Letter to Conference Attendees

Appendix D

Letter to Conference Attendees

Dear Conference Registrant:

The Regional Educational Laboratory for the Southeast (REL-SE) invites you to participate in a group discussion designed to help us plan our work to meet the needs of education professionals in (state name). The REL-SE is focused on the goal of understanding the needs of education stakeholders and their demands for information to inform critical decisions. The purpose of these meetings is to: 1. Understand the high priority education information needs of educators, policymakers and others in the Southeast states; 2. Obtain input on what the REL-SE could do to improve the quality and process of evidence-based decision making in schools, school districts and state departments of education.

This meeting is planned to coincide with the (name the state conference) that you have registered to attend. We hope that you are willing to share your thoughts and ideas with us, and because we know your time is valuable, we will provide a $50 gift certificate to you as a stipend.

The REL-SE meeting will be held (name location, date and time of meeting).

You and twenty other educators will be asked a series of questions that will be recorded on site with the Perception Analyzer, a technology for recording and summarizing multiple choice questions. There will also be some open-ended questions for discussion. We will use your answers and those of educators throughout the Southeast to aid us in planning our work in 2008.

Your responses will be completely confidential, and will not be linked to your name. Responses to this data collection will be used only for statistical purposes. The reports prepared for this study will summarize findings across the sample and will not associate responses with a specific district or individual. We will not provide information that identifies you or your district to anyone outside the study team, except as required by law.

If you are able to participate in our meeting, please fill out the attached form and email it, or fax it (1-336-315-7457) to me as soon as you can. We need 20 participants and will cut off registration for this meeting once we have filled our quota. If you are among the first 20, I will then send you final information for the meeting. If you are unable to participate, please send me an email indicating that you cannot participate. My email address is: hdecaspe@serve.org.

Thank you for your interest in helping the REL-SE shape its work to provide the best available evidence and research into local, district, state and regional school improvement efforts.

Helen S. DeCasper

Program Director, REL-SE

SERVE Center at UNCG

REL-SE Marketing Meeting

Date, time and location

Please fill out this information and fax (1-336-315-7457), or email to hdecaspe@serve.org. We will cut off registration once 20 educators have registered.

Name __________________________________

Title ___________________________________

Work Address ____________________________________

___________________________________

Email Address : ___________________

Telephone: _______________________

Fax: ____________________________

I will ___________ will not __________ participate in the REL-SE meeting.

For further information, call Helen S. DeCasper, 1-800-755-3277, REL-SE at SERVE Center at UNCG.

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egional Educational Laboratory