2.3 Survey Administration

The survey was administered between August 27 and September 9, 1998. As highlighted in Table 2-3A below, interviews with a total of 87 SSA scholarship winners throughout the province were completed, representing a valid response rate of 83.7%. The refusal rate was extremely low, at 1.9% of the valid sample.

Table 2-3A
Sample Distribution and Valid Response Rate

Respondent Group	Original Sample Size	Out-of-scope*	Valid sample size**	Completions	Valid Response Rate***
SSA Scholarship Winners	142	38	104	87	83.7%

* Includes no contact number found; all numbers not-in-service; prolonged illness; moved out of country, etc.
** original sample size – out-of-scope
*** completions / valid sample size

As also highlighted in the Table, the valid sample size was considerably smaller than the original sample. This is largely a result of the fact that no contact numbers accompanied the student sample list provided by the Ministry of Education.

2.4 Data Analysis

Data from the completed surveys was analyzed using a commonly accepted statistical software package (SPSS for Windows).

Responses to open-ended questions contained in the telephone survey were coded for the purposes of data analysis.

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