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 teacher, principal/assistant principal, and support staff responses from
the 2020-21 school year:

• How closely do teacher, principal/assistant principal, and support staff DWS
  respondents reflect the demographic characteristics (race/ethnicity and gender)
  of all teachers, principals, assistant principals, and support staff employed at
  District schools?
• How closely does the distribution of teacher, principal/ assistant principal,
  and support staff DWS respondents across school levels (elementary, middle, and
  high) reflect the distribution of all teachers, principals, assistant principals,
  and support staff employed at District schools?