State Notification Letter

State Notification Letter: CSSO

[Date]

[Name]

[Position]

[Street Address]

[City, state, zip]

Dear [CSSO]:

We are writing to inform you of an important study sponsored by the Policy and Program Studies Service of the U.S. Department of Education focused on the equitable distribution of high-quality teachers in schools. This letter outlines the purpose and activities of this study and asks for your cooperation and support.

The Equitable Distribution of Effective Teachers: State and Local Responses to Federal Initiatives study (“EDET”) will conduct interviews of Title II-A (Improving Teacher Quality State Grants) directors and other informants in each state and 75 leading edge districts in the United States. (By “leading edge” we mean districts states will nominate as being advanced in their contention with and addressing of teacher equity issues.) The study will document state and district efforts to (1) measure teacher quality, (2) examine data on the distribution of teacher quality, and (3) act to improve teacher quality for disadvantaged students. This study will also provide valuable data to your state and localities to assist in required activities under the Title I Part A grant program, the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, and other relevant federal programs, as well as identify successes in executing the state’s teacher equity plan.

Contract staff from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) will collect data on behalf of ED and will conduct interviews with state and district officials beginning in August 2011. We will send notification letters regarding these interviews in the near future.

Please know that the research team is concerned with maintaining the confidentiality and security of its records and will protect the confidentiality of the data to the extent possible through a variety of means, including disassociating the data from respondent names, using a password-protected computer network, and destroying files at the conclusion of the study. Participation in this study is expected as a condition of receiving Title II grant funds.

Should you have any questions or if you would like to discuss this project, please feel free to contact the project director, Andrew Wayne, of the American Institutes for Research at 202-403- 5483 or awayne@air.org. You may also contact the project officer, Elizabeth Eisner of the U.S. Department of Education at 202-260-1109 (Elizabeth.Eisner@ed.gov) or Andrew Abrams at 202-401-1232 (Andrew.Abrams@ed.gov).

We thank you in advance for your cooperation. We trust that this project will provide a useful source of information for other policymakers and educators.

Sincerely,

Stuart Kerachsky

Director, Policy and Program Studies Service

Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development

Cc: [Name of Title II director]

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