit analyses within geographic areas not listed above.

Visit RAND’s website for more information about AEP survey methodology.