When Education Survey Data Come From Multiple Sources

• In Event: Roundtable Session 104
  In Roundtable Session: Applications in Survey Research: Development, Data Analysis, and Methods

Abstract

A challenging situation arises when education survey data come from students, and administrative data are used to supplement sample survey data. If the same information can be obtained from more than one source, some rules must be developed to decide which source takes precedence if disagreement occurs. An especially interesting situation arises in defining unit and item response rates. Equally challenging are the methodologies for adjusting for unit and item nonresponse in the analytic files produced from the survey. This paper discusses various situations and uses data from the 2007-08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08) to examine tradeoffs between unit respondent sample size and data record completeness.

Authors

• Peter H. Siegel, RTI International

• James R. Chromy, RTI International