Site visits - students, directors, faculty, partner institutions, community partners

Notification Emails

Email to Center Director Regarding Site Visit

To: Cooperative Science Center Director

CC: Key CSC Staff [such as those helping to schedule site visit]

Subject: Evaluation of NOAA’s Educational Partnership Program – site visit

Dear XXX,

As part of the evaluation of the NOAA’s Education Partnership Program (EPP), Insight Policy Research, Inc. and IMPAQ International are conducting site visits to interview or conduct focus groups with key Cooperative Science Center (CSC) leaders, administrators, community partners, and students. The site visits are part of a three-year independent outcome evaluation of NOAA’s EPP that provides funding to [name of CSC]. We are not evaluating individual centers, but instead are looking at outcomes across the entire EPP and its program components. We are conducting the site visits to gather feedback from multiple sources about their experience with the CSCs, including CSC contributions to [name of institution], products generated by the CSCs, participants’ perceptions of the CSCs, and activities in need of greater time or financial resources. We appreciate your assistance with scheduling and planning these interviews and focus groups during our site visit.

Each individual interview will take approximately 60 minutes, and will be audio recorded with the respondents’ permission. The students will be interviewed together in a focus group, which will take approximately 90 minutes. The information provided will be used for program evaluation purposes only, and will only be reported in aggregate. No individual names will be reported.

We would like to schedule a call with you to discuss selecting a sample of participants for the interviews and focus group. During the call, we would also like to discuss more specific logistics about the two-day site visit. Please let us know when you are available in the next two weeks for a phone conversation.

Thank you for your participation!

[Site Visitor’s Name]

Email to Institutional Partners Regarding Cooperative Science Center Evaluation Interviews

To: Institutional Partner

Subject: Evaluation of NOAA’s Educational Partnership Program – request for interview

Dear XXX,

As part of the evaluation of the NOAA’s Education Partnership Program (EPP), Insight Policy Research, Inc. and IMPAQ International are conducting interviews with key Cooperative Science Center (CSC) leadership, administrators, community partners, and students. These interviews are part of a three-year independent outcome evaluation of NOAA’s EPP that provides funding to [name of CSC]. We are not evaluating individual centers, but instead are looking at outcomes across the entire EPP and its program components. We are conducting these interviews in order to gather feedback from multiple sources about their experience with the CSCs, including CSC contributions to [name of institution], products generated by the CSCs, participants’ perceptions of the CSCs, and activities in need of greater time or financial resources. As someone who works closely with [name of CSC], your input is critical to our study. Therefore, we would like to conduct a telephone interview with you.

Each telephone interview will take approximately 60 minutes, and will be audio recorded with your permission. The information provided will be used for program evaluation purposes only, and will only be reported in aggregate. No individual names will be reported.

Could you please provide me with some dates and times when you are available for a phone interview within the next two to three weeks?

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your participation!

[Interviewer’s Name]