Principal survey letter

Dear Principal,

The U.S. Department of Education has contracted with SRI International, the Urban Institute, and Berkeley Policy Associates to conduct a five-year study of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), which was designed to provide financial support to local education agencies, nonprofit organizations, or state education agencies to implement innovative performance pay systems for primary and secondary school teachers and principals.

This survey is intended to help us learn about educators’ perceptions of, and experiences with, performance pay in general and the Teacher Incentive Fund. You are receiving this survey because your school is participating in one of the programs listed below.  However, when completing this survey, if your school is implementing more than one performance pay program, please respond based on your experiences in ALL performance pay programs in which you currently participate.

Alaska	Alaska Teacher and Principal Incentive Project
Arizona	Amphitheater Unified’s Project EXCELL!
California	Lynwood Unified’s Quest for Success
Colorado	Denver Public School’s ProComp
	Eagle County School District’s Performance-Based Compensation Program
	Harrison School District’s REAL program
	Weld County’s Fort Lupton Teacher Incentive Fund
District of Columbia	D.C. Public Schools’ TEAM program
Florida	Hillsborough County Public Schools’ POWER program
	Miami-Dade County’s Project RISE
	Orange County’s REAP program
Illinois	Chicago Public Schools’ Chicago TAP program
Louisiana	Algiers Charter Schools Association’s Teacher Advancement Program (TAP)
Massachusetts	Edward W. Brooke Charter School’s Teacher Excellence Incentive Project
Maryland	Prince George's County’s FIRST program
North Carolina	Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s LEAP program
	Cumberland County’s Teacher Incentive Fund
	Guilford County’s Mission Possible program
New Mexico	Northern New Mexico’s Performance-Based Compensation Program
New York	Center for Educational Innovation’s (CEI-PEA) PICCS program
Ohio	Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo’s OTIF program
Oklahoma	Beggs SMART program
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia’s Teacher and Principal Incentive Fund Project
	Pittsburgh’s PULSE program
South Carolina	Florence County and Lauren’s School District’s SCTAP+
	South Carolina Department of Education’s TAP
South Dakota	South Dakota Incentive Fund (SDI+)
Tennessee	Memphis City Schools Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) program
Texas	Dallas ISD Performance Pay Program
	Houston’s Project ASPIRE
	School of Excellence in Education’s TAPASA program
	University of Texas’s Teacher Incentive Fund Program
NATIONAL	National Charter School Consortium’s Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC)

We appreciate your contribution to our study, and your responses will provide invaluable insight into the implementation of performance pay systems across the country. Your participation is voluntary. Your responses will be kept confidential. For reporting purposes, your responses will be combined with those of other educators in your performance pay program, and no survey response will be reported at the individual level.

The survey will take approximately 20-25 minutes to complete. If you prefer to complete this survey online, please follow this link: [INSERT LINK] and enter participant code {X]. If you have any questions about this survey or the national study, please contact:

Dr. H. Alix Gallagher, SRI International

Phone: (650) 859-3504

Fax: 650-859-3375

Email: alix.gallagher@sri.com

This survey is authorized by the U.S. Department of Education (P.L. 20 U.S.C. 1221e-1) and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002.  These laws require that the survey sponsor treat all information you provide as confidential.  The information you provide will be used only for research and statistical purposes by the survey sponsor, its contractors, and collaborating researchers for the purpose of analyzing data and preparing scientific reports and articles.  Any information publicly released (such as statistical summaries) will be in a form that does not personally identify you.  Your response is voluntary. 

According to the Paperwork reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is [to be filled in]. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 20-25 minutes per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202-4537.

OMB NO.: [to be filled in]

EXPIRATION DATE: [to be filled in]

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