Advance Letter

Dear Colleague:

 

The U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), has contracted with the American Institutes of Research (AIR) to conduct a study Identifying Potentially Successful Approaches to Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools. This study seeks to identify schools that have achieved rapid improvements in student outcomes in a short period of time; illuminate the complex range of policies, programs, and practices (PPP) used by these turnaround (TA) schools; and compare them to strategies employed by chronically low-performing schools (CLP) that have not had similar success with improvement.

 

An important component of this study is the survey of current principals in elementary and middle CLP schools. Your knowledge of the chronology of your school’s policies, programs and practices targeting improvement in student outcomes, including accountability and external policies are very important to us. AIR has contracted with Decision Information Resources, Inc. (DIR) an independent research firm, to conduct this survey. At this point, we are testing the draft survey instrument and we need your help.

 

The survey should only take about 20-25 minutes to complete. Your responses are voluntary and will be kept confidential - you may even choose not to answer any question. All of your answers will be kept private to the extent allowed by law. Your name will never appear in any public reports.

To complete the survey online, please go to the link below, enter the access code provided and follow the instructions.

Survey Link: http://surveys.dir-online.com/se.ashx?s=70FDD096651ACCF5
Access Code: 6666

You will need your access code to take the survey. If you experience any difficulty or technical problems accessing the survey, please send an email to surveyoperations@dir-research.com. If you would like to complete the survey by telephone or fax you may contact Pam Wells at 1-888-864-1425, ext, 137. If you have not completed the survey within 1 week of receiving this letter, a DIR interviewer will contact you by telephone. All study staff are trained to protect your privacy and have signed a privacy pledge.

 

Once you have completed the survey, we would like to talk with you briefly to get your feedback on the survey process. Because your participation in this pilot process is critical to the success of this effort, we will send you a $50 cash gift card upon completion of the survey as a token of our appreciation.

 

Thank you in advance for contributing your time and thoughtful responses to this important research study. If you have any questions or concerns about this survey please contact Pam Wells, at 1-888-864-1425 weekdays between 9 AM and 6 PM, Central Standard Time (CST), or by email at pwells@dir-online.com .

  

Sincerely,

Pamela Wells