The National Study of Writing Instruction - University at Albany

Table 10. Selected Contrasts between Responders and Non-
Responders
Returned
questionnaire
No Yes Total
Gender Male Count 1593 588 2181
% 36.8% 39.3% 37.4%
Female Count 2737 910 3647
% 63.2% 60.7% 62.6%
Level Middle Count 2183 696 2879
High
School
% 49.6% 45.8% 48.7%
Count 2214 824 3038
% 50.4% 54.2% 51.3%
Form 1 Count 2170 796 2966
% 49.4% 52.4% 50.1%
2 Count 2227 723 2950
% 50.6% 47.6% 49.9%
Metro Rural Count 1323 514 1837
% 30.2% 34.0% 31.1%
Suburban Count 2268 694 2962
% 51.7% 45.9% 50.2%
Urban Count 797 303 1100
% 18.2% 20.1% 18.6%
Total Count 5918 1520 5899
% 74.3% 25.7% 100.0%
32
Chi-
Square p
2.88 ns
6.73 0.009
4.2 0.040
14.97 0.001
Comparison of Responders to National Estimates
Data from NCES were compared where possible with the characteristics of the final sample of
survey respondents (Table 11). For these comparisons, a weight variable was constructed on
the basis of NCES estimates of the number of middle and high school teachers in each state,
adjusting both for the initial oversampling of 5 states and for differential response rates among
states. Separate weights were constructed for all states with at least 40 individual respondents;
other states were grouped together and weighted as “other”.
The data in Table 11 suggest that the sample is for the most part quite representative of
teachers nationally, in the ethnicity of the students they teach, student eligibility for free or
reduced price lunch, class size, and gender.