Appendix B-1 - Site Visit Recruitment Letter

OMB Control No.: 0970-xxxx

Expiration Date: xx/xx/20xx

Appendix B-1: Site Visit Recruitment Letter

THE URBAN INSTITUTE 2100 M STREET, NW. WASHINGTON D.C. 20037

[Date]

Dear [Name of Program Director],

We are grateful that [YOU/PERSON SURVEYED ON YOUR STAFF] recently participated in a telephone survey about Head Start and Early Head Start programs’ experiences with the new school readiness goals requirement.

As we mentioned at the end of the telephone interview, the second part of this study involves visits to 12 Head Start and Early Head Start grantees from across the country to learn more about their experiences setting and using school readiness goals. We wanted to inform you that [NAME OF PROGRAM] has been selected as one of these grantees. Your program was specifically selected to help capture the experience of grantees with characteristics and experiences similar to yours. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to visit your program.

If you agree to participate, we will schedule a two-day visit at a time convenient for you within the next couple of months. During that visit, we would like to interview you and [PERSON SURVEYED ON YOUR STAFF/ PERSON ON THE MANAGEMENT TEAM WHO HAS PLAYED A LEAD ROLE IN THE SCHOOL READINESS PROCESS]. In addition, we will work with you and your staff to schedule individual and small group interviews with other program staff and parents. We are also interested in meeting with members of your policy council and governing body, and other community stakeholders so that we can get a broad range of perspectives on your school readiness goals. Our research team is prepared to coordinate as much of the scheduling and logistics as possible to reduce the burden on you and your staff. We can discuss the details by phone at a later date.

We remind you that your program’s participation in a site visit is completely voluntary and no one outside the research team will be informed of whether or not you agree to participate. Similar to the telephone survey, the information shared during the site visit will be kept private and the name of your program or the names of participants will not be identified in any reports or discussions with the government or public.

We also want to emphasize that the study is not designed as an evaluation of your program’s compliance with the school readiness goals requirements. Rather, it is designed to provide information to the Office of Head Start, Congress, and other key stakeholders to help inform future policy, technical assistance, and training efforts.

For your reference, attached is a copy of the project summary that may be shared with your staff and partners. Someone from our research team will contact you by phone in the next two weeks to answer any questions you may have and to discuss the possibility of your program’s participation in a site visit.  In the meantime, if you want to contact us, please feel free to respond to this e-mail message or call Heather Sandstrom at (202)261-5833.  Thank you again for your cooperation, and we look forward to speaking with you soon.

Best regards,

Monica Rohacek & Heather Sandstrom

C

This information collection is voluntary and will be used to learn how Head Start and Early Head Start programs establish and implement their school readiness goals. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this collection is 0970-XXXX and expires XX/XX/XXX.

o-Principal Investigators