educational research, or fear of measuring one’s own school against a standard.
Numerous efforts were made to encourage the principals’ assistance in the study.
Precautions included the use of a pilot survey with a small pilot group to insure that the
survey was not frustrating in any way to the reader, and that the length of the survey was
reasonable. The author issued a guarantee that no school was identified at any point in
the research process, and that participants’ names were not connected to the data
submitted. Modest cash prizes were advertised and awarded to randomly selected
respondents. After the data collection window had closed, the researcher received a
message from one participant representing a large urban school district.