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Methodology

The Department of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut was commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to conduct this study of high school students, faculty and administrators. A representative sample of high schools was taken from across the country in order to assess whether a relationship exists between the presence and nature of media programs in high schools and levels of appreciation and knowledge of First Amendment rights. The Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) in the Department of Public Policy conducted the data collection.

The mode of administration was a key factor in the design of the survey instrument. The study used self-administered questionnaires handed out in schools around the country. Questions were designed with this method in mind and rigorously tested to ensure that all respondents would understand each question the same way. Four high school-based populations were surveyed with a unique questionnaire. These populations included students, teachers, principals and school buildings. For the school building survey, the principal identified the most appropriate administrator at the school to answer questions about characteristics of the school building.

The survey consisted of a multistage cluster sampling design conducted in two stages across three separate units of analysis: schools, students and faculty. Four separate surveys were administered. Initially, a survey was administered to a random sample of 544 separate high school buildings around the country. In the second wave of the study, 327 of the initial set of school buildings completed a more intensive level of data collection. In these schools, separate surveys were administered to administrators, faculty and students. The samples of schools, school principals, teachers, school administrators and high school students are representative of the populations from which they were drawn.

The sample for this project was based on a database licensed from Educational Directories of Schaumberg, Ill. This database, published in print format as ?Patterson's American Education,? is a comprehensive single-source database of both public and private high schools in the United States.

Geographic regions of the country were defined on the basis of official United States census categories. ?Red? and ?blue? states were determined on the basis of the 2004 presidential election (Red states' electoral college votes went for the Republican, President George W. Bush; Blue states' electoral college votes went for the Democrat, Sen. John Kerry). Community types were self-identified by administrators during the first phase of the study.

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