Principals and Teachers

As educators, you provide critical leadership for supporting transition-aged youth on their paths toward adulthood. Often, difficult choices must be made about how to allocate resources to best serve students with a wide range of needs. Youth with special needs—in addition to confronting the challenges all youth encounter as they leave high school and become young adults—often face unique barriers related to health, social isolation, service needs, and access to supports.

The U.S. Department of Education is sponsoring the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012) to document the efficacy of programs designed to improve student outcomes in postsecondary education, paid employment, and independent living. This large-scale, national study is intended to provide critical information to federal, state, and local agencies as they work to improve services provided for youth with and without special needs. Your district is one of more than 400 districts that were scientifically selected for this study. Nationwide, approximately 15,000 youth are invited to take part, including those from your school.

Below are common questions teachers and principals may have about the study. Please click on the questions below for more information on each topic.

What do I need to do to take part?

What will you ask school staff about?

How much time will this take?

How will I benefit?

Is this information confidential?

What do I need to do to take part?

School staff will be asked to take part in a survey to provide important information either about the school as a whole or about the experiences of a specific student.

Your school district provided school and parent contact information to the study team. After each selected student and his or her parent or guardian agrees to take part, teachers will receive an invitation to complete a survey over the web or by mail. You will also have the option of completing the survey over the telephone or returning it by mail or fax, if you prefer. We may also send trained field staff to your school to provide the principal and teachers with encouragement and assistance with completing their surveys. Details are as follows:

• Math or language arts teachers will be asked to complete a separate survey about their classroom experience with each study participant that they teach. The study team has randomly selected either a math or language arts teacher for each participating student. This invitation will be sent after the student and his or her parent or guardian grant permission.
• Special education staff members will be asked to complete a separate survey for each study participant they teach. This invitation will be sent after the student and his or her parent or guardian grant permission. This survey will address the student's school program overall, as well as any special services received. A second survey will go out in 2014 for wave 2 if the selected student is still in school. The study team will again contact the person most knowledgeable about the student's school program and ask him or her to complete a survey. That survey will cover any changes since wave 1 of data collection (2012–2013).
• Principals will be asked to complete a survey about the characteristics of their school as a whole. They will complete only one survey, regardless of how many students or teachers participate from their school.

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What will you ask school staff about?

• Math or language arts teachers will be asked about the classes, school services, and transitional activities in which the participating student is involved.
• Special education staff members will be asked to provide information about the participating student's school program and transition services.
• Principals will be asked about school programs, policies, resources, and other school characteristics. They will not be asked about specific students.

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How much time will this take?

The principal and teacher surveys are each designed to take about 30 minutes to complete. You can complete the survey in the format that is most convenient for you—by web, phone, mail, or fax.

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How will I benefit?

Each student for whom you provide information represents other youth across the country. As an educator or school principal, your input will enable researchers to document the experiences of students nationwide. This study intends to provide critical information to federal, state, and local agencies as they work to improve the quality of services provided for youth with and without special needs. At a national level, the study will link school programs and services to student outcomes in the areas of postsecondary education, employment, and independent living.

We recognize that your time is valuable. If your district allows, we will send you a $25 gift card upon completion of the survey as a token of appreciation for your time. For teachers with multiple students participating in the study, we will send you $25 for each student about whom you complete a survey. Otherwise, based on district requirements, this money will be donated to support your school or district for materials and supplies.

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Is this information confidential?

All information collected from students, parents, teachers, principals, and school districts will be kept confidential in compliance with federal regulations and will be used for research purposes only. Your survey responses will not be shared with anyone, including students, parents, other school staff, or the school district. No identifying information will be included in any report or presentation, and all identifying information will be stored separately from the survey responses. All information collected will be combined so that it will not be possible to identify any individual.