Pre Consent Notification Letter for School/District schools and LIEPS to ED

Dear X [School/District Point of Contact]:

The U.S. Department of Education is conducting a study titled “Language Instruction Educational Programs (LIEPs): Lessons from the Research and Profiles of Promising Programs.” LIEPs are program models that consist of a comprehensive set of services including curriculum and instruction strategies as well as other essential services (e.g., counseling, family support, etc.) that facilitate English proficiency and academic content gains for English Learners (ELs). Particular LEAs or schools in your State have been nominated by the State Title III Director, or by experts in the field, as having promising LIEPs at the elementary and/or secondary level. As a result of this nomination, you are invited to participate in helping us gather data from your school district and schools that yield an initial descriptive portrait of well-designed and implemented LIEPs. The data collected will be used to create a practical Guide for local educators on selecting, designing, implementing and evaluating LIEPs.

We would like to learn more about the following key components regarding your LIEPs:

 

• EL curriculum and instruction

• EL program components and services

• Assessment of students and evaluation of programs

• Teacher capacity

• Professional development/learning

• Resource allocation

• Family/community roles and support

 

We would be delighted to have you participate in the study. Participation in the study is voluntary and will involve one scheduled site visit, by a team of evaluators from SEI/edCount, the contractor team who will be conducting the study. The team will be conducting the site visits (interviews and observations) between September 2011 and November 2011 at a time mutually convenient at your school(s) and district headquarters. During the site visit, the team would like to interview the following respondent groups – teachers (EL and general education), school administrators; district headquarters personnel (e.g., EL Coordinator, Assessment Coordinator, Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator); and families and family support liaisons. The site visit team also would like to observe up to six related activities or events involving EL students and or families. Each interview session should last approximately 60 minutes. Observations should last approximately 30-45 minutes each. Each respondent’s individual opinions and responses will be coded to assure anonymity. Every attempt will be made to keep all information collected confidential by use of unique identifiers, publishing findings in aggregate and keeping data in secured systems. The informed consent is attached for you to review.

 

A member from the SEI/edCount team will call you by XXXXX to ascertain your interest. We will be setting up a group information teleconference about the study with interested participants. During the information session, the project team and a representative from ED will be available to answer any questions as well as discuss the informed consent form which participants will be asked to sign. Please contact Rhonda Crenshaw at rcrenshaw@seiservices.com, the study project director, if you have any related questions. In the meanwhile, we look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

 

Sincerely,

Stuart Kerachsky, Director US Department of Education Policy & Program Studies Service

Rhonda L. Crenshaw, M.A. Project Director

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