ADVANCE Fellows Cover Letter

Month day, 2010

Name

Title/department

Institution

Address

City State Zip

Dear Dr. LAST NAME:

NSF has contracted with Westat to conduct an outcome evaluation of the Fellows and Institutional Transformation (IT) components of the ADVANCE program. The enclosed survey asks about your experiences and outcomes prior to, during, and since the end of your ADVANCE Fellows award. Your answers to these questions are essential to NSF’s ability to assess whether and how the Fellows awards achieved their intended goals. One part of the evaluation is a quasi-experimental design that compares the outcomes for ADVANCE Fellows with those for a similar set of respondents to the 2008 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. These comparison questions, contained in Section E of the survey, ask you to respond on the basis of your personal and employment status on October 1, 2008.

It will be helpful to have the following documents in hand before filling out the survey: a) a copy of your most recent curriculum vitae and/or biosketch; b) a copy of your Federal income tax return for 2008; and c) if applicable, any journal you may keep recording research activities. We ask that you return the completed survey to us, along with a copy of your current curriculum vitae, in the enclosed self-addressed stamped envelope by [INSERT DATE]. We want to emphasize that your responses to the survey will be kept strictly confidential. Only designated Westat project staff members who have signed a pledge of confidentiality will have access to the data, which will be stripped of all personal identifiers and maintained with utmost security in a locked filing cabinet (if hard copy) and on a password-protected server (if electronic). We will report findings in the aggregate, in a manner that cannot be linked to individual respondents. While we very much hope that you will respond to this important survey, you will suffer no consequences from non-participation.

As noted above, your timely responses are vital to NSF’s ability to evaluate the outcomes of the Fellows awards. We are happy to provide any assistance you may need in answering the survey. Should you have any questions about the evaluation or this survey, please do not hesitate to contact me at 301-294-3936 or [email protected]. We look forward to receiving your responses.

Sincerely,

Susan G. Berkowitz, Ph.D.

Project Director

Quantitative Evaluation of the ADVANCE Program

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