Driving Innovation and Impact Through the National Household Education Survey

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The National Household Education Survey (NHES), run by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), collects information about children’s and families’ education activities. 

The most recent NHES administration, conducted in 2023, used an address-based sample and a sequential web-mail design. Recent NHES topics include early childhood care and education, family involvement in schools, school choice, homeschooling, and virtual education.
 

AIR's Contributions to the NHES

From 2012 to 2025, AIR played a key role in the survey’s design, data collection, analysis, and release. Our team helped maintain good response rates, ensure high-quality data, and publish products that support researchers, policymakers, and the public.

Highlights of our work have included:

Optimizing Sample Design to Enhance Survey Efficiency

• AIR created the sample design, acquired the address-based sample frame, and drew the sample of more than 200,000 addresses.
   
• We developed an innovative method for identifying addresses that were more likely to include NHES-eligible children. These addresses were then sampled for the survey at a higher rate, helping control the costs of conducting the survey, increasing the overall efficiency of the sample design, and allowing for a smaller starting sample size.

Advancing Survey Outreach Through Predictive Modeling and Experimental Research

• AIR developed models for predicting which addresses were more likely to be receptive to various types of outreach.
   
• We conducted experiments to test these methods and published results in peer-reviewed journals summarizing the results of these experiments (tailored incentives and tailored response modes). These experiments contributed to the field’s understanding of best practices for conducting mail surveys. 

Driving Methodological Innovation Through Experimental Design

• AIR designed over a dozen methodological experiments that were conducted during the last three administrations of the NHES. We proposed experiment ideas based on scans of the literature and our understanding of prior NHES results, conducted power analyses to ensure sufficient sample size to detect differences, and prepared experimental contact materials or survey items.
   
• These experiments improved the efficiency of the methods used for the NHES. For example, a 2019 FedEx timing experiment found that moving the FedEx mailing earlier in the data collection increased the response rate—and that any increases in FedEx mailing costs were offset by the larger percentage of respondents who submitted their response by web instead of by paper.

Ensuring Data Integrity and Transparency

• AIR supported NCES in processing and releasing both public- and restricted-use NHES data. We conducted disclosure review analyses, developed and implemented data editing and imputation procedures, created survey weights, conducted nonresponse bias analyses, and performed quality control checks on data files.
   
• We also produced Data File User’s Manuals to provide transparency on the methods used to collect and process the data.

Delivering Timely Insights to Inform Education Policy and Practice

• AIR created First Look reports highlighting key findings from each of the NHES surveys, focusing on early childhood program participation and parent involvement in K‒12 education.
   
• We also prepared ad hoc reports on hot topics in K‒12 education, such as homeschooling, virtual education, and school choice.
   
• In 2024, AIR experts conducted more than 2,000 quick turnaround analyses that were used to provide context to Congress and the White House about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and child care in the United States.