## Ap **pendix A**

Correspondence with Contacts at State Departments of Education for State of Preschool Data Collection **Contents** Confirming Contact Information ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 2 Sending Preview to Contacts ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 3 Survey Login Information ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 4 Sending Contact(s) Completed Surveys ................................ ................................ ................................ 6 Survey Reminder ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 7 Survey Follow- Up Questions ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 8 Verification Table Instructions ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 9 Invitation to Conference Call on Findings ................................ ................................ ............................. 10 Post Call Sign - Up Information ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 112

**Confirming Contact Information**  Sen t in June Dear «Contact_First_Name» , Thank you for all of your hard work on the 201 2 State of Preschool Yearbook— we know it can be a time - consuming project, and we appreciate the time and effort you put in to ensuring we received the necessary data in a timely manner . It’s time now to start thinking about the State of Preschool Yearbook for the 201 2 - 201 3 school year. This year, the collection and report are being supported by the U.S. Department of Education’ s National Center for Education Statistics. As we prepare to send out next year's survey in July , we would like to confirm your contact information for receiving the Yearbook online survey. Please let us know if the contact information listed below is still accurate or has changed by providing any new contact information . If any field is blank, please provide that information so we can complete our records. **Contact Information:** Name: «Primary_Contact» Title: «Title» Agency: «Agency» Address: «Address_1» «Address_2» «Address_3» Phone: «Phone» Fax: «Fax» Email: «Email» If there is anyone who should be added to our list so he or she receives a link to the survey, please provide us with that information. If you are no longer the person who will be completing our survey on state -funded pre - K, please le t us know who will be filling out the questionnaire. Additionally, we will be hosting a conference call for individuals who will be working on the Yearbook survey for the first time on **June 2 8**  **at 3:00 PM (EDT).** If you or anyone in your office would like to participate, please indicate that in your response and we will send you the call - in information. Thank you for your help and we look forward to working with you again.

- The Yearbook Team (Megan, Jen, and Jim)3

**Sending Preview to Co**  **ntacts** Sent Early July Hello <contact> , It’s that time of year again – the National Institute for Early Education Research has begun work on the 201 3 State of Preschool Yearbook . This year, the collection and report are being supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). For those of you who have not worked on this online survey before, welcome! For those of you who have worked with us in the past, thanks once again for all of your time and effort into providing us with this valuable information . Similar to past years, we will be using a web - based survey to collect state prekindergarten data. The attach ed document contains all of the questions that will be in the web - based survey, although some questions only ap ply to certain respondents. W e'll send your state's individual login for your survey in a few weeks, and you can share it with whomever is working on the survey in your state. Respondents may log in and out of the survey as often as they wish, so all infor mation does not need to be entered in one sitting or by one individual. Answers reported in a previous session will be saved during subsequent logins. Each prekindergarten initiative will receive a passcode to log into the survey. Please note that states with multiple initiatives will receive a different passcode for each initiative, and will be asked to complete the entire survey for each separate preschool initiative using the appropriate login information . As in last year’s survey, some previous years’ answers will be presented for your convenience, but you will be asked to re - enter th is data for this year. Additionally, attached to this email is a table of the final answers reported for your program last year--these reflect what was published i n Appendix A of the Yearbook online. W e hope that these responses will be helpful as you collect data for this year's survey in ensuring we are reporting your program's policies accurately from year to year. Some questions and answer choices will appear sl ightly differently on the online survey when you receive it, though, so please be sure to read all questions carefully. More detailed instructions, your login information , and the link to the web survey will be included in a forthcoming email coming from survey@nieer.org later this month. The survey is designed to be user-friendly, but project staff will be available to answer any technical or content- related questions if needed. I encourage you to review the questions attached and begin gathering information requested for the survey. If you have any questions about the survey now, or after you receive your login in the next few weeks, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (848) 932 - 3137 ( mcarolan@nieer.org ), Jen Fitzgerald at (848 )932 - 3138 ( jfitzgerald@nieer.org ), or Jim Squires at (802) 425 - 2608 . Questions can also be directed to Chris Chapman at (202) 502 - 7414 (chris.chapman@ed.gov). Thank you again. Best, The Yearbook Team4

**Survey Login Information**  Sent Late July/Early August The National Institute for Early Education Research has begun work on the 201 3 State of Preschool Yearbook . This year, the collection and report are being supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Similar to last year, the 201 3 survey, which focuses on the 201 2 - 201 3 program year, is an interactive web survey. The questions in the web survey are all included in the document that was sent to you in a previous email. This year’s survey uses a new software program, so instructions have changed from last year though questions have largely remained the same. Please be sure to read instructions carefully before each question, as well as the directions on the first page of the survey near the Table of Contents. Wh enever possible, the survey will provide “Prior Year Data” in blue alongside this year’s question. If the state program’s policy is the same this year as it was last year, please use the Prior Year Data as a guide in selecting your answer. For long “additional details” questions, you can copy and paste the prior year answer if it is still accurate. Wh en Prior Year Data is not provided, it is because a question or answer choice has changed slightly from the previous year; please pay special attention to these questions. Below you will find the link to the web - based survey and the login information for this state pre - K initiative. Please note that states with multiple initiatives will receive separate emails containing a different passcode for each pre - K initiative. We b survey link: http://www.surveycrafter.com/scripts/sccgi04.pl?E_version=4&E_file=.. \ .. \studies\2012\customer s\ nieer \YB2012_13.htm Program: User ID: Passcode: The passcode can be shared among staff of your state pre - K administrative agency. Each staff member can log in using the program's passcode and their own name and email address. However, please ensure that only one person is entering data or logged in to the survey at any one time, otherwise responses may not be saved. Weask that you please complete your survey and submit your answers no later than **Au gust**  **19** . After you submit your responses, we will be in touch to confirm that we have correctly interpreted the data from your state. You will also receive a copy of the survey with your answers filled in. Un fo rtunately, we are unable to provide you with a copy of the survey with your answers until the entire survey has been submitted. If you have any questions about the web survey now, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (848) 932 - 3137 ( mcarolan@nieer.org ), Jen Fitzgerald at (848 )932 - 3138 ( jfitzgerald@nieer.org ), or Jim Squires at (802) 425 - 2608 . Questions can also be directed to Chris Chapman at (202) 502 - 7414 (chris.chapman@ed.gov).5

Welook forward to working with you as we embark upo n our annual State of Preschool Yearbook . Wegreatly appreciate your help.6

**Sendin g Contact(s) Completed Survey** **s** Sent 1 - 2 days after survey is submitted Hi <contacts> , Thank you for completing the 201 3 State of Preschool Yearbook Survey. Attached you will find a copy of the survey submitted for your program with your completed responses. The answers you submitted appear in **red bold italicized text**. Please note that when "NV" appears --for "No Value" -- it means that an answer was not entered for this part icular question. This is different from "NA" -- Not Applicable. Wh ile your login for the online survey may still be active even though you have submitted your survey, please refrain from making any additional changes online. You will be contacted soon by a Yearbook team member to follow- up on program changes from the previous year. Thanks once again for your work on completing this survey! Best, The Yearbook Team7

**Survey Reminder**  Sent in August, one week after sending login information Hello all, This is a quick reminder that the State of Preschool Yearbook Survey 201 3 is due one week from today, on Monday August 19 . You should have received a link to the online survey as well as your program's individual ID and login code last week; if you did not receive this email (sent from this survey@nieer.org address), please contact me immediately. If you have not yet started on your program's survey, we encourage you to do so soon. If you foresee delays i n submitting all or parts of your program's survey, please let us know as soon as you can. Thanks once again for all of your work on this project! Best, Megan Carolan8

**Survey Follow**  **- Up Questions**  Sent a pprox. 1 - 2 weeks after survey received Thank you ve ry much for your help in providing answers for the State of Preschool Yearbook. I've reviewed your responses and have some follow- up questions fo r the program. A PDF of your survey is attached, which you should have also received in an earlier email. Please note that items for this year’s survey do not always correspond to the numbers used the preceding year because many question were eliminated and had their order changed. As in past years, feel free to indicate your responses in a different color or bold so they stand out.9

**Verification Table Instructions** Sent December, after follow- up questions have been answered Hi <contact> , Thanks again for your help in providing data for the State of Preschool Yearbook. Once again this year we are sending sta te administrators a copy of the data they submitted through our pre K survey and in response to any follow- up questions afterward. Wewould like to confirm that we have accurately interpreted your answers, which are summarized in the attached table. Each entry in the table begins with the corresponding question number from our survey as a reference point. Wh en additional details for a specific question were provided, they can be found in the line below marked with FN (for “footnote”) and the question num ber. Sometimes, details on several relevant questions will be merged into a single footnote; however, this footnote will be repeated multiple times in the verification table. A second attached file contains a narrative that describes your program. W e have highlighted questions where we are still missing data. This data must be provided or otherwise will be lef t out of the report. Please review both files and send any corrections or changes that are needed. Please use track changes, highlighting, different color text, or some other way to clearly indicate any change. If you do have corrections, please send them by e - mail or call me at (848) 932 -4350. If all the information in the attached files is correct, please send a quick note to that effect and we wil l consider the data from your state to be finalized. Werequest that you send all corrections and changes to us by < **DA TE**  **(two weeks after ending questions>**  . After that date we will treat the attached state data and narrative as final except in cases where we have received your corrections. As always, we greatly appreciate your help with our work. Welook forward to working with you on this last step of our a nnual process before going to press.10

**Invitation to Conference Call on Findings** Sent March The State of Preschool 2013 report will be released on April 30. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provided essential support for this year’s report and will release the findings . The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) will be closely involved with the release and with related events that will follow it. On **Wednesday ,**  **Ap ril 10**  **at 2:00 p.m. EDT** , we will hold a brief phone co nference cal l to discuss the findings of the Yearbook and answer your questions. As you know, the Yearbook evaluates each state program in three areas: access – percentage of the state’s children who are able to participate; resources – the amount of mone y each state spends per child; and quality – the number of quality standard benchmarks each state meets. If you sign up to participate in the call, we will send you specific findings about your state in advance of the call. To sign up for the April 10 b riefing call at 2:00 p.m. EDT, please RSVP to Jen Fitzgerald at 848 - 932 - 3138 or yearbook@nieer.org . Signing up for the call constitutes your agreement to honor the embargo of the report and not share any of the information in it with others until April 3 0, without exception. Welook forward to talking to you on the call. Thank you.11

**Post Cal l**  **Sign -**  **Up Information** Thank you for your interest in The State of Preschool 201 3 . I’ve attached your state’s profile, a national press release, state - specific press release, and talking points. The call - in information for the conference is below. Please confirm receipt of this e - mail and let me know if you have an y questions. **Call -**  **in information**  Date: April 10 Time: 2pm EDT Phone number: 800 - 868 - 1123 Participant code: 19716539 Please remember you are agreeing to honor the embargo of the report and not share any of the information in it with others until April 3 0th.