Principal letter

Private School Letter

I am writing to ask you, as principal of <name of school>, to complete the School Leaders Survey for an evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) that the U.S Congress has mandated. After you complete the survey, we will mail you a check for $10 in appreciation of your time spent on this effort.

As you may know, the OSP is a federal program that provides scholarships to low-income residents of the District of Columbia so that they can attend local private schools instead of the public schools available to them. There is great interest in understanding how both private and public schools admit students, organize instruction, and encourage parents to participate in school efforts, as well as what types of services and programs are offered. These are the main topics covered by the survey, which will be conducted each spring, 2013-2016.

The survey should take approximately X minutes. We ask that you complete it by Y date.

The easiest way to fill out the survey is on the web:

• Go to www.(name of website).com.

• Enter the unique username and password we have assigned to, listed below:

Username:

Password:

If you would prefer a paper version of the survey, please email, (insert email address), or call 888-xxx-xxxx.

All of your answers are completely confidential. Findings from the survey will only be reported in the aggregate and will not identify you or your school. Westat and its partners, as the U.S. Department’s OSP evaluation contractors, are required by law to uphold all federal laws regarding privacy and confidentiality.

If you have any questions or need help completing this survey, please contact me or Sylvia Segovia, Data Collection Manager, at Westat (phone: 1-888-xxx-xxxx; email: <email address>).

Thank you for participating in this important evaluation. We look forward to working with your school over the next several years to make this study a success.

Sincerely,

Juanita Lucas-McLean

Project Director