Professor Russell W. Rumberger

 Office: Phelps 2329

Enrollment Code: 49239

 Office hours: Mondays 2-4 pm

Room: Phelps 3526

Phone: 893-3395

Time: Thurdsay 4:00-7:00pm

Email: russ@education.ucsb.edu

 

ED201B Survey Research Design – Winter 2007

SYLLABUS

 

 

OVERVIEW

Survey research is one of the most common and useful methods for gathering data in the social sciences.  This course is designed to teach students both how to design new surveys how to use existing national surveys in conducting educational research.  The course will introduce to students to all aspects of survey research, from design issues to analysis issues.  Four methods of survey data collection be covered:  intereviews, mail surveys, telephone surveys, and internet surveys.  The course will be very applied:  students will be expected to design and pilot a small-scale survey and to analyze the data from that survey.  Students should have a working knowledge of basic statistics (ED214A, B, C) and knowledge of SPSS.

 

READINGS

There is one required textbook, which you can order from Amazon.com:

 

Floyd Fowler, Jr.  (2001).  Survey Research Methods, 3rd Edition.  Thousand Oakes:  Sage Publications;

 

and one supplemental textbook, which is available online:

 

Matthias Schonlau, Ronald D. Fricker, Jr., Marc N. Elliott.  (2001).  Conducting Research Surveys via E-mail and the Web.  Santa Monica:  RAND.  Available on the WWW: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1480/.

 

In addition, there is a set of readings available for purchase at the Alternative Copy Shop, 6556 Pardall Rd, Isla Vista, Phone: 968-1055.  They are open M-F 8am-7pm and weekends 10am-4pm.

 

Many of the readings are available on the World Wide Web (as indicated by the symbol:  WWW), through an online database of electronic journals (http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_ucsb/a-z/default).  Some of these may require access via a university computer or a home computer using a proxy server (see:  http://www.library.ucsb.edu/help/proxy/faq.html). 

 

REQUIREMENTS

Students will be expected to attend class each week and to complete a series of assignments that involve reviewing research studies using survey research methods, designing and piloting a small survey, analyzing existing survey data.  The final grade will be based the homework assignments and on class attendance and participation.  There will be no exams.  There will be five homework assignments:

 

·        Assignment 1:  Review existing survey research study (Due:  January 25).

·        Assignment 2:  Locate, access, and analyze secondary data via the WWW (Due: Feb. 1).

·        Assignment 3:  Write prospectus for survey research study (Due. February 8)

·        Assignment 4:  Design survey research questionnaire (Due: February 15).

·        Assignment 5:  Pilot questionnaire on a small sample of representative respondents, conduct descriptive analysis of pilot survey data, and report on possible survey and item response bias (Due: March 14).

 

WWW

All class materials and other information related to the class are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.education.ucsb.edu/rumberger/ed201b/. 

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

 

Week 1           Overview of Course and Research Methods                      

January 11        Lowell C. Rose and Alec M. Gallup.  2004.  The 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll Of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools (http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpollpdf.htm).

                        Valerie E. Lee and Susanna Loeb.  1995.  “Where do Head Start attendees end up?  One reason why preschool effects fade out.”  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 17, 62-82.  (http://www.jstor.org/view/01623737/ap040071/04a00040/0#&origin=sfx%3Asfx).

                        James D. Wright.  1988.  “Survey research and social policy.”  Evaluation Review, 12, 595-606 (WWW).    

                       

                        UCSB Human Subjects Guidelines (http://research.ucsb.edu/connect/pro/prs1.shtml

 

            Class assignment:  UCSB Human Subjects Training (http://hstraining.orda.ucsb.edu/; ID=GSED-RU-RU-057)

 

 

Week 2           Elements of Research and Survey Research Designs

January 18        Fowler, Chapter 1, 4.

Royce A. Singleton, Bruce C. Straights, and Margaret Miller Straits.  1993.  Approaches to Social Science Research, 2nd edition.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1993), Chapters 4, 9.

Schonlau, Fricker, & Elliott, Chapters 1-2.

 

 

Week 3           Secondary Data Sources

January 25        David W. Stewart and Michael A. Kamins.  1993. Secondary Research:  Information Sources and Methods, 2nd edition.  Newbury Park:  Sage, Chapters 1-2.

                        Margaret W. Cahalan, Steven J. Ingles, Laura J. Burns, Michael Planty, and Bruce Daniel.  2006.  United States High School Sophomores: A Twenty-Two Year Comparison, 1980-2002.  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.  http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006327.pdf

National Assessment of Educational Progress.  http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/

 

                        Class deomonstration:  Searching online sources.

 

 

Week 4           Sampling, Non-response, and Weighting

February 1       Fowler, Chapters 2-3

                        Schonlau, Fricker, & Elliott, Chapter 4: Choosing Among the Various Types of Internet Surveys.

Norn Trussell and Paul J. Lavrakas. 2004.  “The influence of incremental increases in token cash incentives on mail survey response: Is there an optimal amount?”  Public Opinion Quarterly, 68, 349-367.  (WWW).

Jon Krosnick.  1999.  “Survey research.”  Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 537-567 (WWW).    

 

Supplemental readings:

Donald H. Mclaughlin and Jon Cohen.  1997.  NELS:88 Survey Item Evaluation Report.  Washington, D.C.:  U.S. Department of Educaiton.

            http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=97052

 

                        Class demonstration:  SPSS Data Entry Builder (Russ Rumberger)

 

Week 5           Questionnaire Design

February 8       Fowler, Chapters 5-6

                        Royce A. Singleton, Bruce C. Straights, and Margaret Miller Straits.  1993.  Approaches to Social Science Research, 2nd edition.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1993), Chapter 5.

                        Schonlau, Fricker, & Elliott, Chapter 5: Guidelines for Designing and Implementing Internet Surveys.

Andew Zukerberg, Elizabeth Nichols, Heather Tedesco, Elizabeth Nichols, “Designing surveys for the next millennium:  Internet questionnaire design issues.”

Nora Cate Schaeffer and Stanley Presser.  2003.  “The ccience of asking questions.” Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 65-88 (WWW).

 

Supplemental:

                        E. Dianne Locker.  1989.  “Accuracy of proxy reports of parental status characteristics.”  Sociology of Education, 62, 257-276 (WWW). 

Maria Elena Sanchez.  1992.  “Effects of questionnaire eesign on the quality of survey data.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 56, 206-217 (WWW). 

Floyd Jackson Fowler, Jr.  1992.  “How unclear terms affect survey data” Public Opinion Quarterly, 56, 218-231 (WWW).

 

Class demonstration:  TELEFORM (Margarita Gonzalez)

 

Week 6           Discussion of Student Projects                                             

February 15    

 

                        Class demonstration:  Internet surveys (Michael Furlong)

 

Week 7           Data Collection Procedures                                                 

February 22     Fowler, Chapter

                        Schonlau, Fricker, & Elliott, Chapter 6: Internet Survey Case Studies.

Cobanoglu, C., Warde, B., & Moreo, P.J.  2001.  “A comparison of mail, fax and web-based survey methods.”  International Journal of Market Research, 43(4), 441-452 (WWW)

                        Aída Hurtado. 1994. “Does similarity breed respect?” Public Opinon Quarterly, 58, 77-95 (WWW).

                        Stephen D. Reese, Wayne A. Danielson, Pamela J. Shoemaker, Tsan-Kuo Change, and Huei-Ling Hsu, 1986. “Ethnicity-of-interviewer effects among Mexican-Americans and Anglos.” Pubic Opinion Quarterly, 50, 563-572 (WWW).

                        Richard J. Fox, Melvin R. Crask, and Jonghoon Kim.  1988.  “Mail survey response rate.”  Public Opinion Quarterly, 52, 467-491 (WWW).

                        Kaplowitz, Michael D., Timothy D. Hadlock, and Raplph Levine.  2004. “A comparison of Web and mail survey response rates.”  Public Opinion Quarterly, 68(1), 94-101 (WWW).  

                       

                        Class demonstration:  Telephone surveys—Social Science Survey Center 

 

Week 8           Data Processing and Analysis

March 7           Fowler, Chapters 8, 10

 

                        Supplemental:

National Center for Education Statistics.  (1995).  Empirical Evaluation of Social, Psychological, & Educational Construct Variables Used in NCES Surveys.  Working Paper No. 95-14.  Washington, NCES.  http://nces.ed.gov/pubs95/9514.pdf

 

                        Class demonstration:  Internet surveys—Social Science Survey Center

 

Week 9           Class presentations

March 21         Final assignment due