Characteristics of survey non-responders among school administrators: Insights for improving response rates

In 2003, the Arkansas legislature passed Act 1220, which was designed to combat childhood obesity through school-based interventions and policy changes. That same year, researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate the impact of the Act through interviews, surveys, synthesis of available data, and other means. Surveys have been mailed to all public school principals and superintendents each year, with multiple follow-up attempts to increase response rates. While response rates have been high (75-80%), analyses indicate that certain groups of principals and superintendents have been less likely to respond to mailed surveys. For example, response rates were generally higher among larger districts (74.0%) than smaller districts (69.7%), and among elementary schools (79.4%) and middle schools (79.9%) compared to high schools (73.2%). Response also varied somewhat by geographic region of the state. Further, patterns of response across years may be related to legislative activity in specific years. This presentation will explore response patterns by a number of demographic characteristics and will discuss how knowledge of such patterns may be used to improve response rates to surveys of school administrators.