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Step 6: For questionnaires
administered off-site, be prepared to follow up with participants
who do not respond.
Because you mailed the questionnaire first class on January 14th
to nearby locations, you anticipate that all interns received it
no later than January 16th. By January 23rd, you have received 46
of the 55 questionnaires back. This response rate of nearly 84%
is high but not surprising, given that the interns pre-committed
to participating in the evaluation. You decide to mail a reminder
postcard out on the 25th to the nine nonrespondents. It reads as
follows:
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 Math
Mentoring Project
January 25, 2002
Isabelle Intern
26 Anywhere Road
Smallville, CA 94000
Dear Ms. Intern:
Last week you should have received a questionnaire from the
Math Mentoring Project asking for feedback about your first-semester
intern experience, along with a $50 check. You agreed to participate
in the project last spring.
If you already have sent back the questionnaire, we thank
you for your important help. If you have not yet completed
the questionnaire, we ask that you do so as quickly as possible.
It is important that we hear back from all interns who agreed
to participate.
If you did not receive your questionnaire or check, or if
you need a replacement questionnaire and return envelope,
please call us now at (650-555-0000). We then can send you
what you need as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
Nancy Smith
Director, Math Mentoring Project
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By February 4th (three weeks after the mailing of the first questionnaire),
all but three of the questionnaires have been returned. Thus, you
decide to mail out a new copy of the questionnaire and a new cover
letter (you do not send out another check because you have no evidence
that these were lost). This second cover letter reads as follows:
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Math
Mentoring Project
February 4, 2002
Isabelle Intern
26 Anywhere Road
Smallville, CA 94000
Dear Ms. Intern:
We mailed you a questionnaire about your intern teaching
experiences approximately three weeks ago. The questionnaire
is part of an evaluation of the Math Mentoring Project that
you agreed to participate in last spring. A check for half
the participation stipend was sent with the questionnaire.
To date, we have not received your completed questionnaire.
For your convenience, we are enclosing a new copy of the questionnaire
(and prepaid return envelope).
The feedback we are receiving from other interns is helping
us understand both the strengths and weaknesses of the resources
available for student teaching. Getting a questionnaire back
from every intern is important for an accurate and balanced
view of the mentored internship experience and for learning
how to improve it.
Your answers to the questionnaire are confidential. You have
an assigned ID, which we will use to tag the questionnaires
and interviews you complete. Once all your information has
been collected, your name will be deleted from the participant
list and only the ID will be used. The evaluation analysis
will focus on summarizing patterns of answers for groups of
interns rather than for individuals.
This questionnaire should take about 30 minutes to complete.
If you would like to talk about the questionnaire or project,
please contact me either by phone (650-555-0000) or by e-mail
(nancy@youraddress.org). We hope you can finish the questionnaire
as quickly as possible. We will send you the remainder of
the stipend in early summer when you complete a final questionnaire
and interview. Also, we will send you a summary of the evaluation
findings next fall.
Thank you again for your participation in this project.
Sincerely,
Nancy Smith
Director, Math Mentoring Project
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Because there are only three questionnaires missing, you also make
personal calls to the interns to make sure they have received this
second copy and plan to complete it. You reach two of the interns
in person and leave a phone message for the third one. By February
12th, all but one of the questionnaires have been received.
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