Private School Principal Letter

Private School Letter

I am writing to ask you, as principal of <name of school>, to complete the School Leaders Survey for an evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) that the U.S Congress has mandated. After you complete the survey, we will mail you a check for $10 in appreciation of your time spent on this effort.

As you may know, the OSP is a federal program that provides scholarships to low-income residents of the District of Columbia so that they can attend local private schools instead of the public schools available to them. There is great interest in understanding how both private and public schools admit students, organize instruction, and encourage parents to participate in school efforts, as well as what types of services and programs are offered. These are the main topics covered by the survey, which will be conducted each spring, 2013-2016.

The survey should take approximately X minutes. We ask that you complete it by Y date.

The easiest way to fill out the survey is on the web:

• Go to www.(name of website).com.

• Enter the unique username and password we have assigned to, listed below:

Username:

Password:

If you would prefer a paper version of the survey, please email, (insert email address), or call 888-xxx-xxxx.

All information from this study will be kept confidential as required by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (Title I, Part E, Section 183). To ensure privacy, no personally identifiable information will be disclosed as part of the evaluation. All of the information that is collected will be stored separately from school records in a secure location. Responses to this data collection will be used only for statistical purposes. The reports prepared for this study will summarize findings across the sample and will not associate responses with a specific school, or individual. We will not provide information that identifies you or your school to anyone outside the study team, except as required by law.

If you have any questions or need help completing this survey, please contact me or Sylvia Segovia, Data Collection Manager, at Westat (phone: 1-888-xxx-xxxx; email: <email address>).

Thank you for participating in this important evaluation. We look forward to working with your school over the next several years to make this study a success.

Sincerely,

Juanita Lucas-McLean

Project Director