2005 E-rate Survey of Schools - Please Read
Message Posted August 18, 2005
I need your help.
As you may know, the Administration, Congress and the FCC are taking a hard look at the E-rate program, actively debating whether the program has been a success or failure, and whether it should continue, be scaled back or altogether eliminated. And those of us actively involved with E-rate are being asked on a weekly basis for E-rate data and while I can give them statistics on which entities receive how much, I really have no other information beyond what is on the SLD website.
Therefore I have worked with my fellow State E-rate Coordinators to develop an online E-rate Survey of Schools, which asks questions we don't think have ever been included in any prior survey. The survey consists of 28 straightforward questions and we estimate that it should take between 10 - 15 minutes to complete. It's being asked of all schools in the country, with each state then analyzing their own schools' data. The survey will close at 8:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, August 31.
Will you please take 15 minutes in the next two weeks to complete this survey? I know you are bombarded with surveys, and I hope you know that you know that that I wouldn't ask you to complete this survey if it wasn't absolutely necessary. But if we are going to maintain the $80 – 90 million in annual E-rate funds coming to Pennsylvania (the single largest source of technology funding), we need to have clear data to present to the policymakers that are thinking that the program isn't successful and is not vitally needed.
In PA, we have about a 94% school district participation rate in the E-rate program, and therefore my goal is to have at least a 94% total school participation rate in this survey. That’s about 840 school entities (districts, charter schools, AVTSs, IUs, and nonpublic schools) in Pennsylvania.
Who Should Complete the Survey?
* All public and nonpublic schools (note: non-public schools are not required to answer the questions pertaining to No Child Left Behind).
* The survey is not designed to be completed by regional consortium entities.
* We ask that the survey be completed by the entity that completes the Form 471 (the billed entity), regardless of whether individual schools within that district apply separately. If the entity is a single school (such as a nonpublic school) that applies on its own, that school would complete the survey.
* If you have several individuals from your entity that are responsible for E-rate activities, please coordinate your response to reduce the chances of duplication.
What Will Happen to the Data:
All contact and identifying information will be kept confidential; it’s being collected in order for us to contact you if we have any questions and to determine if duplicate responses were submitted. Please know that your individual responses will be kept confidential, except where indicated. The data will be compiled and analyzed to determine areas for program improvement, the ongoing need for E-rate, etc. We also hope to compile the aggregated data which we'll make available for everyone to see.
The survey is located at: http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB224KB8TD3EW
I thank you in advance for your participation. If you have any questions about the survey, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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