Teacher Letter

Appendix D:

Information Letter for the Teacher Cognitive Interviews

Letter for Telephone-based Cognitive Interviews with Teachers

[Date]

Dear [Teacher]:

Thank you for agreeing to participate in an interview about the questionnaire for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). Your participation is very important because your comments will improve the questionnaires for the spring second-grade data collection of the ECLS-K:2011.

The ECLS-K:2011 is a study of child development, early learning, and school progress that brings together information from multiple sources to provide rich data about the population of children who were in kindergarten in the 2010-11 school year as they progress through school. Currently the study is developing questionnaires that will provide information about children’s experiences during their second-grade school year. Westat, a social science research company, is conducting the study for the National Center for Education Statistics, a part of the U.S. Department of Education.

We are currently reviewing items that may be included in the teacher questionnaire. Your input, while voluntary, will be essential in developing a questionnaire that is clear and not overly burdensome to respondents like yourself. Your answers may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose except as required by law (ESRA 2002), 20 U.S. Code, Section 9573].

We ask that you take 5 minutes to review the full questionnaire that accompanies this letter. A portion of the interview will focus on questions that are highlighted in yellow in the questionnaire. For your scheduled interview on [DATE] at [TIME], call 1-800-531-4204 toll free and enter pass code: [insert #]; you then will be connected to the interviewer.

The interviewer will ask you to read each question highlighted in yellow and then “think aloud” about how you would go about providing an answer. For this reason it is important for you to have the questionnaire in front of you during the interview. The telephone interview should last about an hour.

As a thank you for your help with the questionnaire, following the interview, a check for $35 will be mailed to you.

If you have any questions, please call [NAME] at Westat’s toll-free number, 800-937-8281, ext. [XXXX].

Thank you for your much needed assistance!

Sincerely,

Karen Tourangeau

Project Director

Westat

Enclosures

C-0