Finding Quality Responses: The Problem of Low-Quality Survey Responses and Its Impact on Accountability Measures

Abstract

Although many studies have addressed the issue of response quality in survey studies, few have looked specifically at low-quality survey responses in surveys of college students. As students receive more and more survey requests, it is inevitable that some of them will provide low-quality responses to important campus surveys and institutional accountability measures. This study proposes a strategy for uncovering low-quality survey responses and describes how they may affect intercampus accountability measures. The results show that survey response quality does have an effect on intercampus accountability measures, and that certain individual and circumstantial factors may increase the likelihood of low-quality responses. Implications for researchers and higher education administrators are discussed.