The Effect of Incentives and Mode of Contact on the Recruitment of Teachers into Survey Panels

Abstract

This article discusses an experiment run at the beginning of an effort to substantially enlarge the RAND American Teacher Panel, a nationally representative sample of K-12 public school teachers. Ten strategies were evaluated. We considered different modes of contact (FedEx vs. US Postal Service \[USPS\]), contingency status of incentives (pre- vs. promised incentive), amounts of incentive ($2, $10, $40, or $60), and types of incentive (cash, check, gift card, electronic). Strategies were compared in terms of response rate and cost effectiveness. Our study yielded several findings that should advance the literature: The use of FedEx clearly outperforms USPS, and the use of a moderate preincentive ($10) outperforms much larger promised incentives (up to $60) with respect to both responsiveness and cost-effectiveness. In addition, cash and check seem preferable to gift cards. Finally, we assess the potential for nonresponse bias by comparing enrollees to nonresponders across a variety of demographic characteristics for each strategy.