DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36070
title: Fast Response Survey System (FRSS): Arts Education Surveys of Secondary School Teachers, 2009-2010
title: Archival Version

description: The Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) was established in 1975 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), United States Department of Education. FRSS is designed to collect issue-oriented data within a relatively short time frame. FRSS collects data from state education agencies, local education agencies, public and private elementary and secondary schools, public school teachers, and public libraries. To ensure minimal burden on respondents, the surveys are generally limited to three pages of questions, with a response burden of about 30 minutes per respondent. Sample sizes are relatively small (usually about 1,000 to 1,500 respondents per survey) so that data collection can be completed quickly. Data are weighted to produce national estimates of the sampled education sector. The sample size is large enough to permit limited breakouts by classification variables. However, as the number of categories within the classification variables increases, the sample size within categories decreases, which results in larger sampling errors for the breakouts by classification variables.


The Arts Education Surveys of Secondary School Teachers provide national estimates on arts education and arts instructors in public secondary schools during the 2009-10 school year. This data collection contains two surveys that provide information about music specialists and visual arts specialists. These two surveys are part of a set of seven surveys that collected data on arts education during the 2009-10 school year. In addition to these secondary teacher surveys, the set includes a survey of elementary school principals, a survey of secondary school principals, and three elementary teacher-level surveys. A stratified sample design was used to select music specialists and visual arts specialists for the Arts Education Surveys of Secondary School Teachers. Data collection was conducted September 2009 through July 2010. Altogether, 1,065 eligible music specialists and 1,046 eligible visual arts specialists completed the surveys by web, mail, fax, or telephone.


The secondary teacher surveys collected data on the availability of curriculum-based arts education activities outside of regular school hours; teaching load of music and visual arts specialists in secondary schools; teacher participation in various professional development activities and the perceived impact of such participation on teaching; and teachers' use of formal methods of assessment of students' progress and achievement in the arts. Furthermore, teachers were also asked to provide administrative information such as school level, school enrollment size, school community type, and percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
description: This study was designed to collect data on arts instructors and arts education in regular public secondary schools in the United States.
description: Survey and list collection materials were mailed to secondary school principals in September 2009. Included in the packages were forms for respondents to insert the names of their full- or part-time music specialists and visual arts specialists to provide sampling information for the secondary school teacher surveys. Telephone follow-up for those who did not respond to the initial list collection mailings was conducted from October 2009 through April 2010.


Questionnaires and cover letters were mailed to the sampled teachers in several batches from January through late April 2010. Teachers were mailed one of two types of questionnaires tailored to the teaching assignment (music or visual arts). Telephone follow-up for questionnaire nonresponse was conducted from February through July 2010.


A total 1,065 music specialists and 1,046 visual arts specialists completed the surveys. Of the secondary music specialists that completed the survey, 68 percent completed it by web, 28 percent completed it by mail, 4 percent completed it by fax, and less than 1 percent completed it by telephone. Of the secondary visual arts specialists that completed the survey, 55 percent completed it by web, 40 percent completed it by mail, and 4 percent completed it by fax.
description: The secondary teacher surveys collected data on the availability of curriculum-based arts education activities outside of regular school hours, teaching load of music and visual arts specialists in secondary schools; teacher participation in various professional development activities and the perceived impact of such participation on teaching; and teachers' use of formal methods of assessment of students' progress and achievement in the arts. Furthermore, teachers were also asked to provide administrative information such as school level, school enrollment size, school community type, and percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
description: Each dataset contains the following weight variables: TFWT (Full Sample Weight) and TFWT1-TFWT50 (Replicate Weights).


For further details regarding the base weight and replicate weights in this data collection, please refer to the Weighting Procedures and Sampling Errors section of the User Guide for each dataset.
description: Response Rates: 
Secondary Schools:


For the eligible secondary schools, the unweighted teacher list collection response rate was 94 percent (1,473 schools providing teacher lists divided by the 1,561 eligible schools in the sample). The weighted response rate for the secondary teacher list collection was 93 percent.




Secondary Teachers:


For the eligible music specialists, the unweighted response rate was 81 percent (1,065 respondents divided by the 1,315 eligible music specialists in the sample). The weighted response rate was 82 percent.


For the eligible visual arts specialists, the unweighted response rate was 86 percent (1,046 respondents divided by the 1,214 eligible visual arts specialists in the sample). The weighted response rate was 85 percent.
description: The nationally representative sample for the FRSS Survey of Elementary School Music Specialists consisted of 1,354 music teachers and for the FRSS Survey Of Elementary School Visual Arts Specialists consisted of 1,302 visual arts teachers, in regular public secondary schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These secondary school teacher surveys were part of a study consisting of seven surveys that were administered during the 2009-10 school year. At the elementary school level, the study included a survey of school principals and three teacher-level surveys, one each for self-contained classroom teachers, music specialists, and visual arts specialists. At the secondary school level, the study included a survey of school principals and two teacher-level surveys, one each for music specialists and visual arts specialists. NCES is releasing separate data files for each of the seven surveys.


The sampling frames for the school surveys and teacher list collections were based on regular public schools from the 2006-07 NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) Public School Universe file, which was the most current file available at the time of sample selection. The sampling frame included 85,962 regular public schools. Of these, 52,807 were elementary schools, 31,133 were secondary schools, and 2,022 were combined schools. The frame included regular public elementary and secondary schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and excluded special education, vocational, home, adult education, private, and alternative/other schools; schools in the outlying United States territories; schools operated by the Department of Defense or Bureau of Indian Education; schools lacking any grade higher than kindergarten; and schools with only ungraded students. Charter schools were eligible for inclusion because they were classified as regular schools in the CCD.


Separate stratified samples of public elementary and secondary schools were selected to receive the appropriate survey instrument for the school-level surveys and teacher list collections. Combined schools were given a chance for selection for both surveys and, if selected, were asked to complete only the survey instrument for which they were selected. To select the sample, the sampling frame was stratified by instructional level. Elementary and secondary schools were also stratified by school enrollment size. To improve the representativeness of the sample, an implicit stratification was induced by sorting the schools within each stratum by geographic region; community type; percent combined enrollment of Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, or American Indian/Alaska Native students; and percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.


For the secondary teacher surveys, a sample of 1,602 schools was selected for the purpose of constructing teacher lists for the surveys of secondary school music and visual arts specialists. Within each stratum, the sample of schools was selected systematically and with probabilities proportionate to the square root of the estimated number of teachers in the school. A subsample of 1,202 schools was selected to respond to the principal survey and provide lists of full- or part-time music specialists and visual arts specialists. The remaining 400 secondary schools in the sample were asked to provide lists of music specialists and visual arts specialists only (i.e., they were not sampled to complete the school-level survey).


Of the 1,602 secondary schools sampled to provide teacher lists, 41 were found to be ineligible for the study during the teacher list collection activity because they had closed, reconfigured, or did not include secondary grades. Of the 1,561 eligible schools, 1,473 schools provided a teachers sampling list.


A total of 2,656 teachers were sampled from the eligible secondary school teacher lists: 1,354 music specialists and 1,302 visual arts specialists. On average, two teachers were sampled per secondary school. Exactly one teacher was randomly selected from each of the following groups: full- or part-time music specialists (if available at the school) and full- or part-time visual arts specialists (if available at the school).


Of the 1,354 secondary music specialists sampled for the survey, 39 were ineligible because they did not primarily teach music or were not employed at the sampled school at the time of the study. Of the 1,302 secondary visual arts specialists sampled for the survey, 88 were ineligible because they did not primarily teach visual arts or were not employed at the sampled school at the time of the study. Altogether, of the 2,529 eligible arts specialists, 2,111 respondents completed the surveys including 1,065 music specialists and 1,046 visual arts specialists.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Survey of Secondary School Music Specialists
DS2: Survey of Secondary School Visual Arts Specialists
description: Music specialists and visual arts specialists in regular public secondary schools in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: region
description: mail questionnaire; telephone interview; web-based survey
NCES does all it can to assure that the identity of data subjects cannot be disclosed. All direct identifiers, as well as any characteristics that might lead to identification, are omitted or modified in the dataset to protect the true characteristics of individual cases. Any intentional identification or disclosure of a person or institution violates the assurances of confidentiality given to the providers of the information.


Before using the data, users must read the Data Disclosure Warning section of the User Guide.

Please note that this data collection corresponds with the following FRSS data collections on Arts Education archived by NADAC:



FAST RESPONSE SURVEY SYSTEM (FRSS): ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ARTS EDUCATION SURVEY (ICPSR 36067)


FAST RESPONSE SURVEY SYSTEM (FRSS): SECONDARY SCHOOL ARTS EDUCATION SURVEY (ICPSR 36068)


FAST RESPONSE SURVEY SYSTEM (FRSS): ARTS EDUCATION SURVEYS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS (ICPSR 36069)

Before using the data, users are encouraged to review the Technical Notes presented in the User Guide for each dataset on Sample and Response Rates; Weighting Procedures and Sampling Errors; Nonsampling Errors, Coding, and Editing; Definitions of Selected Analysis Variables; and Definitions of Terms.Although item nonresponse for key items was low, missing data were imputed for the items with a response rate of less than 100 percent. The missing items included both numerical data such as the number of chorus sections or classes taught, as well as categorical data such as whether the teacher had a teaching certificate or license in art or music education. The missing data were imputed using a "hot-deck" approach to obtain a "donor" teacher from which the imputed values were derived. Under the hot-deck approach, a donor teacher that matched selected characteristics of the teacher with missing data (the recipient) was identified. The matching characteristics included characteristics of the school such as categories of school enrollment size; locale; categories for percent combined enrollment of Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, or American Indian/Alaska Native students; and categories for percent of students in the school eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. In addition, relevant questionnaire items were used to form appropriate imputation groupings. Once a donor was found, it was used to obtain the imputed values for the teacher with missing data. In general, the imputed value was simply the corresponding value from the appropriate donor teacher. For certain numerical items (e.g., number of classes taught or enrollment in classes), the imputed value was chosen from a donor that provided broadly similar responses relating to the size and workload of the classes taught to the extent feasible. Imputation flags are included in the data.
Please note that for this data collection, NCES did not include responses for the following survey questions:



Survey of Secondary School Music Specialists:
Question 4 (grades taught) was collected to verify the eligibility of the sampled teacher. Responses to question 4 are not included in the data file. Also, for confidentiality reasons, the text responses to question 10 column C (major field) and question 10 column D (minor field) have been excluded from the data files. The files include a set of analysis variables by degree level (bachelor's and graduate) and broad field of study (music education, music, education, and other).


Survey of Secondary School Visual Arts Specialists:
Question 4 (grades taught) was collected to verify the eligibility of the sampled teacher. Responses to question 4 are not included in the data file. Also, for confidentiality reasons, the text responses to question 11 column C (major field) and question 11 column D (minor field) have been excluded from the data files. The files include a set of analysis variables by degree level (bachelor's and graduate) and broad field of study (visual arts education, visual arts, education, and other). In addition, for confidentiality reasons, responses to question 11 doctorate degree year have been excluded from the public-use file.

Due to the limit in the number of allowable columns of 256 in Excel 97-2003 (file ending, xls), the Excel files being distributed with this collection are in the later version of Excel (file ending of xlsx).