To the Individual with the Primary Responsibility for Hiring Teachers:

Thank you for logging on to complete this survey.

My name is Stephen C. Smith, and I am a doctoral student in Educational Administration and Supervision at the University of Virginia. As part of my dissertation, I am studying the issue of teacher shortages in Virginia. My goal is to collect data from the individuals hiring teachers at the local level and then to share an analysis of that data with all respondents and with legislators and educational policy makers at the state level.

In a pilot study this survey took about 15 minutes to complete.

The information collected in this survey is in four sections:

1. three demographic questions,
2. perceptions of the existing supply of teachers in identified shortage areas,
3. perceptions of the impact of state-level strategies to address shortages of qualified teachers and suggestions for state-level legislators and policy makers regarding changes to these strategies, and
4. innovative strategies local school divisions are planning or are currently implementing in order to address teacher shortages.

The information from this survey will be confidential. Neither your name, nor the name of your school division will be reported. The results will be dissaggregated by the demographic information requested in section I. Thank you for taking the time to supply valuable data for my study. Each response I receive adds to the weight of the survey results. Please call me at (804) 522-3700, ext. 134 or email me at smithsc@admin.lynchburg.org if you have any questions or concerns.