Notification Letters

State Survey on Activities Supported Under Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (Title IV, Part A)

[Date]

[Name]

[Position]

[Street Address]

[City, State, ZIP]

Dear [Chief State School Officer]:

We are writing to inform you about the U.S. Department of Education’s upcoming State Survey on Activities Supported Under Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (Title IV, Part A), which will examine the early implementation of Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grants. We would like to take this opportunity to explain the study purpose and design and to ask for your cooperation and support.

This evaluation is designed to provide an early look at how states like [state] are using SSAE funds. This study will conduct a survey of all state Title IV-A directors in Spring 2019 to obtain information about the types of activities that states and school districts are supporting with SSAE Fiscal Year (FY) 18 funds during the 2018-19 school year.

As you may know, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires grantees to cooperate with the Department’s program evaluations (Section 8306(a)(4)), including this one. At the same time, we recognize that state staff have many demands on their time, and we have designed the survey to minimize the burden of participation. At the state level, we estimate that the survey will require about 1 hour to complete.

The study is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and they will contact your state Title IV-A director shortly to provide additional information about the study. If you have any questions, you may contact the project director [Name] at [email] or [phone number], or you may contact Leticia Braga here at the Department at [email protected] or (202) 401-7767.

Again, we appreciate your cooperation and support in enabling this study to inform policymakers and other stakeholders about the extent to which states and school districts are using SSAE funds for the wide range of permissible activities. The findings may also help to inform future studies that examine the implementation of this program in greater depth. We thank you and your staff for providing the expertise and time needed for the success of the study.

Sincerely,

Gregory Fortelny

Director, Policy and Program Studies Service

cc: State Title IV-A Director

[Date]

[Name]

[Position]

[Street Address]

[City, State, ZIP]

Dear [Title IV-A Director]:

We are writing to inform you about the U.S. Department of Education’s upcoming State Survey on Activities Supported Under Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (Title IV, Part A), which will examine the early implementation of Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grants. We would like to take this opportunity to explain the study purpose and design and to ask for your cooperation and support.

This evaluation is designed to provide an early look at how states like [state] are using SSAE funds. This study will conduct a survey of all state Title IV-A directors in Spring 2019 to obtain information about the types of activities that states and school districts are supporting with SSAE Fiscal Year (FY) 18 funds during the 2018-19 school year.

As you may know, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires grantees to cooperate with the Department’s program evaluations (Section 8306(a)(4)), including this one. At the same time, we recognize that state staff have many demands on their time, and we have designed the survey to minimize the burden of participation. We estimate that the survey will require about 1 hour to complete. Your survey response will help the study team better understand variations in MEP Title IV-A programs across states.

The study is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and they will contact your state Title IV-A director shortly to provide additional information about the study. If you have any questions, you may contact the project director [Name] at [email] or [phone number], or you may contact Leticia Braga here at the Department at [email protected] or (202) 401-7767.

The study team has secured OMB clearance for this evaluation and will follow all legal and ethical requirements to protect participants in the evaluation. The study team will use highly reliable data collection procedures and instruments that are appropriate for the intended respondents of each survey, do not contain sensitive questions, and minimize the burden on respondents. AIR will provide secure environments for all data collected for the study.

At the completion of this study, AIR will produce a publicly available brief that provides a picture of initial SSAE grant implementation. Again, we appreciate your cooperation and support in enabling this study to inform policymakers and other stakeholders about the extent to which states and school districts are using SSAE funds for the wide range of permissible activities. The findings may also help to inform future studies that examine the implementation of this program in greater depth. We thank you for providing the expertise and time needed for the success of the study.

Sincerely,

Gregory Fortelny

Director, Policy and Program Studies Service

cc: State Title IV-A Director