Letter to Districts

APPENDIX I
INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO DISTRICTS

[MPR Staff Name]
[Title]

600 Maryland Ave. S.W., Suite 550
Washington, DC 20024-2512
Telephone (202) 484-9220
Fax (202) 863-1763
www.mathematica-mpr.com
[(###) ###-####]

6136-500-[###]
February [##], 2006

[Name of superintendent]
Superintendent
[District name
Address
City, State 00000]
Dear Dr./Mr./Ms. _____________:
The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Institute of Education Sciences has contracted with
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) to conduct a study of supplemental reading comprehension
programs for fifth-graders. The study will evaluate up to four programs targeted at improving
students’ comprehension of informational text in science or social studies. Participating schools will
be randomly assigned to implement one of the four supplemental programs in their fifth-grade
reading/language art classrooms or to continue with their current reading instruction. For each school
assigned to a reading comprehension program, the program developer will provide all teacher training
materials and classroom instructional materials, and they will train all fifth-grade reading/language arts
teachers to implement their program.
Your district is one of about 10 districts selected for the study. Within each of these districts, we
would like to identify 10 schools (preferably school-wide Title I schools) to participate. The study
requires limited data collection: a teacher survey, school records collection, classroom observation,
and administration of reading tests. The information collected by the study is for research purposes
only. Data will be aggregated to form national estimates, and results will never be used to identify
any individual student, classroom, school, or district.
I am writing now to provide you and [name of reading/language arts curriculum director] with
some initial background on the study (please see the enclosed study summary and brochure). To
facilitate your district’s participation and address any questions, we will contact [name of
reading/language arts curriculum director] within the next few days to set up a time to further discuss
the study. At that time, we will provide an overview of the study, the nature and scope of the data
collection activities, the benefits of participating in the study, and the logistics for your district’s
participation.
An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

J-1

LETTER TO:
FROM:
DATE:
PAGE:

[name]
[MPR Staff Name]
February [##], 2006
2

If you have any questions about the study please contact me at [(###) ###-####] or
[name@mathematica-mpr.com]. To verify your state’s support of the study, you may contact your
state’s Chief State School Officer, ________________. Thank you in advance for your help and
cooperation. We look forward to working with you to conduct this important study.
Sincerely,

cc: [Name of Reading/Language Arts Curriculum Director]
Attachments: Study Summary
Brochure

J-2