Subject: The U.S. Department of Education wants to hear from you!
Dear [State Project Director]:
We would like your help with a new, congressionally-mandated study being carried out by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to learn more about how different state grantees provide scholarships to support GEAR UP students’ enrollment and persistence in college.
While ED expects GEAR UP state grantees to participate in this study (Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR), Section 34 C.F.R. § 76.591), we want you to know how much we appreciate your participation! Your participation helps ensure that the study reflects a comprehensive understanding of state grantees’ financial aid supports for GEAR UP students across the country.
What is the purpose of the study? The study will help the Department, as well as current and future GEAR UP grantees, learn about strategies for managing GEAR UP scholarships and securing matching funds. This can help the Department identify challenges that state grantees face and, in turn, better support them. It may also inform the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
What do you need to do? We have two requests for you:
Participate in a 90-minute phone interview. During the interview, we will discuss scholarship policies and amounts, gather details about other sources of financial assistance for GEAR UP students in your state, and find out about some of the other activities your grant is focused on.
Complete a Supplemental Data Form. The form includes numeric data on students and expenditures that you may need to look up and that would be burdensome to collect by phone. We will prepare a simple Excel worksheet, tailored for your state, for you to fill out and send back. We anticipate that completing the form will take no more than 30 minutes.
Who is conducting the study? Abt Associates is carrying out this study on behalf of ED’s Institute of Education Sciences and will uphold all federal laws regarding privacy and confidentiality.
When is the study happening? The Abt study team would like to collect all information—including the interviews and the Supplemental Data Form—between [MONTH] and [MONTH].
By next Friday please respond to this email to let us know if you are available at any of the following dates and times to participate in an interview. If none of these times work for you, please suggest some that will.
[INSERT THREE DATE/TIME OPTIONS]
Feel free to contact me at [EMAIL ADDRESS] or [PHONE #] with any questions.
We look forward to speaking with you soon!
Sincerely,
Hannah Miller, Abt Project Director
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Amy Checkoway |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-11 |