The District-Wide Survey (DWS) program measures five key topics related to school improvement—climate, instruction, leadership, professional capacity, and parent/guardian-community ties, while allowing respondents to share their perspectives and provide feedback about how they experience and perceive their schools. This research brief answers two questions about the representativeness, or external validity, of the student and parent/guardian responses from 2019-20:

1. How closely do student respondents to the DWS reflect the demographic and educational characteristics (ethnicity/gender/grade) of all students enrolled in grades 3-12 in District and Charter schools?
2. How closely do students of parent/guardian respondents reflect the demographic and educational characteristics (ethnicity/gender/ grade) of students enrolled in grades K-12 in District and Charter schools?

This is an updated version of an earlier report that answered these same questions using data from the 2017-18 DWS surveys. Use the button below to download the six-page brief.