RAND is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that provides leaders with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions. RAND conducts research in areas of health care, national security, education, technology and international relations and, in collaboration with Center on Reinventing Public Education, the Council of Great City Schools and MGT, administers the American School District Panel (ASDP) survey.

The ASDP survey is administered across a nationally representative sample. Topics on the survey include curriculum and instruction, artificial intelligence and other technology, school finance, professional development, staffing and more. The survey was first administered in 2020 and is distributed twice a year, typically in the spring and fall.

Findings from the ASDP provide insight into how districts are structuring their policies and practices to support students, and how these structures change over time in response to local educational agency needs. The survey provides district leaders an opportunity to share input on education policy and practice. National results from past surveys can be viewed online on the ASDP website.

CBSA serves as a trusted partner for assisting in participant outreach for the ASDP. The survey is sent to a selection of CSBA members in the spring and fall. CSBA believes that the district leadership perspective in the ASDP survey is critical for shaping policy and practice decisions, especially given the geographic and cultural diversity of California.

Spring 2025 ASDP survey findings revealed several areas in which California district leaders diverged from the national average. Nearly 250 CSBA members took the survey, representing 21 districts across the state. Results were then weighted to be nationally representative of U.S. school districts. The following are a few select findings from the spring 2025 survey:

• Fifty-four percent of CSBA respondents agreed with the statement, “The stress and disappointments involved in being a superintendent aren’t really worth it.” Across the full ASDP sample, 47 percent of respondents agreed to the same statement, indicating potentially higher feelings of professional strain or burnout among California administrators compared to the national average.
• Fifty-nine percent of CSBA participants answered that they expected their 2026–27 annual budget to be lower than their 2025–26 budget, compared with 40 percent of participants nationwide.
• When asked about cellphone bans across the district, 75 percent of CSBA respondents stated that all schools prohibit cellphone use for the entire day, and another 20 percent indicated that all schools prohibit use during some of the day (during class, for example). Nationally, the respective averages were 30 percent and 45 percent, potentially reflecting the outsized effect of statewide cellphone bans in California.
• Tracking where California districts align with and diverge from the national average allows for CSBA to make informed decisions around policy, research and advocacy, making participation from CSBA members highly important.

Selected participants in the ASDP survey will receive an email invitation from a CSBA address or from ASDP@rand.org directly. The survey may be delegated to knowledgeable district staff. Please note that some email inboxes may automatically filter invitations to Junk or Trash folders. To learn more, please reach out to Morgan Garvey, CSBA education policy analyst, at mgarvey@csba.org.