RLIS District Interview Protocol

DISTRICT COORDINATOR INTERVIEW GUIDE

Evaluation of the Implementation of the
Rural and Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program

DISTRICT COORDINATOR INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

Introduction

1. What is your job title?

2. Please describe your role and responsibilities in administering the RLIS program in your district.

3. How long have you been responsible for administering the RLIS program in your district? Have your role and/or responsibilities changed over time? (If so) Please describe.

   1. NOTE: IF IN THIS POSITION SIX MONTHS OR LESS, ASK: Is the person who was previously responsible for administering the RLIS program in your district available to talk if there are questions that should more appropriately be answered by him or her?

      • (If yes) Could you let us know if we come to any such questions, so we can ask them of the previous state coordinator instead?

      • (If no) Could you please go ahead and answer any such questions to the best of your ability? We understand if your knowledge of past decisions or activities is incomplete.

Goals and Priorities

Next, we would like to ask about the goals and priorities for your district’s RLIS funds that you received for the 2007-2008 school year.

4. What were the goals and priorities for the use of your district’s RLIS funds for the 2007-2008 school year?

5. How did you determine what the goals and priorities for your district should be? Do you conduct needs assessments, or other assessments of what your district’s needs are? (If yes) How often? How do you use the data you collect to determine what the goals and priorities for your district should be?

6. Do you have any documentation of how you determined what the goals and priorities for your district should be, such as needs assessment reports? (If yes) Can you share those documents with us?

7. Have the goals and priorities for the use of your district’s RLIS funds changed over time?
   (If yes) What goals changed, and why?

8. Are future reassessments of your district’s goals planned? (If yes) Who would be involved in doing such a reassessment? How would such a reassessment be done?

Uses of Funds

9. How is your district using RLIS funds to achieve the goals you have set? That is, to what specific uses are you putting the RLIS funds?

10. Has the use of RLIS funds changed over time? (If yes) What factor(s) prompted this change?

11. Do you have any documents you could share on 2007–08 RLIS expenditures?

12. Is your district in school improvement? (If yes) Are you using RLIS funds to achieve specific goals for school improvement?

13. What progress has your district made toward reaching the goals you have set? How do you measure that progress?

State Monitoring and Technical Assistance

14. Does the state provide any guidance or assistance for applying for RLIS funds? If so, please describe the assistance and how it was used.

15. Does the state provide any guidance or assistance in setting goals related to RLIS and identifying effective strategies for reaching those goals? If so, please describe the assistance and how it was used.

16. Have you received any monitoring visits or been the subject of any other monitoring efforts from your state that are related to your RLIS program during the 2007–08 or the 2008–09 school years? (If yes) What did the monitoring consist of, and what were the results as they related to the RLIS program in your district? How often did the monitoring occur?

17. Does the state provide any guidance or assistance in evaluating the RLIS Program at the district level, or in measuring one’s progress toward reaching the goals that have been set for your district? If so, please describe the assistance and how it was used.

Wrap-up

18. Now that you understand the types of information we are looking for, is there anything else you think we should know about your state’s RLIS Program?

19. Do you have any suggestions for improvement of the RLIS Program?

20. I want to confirm that you are going to email/mail me the following documents that we discussed in the interview: (list documents, such as needs assessment reports) When should I expect those documents?

21. Do you have any questions about the study? Thank you for your time!

Evaluation of the Implementation of the Rural and Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program

COVER PAGE FOR DISTRICT COORDINATOR INTERVIEW GUIDE

Note: The interview will be scheduled and our study introduced and explained in a set-up call in advance of the interview itself. We will, however, want to review some or all of this information at the time of the interview.

Hello. This is [name], from Berkeley Policy Associates. As we discussed (refer to last time we spoke) we are conducting a study under contract with the Policy and Program Studies Service of the U.S. Department of Education to learn about how the Rural and Low-Income Schools Program is being implemented at the state and local levels. We are particularly interested in learning about your goals and priorities and uses of funds. As you know, your district is in one of nine states that have been selected for in-depth interviews regarding the RLIS Program. (Refer to discussion of interview length held during set-up call.) Our interview will take about a half hour – Is this still a good time for you? (Negotiate new time as needed.) Thank you so much for your time; we know how busy you must be.

Please be as honest and candid as possible. Any information regarding your successes and challenges will help us understand the overall picture, and we especially appreciate learning about your experiences – both positive and negative. In our reporting, we will not associate responses or findings with individual names or the names of the districts or states.

We have two interviewers on the line, one asking the questions and the other taking notes, who may ask questions as well. We would like to make a recording of the conversation as a back-up to our note taking; this recording would be erased as soon as we have verified that our notes are complete. Do we have your permission to record our conversation?

There will be time for you to ask questions about the study at the end of the interview, but if you need anything clarified during our discussion, please let us know. Are you ready to begin?

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