This research brief answers two questions about the representativeness or external validity of the District-Wide Survey student and parent/guardian responses from the 2017-18 school year:

1. How closely does the DWS sample of student respondents 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 does the DWS sample of the 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?

By comparing the characteristics of survey respondents to the overall population, we can assess the external validity of the survey results.

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