Classroom Selection for 2021
You are considering using classroom selection to survey some students at your school. While our recommendation is for schools to choose to census, or survey all students within their school, choosing to do a selection of classrooms is okay and you can still get representative data!
Why do we recommend a census for schools?
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Representation: Conducting a true random classroom selection requires several steps. If you do not follow the Classroom Selection Guide below, your data will not be representative of your entire school.
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Bias: Be aware that picking classrooms without using the instructions below can unintentionally introduce bias and negatively affect your results. For example, choosing teachers that are more likely to be supportive of surveying in their classroom can introduce bias in the answers from students. Choosing to exclude classrooms where students need extra support in the classroom can also introduce bias.
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Response Rate: Regardless of method, we strongly encourage schools to get a 60% student response rate. In many situations, this is more easily accomplished when all students within the school are provided an opportunity to survey.
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Ease of Survey Coordination: Classroom selection requires the Survey Coordinator to only provide survey materials to the classrooms selected to survey. When conducting a census survey, the Survey Coordinator does not need to track this information.
Reminder: For high schools with 400 students or less, and for middle schools with 150 students or less, we ask that you administer the survey to all students (i.e., census) and do not move forward with the a selection process outlined below.
We understand that choosing to census, or survey the entire school, is not always feasible for schools, and so a classroom selection is available to any who wish to do it. Please download and review the documents below to conduct your classroom selection. All documents are important to ensure that you are choosing a representative sample without bias.
If you are experiencing issues, reach out to our team or, if feasible for your school, consider surveying all students instead!
Step-by-step instructions - Classroom Selection Guide
Guidance for Special Needs Students
The HKCS should be offered to any middle or high school student who can independently complete the survey in either English or Spanish. Accommodations for special needs students may follow survey protocol currently in place for that student with the criteria that the privacy of the student is maintained and no student should have to respond to another person to complete the survey.
If such accommodations for special needs students are not available in your school, we request that these students do not participate in the HKCS to protect their health privacy.
Excel templates - Classroom Selection Templates (with examples included):
Don't forget to complete your Survey Coordinator Registration Form in your Portal!
After you complete your random classroom selection, you will enter the total number of classrooms and the total number of students you selected in your Survey Coordinator Registration Form.