Appendix C
Dear «Salutation» «Lastname»:
This letter provides an introduction to the National Evaluation of the IDEA Technical Assistance and Dissemination Program and seeks your assistance in completing a questionnaire and interview about your center. This evaluation is being conducted by Westat for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of Education.
The overall goals of the evaluation are to provide descriptive information about the products and services provided by the TA&D Program centers, as well as to understand needs that SEAs, Part C Lead Agencies and other customers have for technical assistance related to understanding and implementing IDEA and the extent to which these needs are being met. In addition to our interaction with you and your center, questionnaires are being administered to all State Part B Directors and Part C Coordinators.
Over the past months, we have familiarized ourselves with the work done by [Center name] by reviewing your 3+2 review and continuation reports and visiting your website. The enclosed questionnaire, along with a follow-up phone interview, is designed to learn more about your center and to understand your perspective on the successes your center has had, as well as the challenges you have experienced.
We ask that you complete the attached questionnaire, no later than [date]. We will review your responses and then conduct the follow-up interview with you and any other staff you would like to have join the call. Chris Lysy from Westat will be contacting you within the next several days to explain more about the interview and to schedule a convenient call time.
If you have questions about the survey, please direct them to Westat’s project director, Tamara Daley (888-xxx-xxxx or [email protected]) or to the Department of Education’s project officer, Meredith Bachman (202-219-2180 or [email protected]).
We look forward to learning more about your center and speaking with you by phone.
Thank you for your time,
Tamara Daley Project Director |
Thomas A. Fiore Principal Investigator |
Notice of Confidentiality
Information collected from the surveys comes under the confidentiality and data protection requirements of the Institute of Education Sciences (The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Part E, Section 183). Information that could identify an individual or institution will be separated from the survey responses submitted, kept in secured locations, and be destroyed as soon as they are no longer required. Survey responses will be used only for research purposes.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 210 minutes (3.5 hours) per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data resources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. The obligation to respond to this collection is required to obtain or retain benefit (EDGAR 34 CFR Part 75). Send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20210-4537 or email [email protected] and reference the OMB Control Number XXXX-XXXX.
Grantee Questionnaire
Below is an alphabetical list of topic areas that grantees may cover with their technical assistance and dissemination (TA&D) activities. Please check all areas for which you provide or have provided technical assistance and dissemination since the start of your current grant.
Assistive technology
Autism
Behavior, including positive behavioral support (PBS)
Child and family outcomes
Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS)
Data systems or use of data for improvement
Deaf-blind
Discipline
Disproportionality
Dispute resolution / procedural safeguards
Early childhood transition
Early intervention services in natural environments
ESL/ELL and special education
Financing for special education or financing of services under Part C
General Supervision/monitoring
IDEA Special Education and early intervention laws, policies, and regulations
Identification (Child Find, screening, assessment)
Inclusion and LRE (preschool, 3-5)
Inclusion and LRE (Part B school age, 6-22)
Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
Interagency coordination
Low incidence disabilities
Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM)
Other disability-specific information
Parent and family involvement
Personnel recruitment/ certification/ licensure
Reading/early literacy (preschool, 3-5)
Reading/literacy (school age, 6-22)
Response to Intervention (RtI) (preschool, 3-5)
Response to Intervention (RtI) (school age, 6-22)
School completion/ dropout/ graduation
Secondary transition and post-school outcomes
Social/emotional development
Standards-based curriculum and instruction
State/local assessment systems, including accommodations, modified standards and alternate assessment
Student performance/ achievement
Writing
Young children at risk
Other ( )
From among the areas you
checked in Question 1, what are the one, two, or three topic areas
to which your center has dedicated your greatest time and financial
resources on providing TA&D since the beginning of your grant?
Below is a list of potential TA&D customers. Please check any customers whom you have served from the beginning of your grant through your products or services.
Note that your response to this question is not expected to include TA or dissemination products that might be accessed without your knowledge.
Customers associated with Part B/619
Staff of state departments of education/state educational agencies
LEA central office general or special education administrators or staff
Administrators or staff of regional education units/intermediate unit offices/regional cooperatives
School-based administrators
General or special education teachers
Related services personnel
Children/students
Parents/families or parent-focused organizations
Customers associated with Part C
Staff of state early intervention/Part C lead agencies
Administrators of local Part C programs
Early intervention providers/practitioners/paraprofessionals
Related services personnel
Children
Parents/families or parent-focused organizations
Other customers
Professional development coordinators
Other technical networks, assistance centers, projects or providers
Staff of national family and consumer organizations
Staff of Federal government agencies
IHE administrators, faculty, and students
Policy makers
Researchers
Other (specify: )
Looking at your response to
Question I-3: Across all the customers you checked, which are
the three customers that have received your greatest time and
financial resources?
From the beginning of your current grant, to which specific customers (e.g., which states, local districts/programs, individuals) have you allocated your greatest time and financial resources?
Please list in the table below up to ten specific customers. Indicate the approximate month and year that you began this work (even if it preceded your current grant period). Next, indicate whether you currently work with this customer, and if not, the approximate month and year that the work ended. Last, list any other TA&D network centers with whom you collaborate to provide products or services to this customer.
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When did you begin working with this customer?
(approximate month and year) |
Do you currently work with this customer? (Y/N)
If
not, when did your work end? |
What other TA&D network centers do you collaborate with to provide products or services to this customer?
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We would like to know how the relationship was initiated with each of these customers. Please look at the list called “Initiation of relationship with customer” below. Indicate which of these options best describes the way you began working with each of the customers you entered in Question I-5.
Initiation of relationship with customer:
Our center established eligibility criteria and announced the availability of products or services to recruit customers (recipients must meet eligibility criteria).
Our center is working with this customer because we conducted a review of performance indicators and identified that this customer had a need.
Our center is working with this customer at OSEP’s request.
We had a pre-established relationship with this customer.
We received a direct request from this customer.
This customer was referred to us by another center.
Other
Customer |
Check all that apply:
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A B C D E F G |
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A B C D E F G |
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A B C D E F G |
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A B C D E F G |
Of the customers you listed in Question I-5, which are your top three in terms of time and financial resources allocated to date?
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Please check all products or
services that your center has provided to all customers from the
beginning of your grant to date. Please do not check boxes for
products or services that you plan to provide but have not
yet done so.
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Product or service provided from beginning of the current grant to date |
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During the interview, we will ask you some specific questions about the three customers that you identified in Question I-7. These questions appear below so that you can gather the necessary information about these customers and be prepared for the discussion, but you do not need to fill out this information ahead of time.
[These questions are repeated for the three customers identified in I-7]
What outcomes did/do you hope to achieve from your work with [Customer 1]?
What is the specific practice, policy or procedure you have been focusing on in order to achieve this outcome?
Let’s talk about your activities with [Customer 1]. Which of the products or services from Question I-8 were/are part of your work with [Customer 1]?
(If work is ongoing) How long (e.g., until what date) do you anticipate that you will work with [Customer 1]?
In your work with [Customer 1], were any of the following involved?
A formal application procedure
Developing a formal individualized plan for TA for [Customer 1]
On-site services
As a prerequisite to receiving TA, [Customer 1] was required to commit funds or resources
Reimbursement to your center/project from [Customer 1] for some products, services, or expenses
Please keep this page available for reference during the phone interview.
Areas
of outcomes
Use,
implementation, or scale-up of evidence-based practices
Family
functioning and parent knowledge, awareness, or skills
Data
collection, data analysis, data reporting, or data use
Evaluation
or quality assurance practices
SPP/APR
performance and compliance
Finance/funding
systems or practices
Personnel
knowledge, awareness, or skills
Partnering,
collaboration, coordinating, networking, or interagency planning
Capacity
to disseminate information
None
of the above
Other
Grantee Interview
To begin our conversation, we are going to talk first about the topic areas on which your center provides products or services. In Question 2 of the questionnaire you filled out, you named the topics of [topics 1, 2, 3] as the ones to which you dedicated the most time and financial resources. What proportion of your time and financial resources would you estimate are spent on each of these areas?
Please look at the table called “Areas of outcomes.” [grantee will have this document in front of them] For the topic of [topic 1], tell me which of these areas your center aims to affect. You can read me the letter for each one that applies to [topic 1]. [Repeat for topic 2, topic 3 if needed]. Are there additional outcome areas for any of these topics that were not covered by this list? [interviewer will fill in ‘other’ accordingly]
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Topic 3 |
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Now I’d like to take a minute to verify the customers you mentioned in Question 5 of the questionnaire. [Interviewer will ask about the type of customer for any listed that are unclear, e.g., if a name is provided without identification of an agency etc, using list in Question 3 ]
Clarifying information about customers identified in I-5 |
Customer type [using I-3 categories] |
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[II-4 through II-7 repeated for the three customers identified in I-7 of the questionnaire]
II-4.1 Now let’s talk a little more about your work with [Customer 1, QI-7]. What outcomes did/do you hope to achieve from your work with [Customer 1, QI-7]?
[If child outcomes are not
specifically mentioned:] Are there any child outcomes that are
intended to change as a result of your work?
What is the
specific practice, policy or procedure you have been focusing on in
order to achieve this outcome?
Outcomes that Center hoped/hopes to achieve |
Specific practice, policy or procedure of focus in order to achieve this outcome |
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II-5.1 Let’s talk more about your activities with [Customer 1, QI-7]. Which of the products or services from Question 8 were/are part of your work with [Customer 1, QI-7]?
II-6.1 (If work is ongoing) How long (e.g., until what date) do you anticipate that you will work with [Customer 1, QI-7]?
II-7.1 In your work with [Customer 1, QI-7], were any of the following involved?
A formal application procedure
Developing a formal individualized plan for TA for [Customer 1, QI-7]
On-site consultation
As a prerequisite to receiving TA, [Customer 1, QI-7] was required to commit funds or resources
Reimbursement to your center/project from [Customer 1, QI-7] for some products, services or expenses
Now look at Question I-8. We asked you to check all the products or services that your center provides. Please tell me which of these are products or services that your center tailors for specific customers or recipients. By tailored for specific customers, we mean that you designed or modified the product or service to meet the needs of specific states, districts, organizations or other recipients. (Clarify if needed: In this case, we don’t mean products or services focused on a particular target populations, such “Part B data managers” or “parents”).
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[Interviewer will pre-check based on Grantee Questionnaire] |
Product or service that center tailors for specific customers or recipients |
II-13:
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Are there other products or services your center provides that were not listed Question I-8? For each: Is this tailored for specific customers?
Now
let’s look at the complete list of products or services that
your center provides. For which of these has demand exceeded your
resources? [Interviewer will check corresponding letter in table
of II-11]
Is there other information you would like to share about any of the topics we have covered today, or about the work that your center is doing?
7/27/11
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Tamara Daley |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-27 |