Appendix B
Letter From Head of VAIS to School Heads To: VAIS Heads of School
From: Sally K. Boese, Ed.D. Executive Director
SUBJECT: Participation in Doctoral Research Study
I am pleased to invite you to consider participating in a research study that may be of interest to you and to others in your school. The focus of this doctoral research will be on aspects of the transition of lower school students to the middle school setting in independent schools. It is our feeling that having an opportunity to learn more about students‟ perceptions of this transition may not only be timely but advantageous in developing programs and services that address significant issues related to that transition.
The research itself that will begin in January 2010, will be the basis of a doctoral dissertation conducted by Eileen Atkinson, a VCU doctoral candidate and the Assistant Head at Millwood School, a VAIS school located in Midlothian, Virginia. Eileen plans to contact VAIS heads of school in the coming weeks to determine their possible interest in participating in this study and to describe the research protocol. She would then schedule appointments to visit interested schools and to administer student surveys beginning in January,2010. While student responses would be gathered for the study, no student names nor school names would appear in the dissertation nor in any other publication. All data would be presented in the aggregate, although schools may receive their individual data, should they request it.
Dr. Cheryl Magill, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at VCU is the Chair of Eileen‟s dissertation committee. Dr. Magill is the Principal Investigator for the study and will oversee the investigation. She may be contacted at [email protected].
Your participation or that of your school in this research project is, of course, entirely voluntary. We hope that you will consider supporting one of our colleagues‟ initiatives that will not simply help to further her own education but also contribute to our
understanding of student life in independent schools. Thank you.
Sally K. Boese, Ed.D. Executive Director
6802 Paragon Place, Suite 525 Richmond, VA 23230
Telephone: (804) 282-3592 ext. 303 FAX: (804) 282-3596
www.vais.org
Appendix C
Letter to Heads of Schools
Dear (School Head),
My name is Eileen Atkinson and I am the Assistant Head at Millwood School, a VAIS school in Midlothian, VA. I am also a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Leadership at VCU. Recently, you received a letter from Dr. Sally Boese of VAIS regarding a doctoral dissertation study I would like to conduct in VAIS middle schools in January, 2010. I am sending this letter to you to inquire as to whether you would be willing to have your students participate in a brief survey regarding their perceptions of their recent transition into middle school.
I am interested in surveying students who have just transitioned into middle
school from lower or elementary school in the fall of 2009. For some of you this may
be the current fifth, sixth or even seventh grade class, depending on which grade constitutes the beginning of your middle school. The survey is a pencil and paper document which consists of a 44 item check-list and would take students approximately 15 minutes to complete. The self-report student questionnaire would measure student responses relating to the ease of transition, most helpful people, academic adjustment, academic motivation, and the level of connectedness students feel in middle school. The names of students and schools will remain confidential and will not appear in the dissertation or in any other publication or presentation. Data will be analyzed and reported in the aggregate. Should you wish to see your school‟s data, I would be happy to provide that information. I will come personally to your school to distribute and collect the survey. You will be asked only to send home and collect parent consent and student assent forms, and provide the time and location in your school for me to administer the survey. Surveys will be administered only to those students returning these two signed documents. Your school will incur no cost as a participant in this study.
If you are interested in participating in the project, please complete and return the enclosed card. I will then send you the required number of parent consent and student assent forms along with a letter to parents. I will contact you to arrange a day and time to visit your school in January, 2010 to administer the survey.
I appreciate your consideration of participation in this research, and I hope to hear from you soon. Please contact me or my Dissertation Committee Chair, Dr. Cheryl Magill, should you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Eileen Atkinson
Dr. Cheryl Magill
Department of Educational Leadership, VCU [email protected]
Appendix D
Postcard to Heads of Schools
Please complete and return this response card by (Date)
Name of School________________________________________________
A. _____I would like for my school to participate in the Private Middle School Transition Survey of VAIS schools in January 2010.
We have ______(number) of students who are new middle school students this school year.
B. ____ We do not wish to participate.