Nonresponse Follow-up Letter

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

[Date]

Dear District Superintendent:

Recently, you were asked to complete a district-level survey on distance education for elementary and secondary students for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education. This study, approved by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB No. 1850-0733), will provide national data that can only be obtained from public school districts. If your district has already completed the questionnaire, I wish to thank you for your participation. It is only through the help of district personnel such as yourself that NCES is able to provide policymakers with valuable national data on elementary/secondary distance education.

If your district has not yet completed the survey, I ask that you do so as soon as possible because the data are urgently needed to report a current picture of distance education courses in public elementary and secondary school systems. Your district’s participation, while voluntary, is vital to the development of national estimates. Your input is needed because your district is one of a small sample selected for the study. It is only through the participation of the selected districts that we can represent the full range of distance education courses available to students across all types of public school districts.

The online version of the survey is available at www.frss-XXX. Your username and password appear on the enclosed Web Survey Information Sheet. If you prefer, you may fax the paper version of the survey to 1-800-254-0984. Westat, an independent research firm, is conducting the survey for NCES.

If you have any questions, please contact Barbara Queen, the Westat survey manager, at 1-800-937-8281, ext. 4476 (toll-free) or 301-294-4476, or by email at barbaraqueen@westat.com. You may also call me at 202-502-7497. Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Peter Tice

Project Officer

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006