Supplementing a Paper Questionnaire with Web and Two-Way Short Message Service (SMS) Surveys.

This article examines the impact of adding two electronic data collection modes—web surveys via emailed links and automated two-way short message service (SMS) text surveys—to a traditional mailed paper questionnaire in the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS), which contacts school principals who previously responded to the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS). The study found that both electronic modes significantly increased response rates and reduced time-to-response compared to paper-only surveys, with the SMS survey yielding higher response rates and faster completions than the web survey. These findings suggest that incorporating SMS-based surveys alongside paper questionnaires can enhance data collection efficiency for short surveys among highly educated populations, though operational considerations and respondent contact information availability may influence mode effectiveness.