School Recruitment Resource Packet. Extending the CS Pipeline: Enhancing Rigor and Relevance in Middle School CS

Recruiting schools to participate in research projects has become increasingly challenging in the past several years. Research in schools was next-to-impossible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the aftermath of the pandemic has made research a lower priority for schools trying to regain COVID-related academic losses. The School Recruitment Resource Packet is intended to support researchers' recruitment efforts by sharing details about our outreach process and the materials that we used to communicate with schools. Our approach followed generally accepted principles of research recruitment, such as personalized messages, emphasizing the potential positive impacts of the project, and highlighting incentives being offered to participants. Our hope is that by sharing concrete examples of our materials and describing the rationales behind our decisions, other researchers will be better able to address the challenges of school recruitment. [This report was created by the Center for Effective School Practices at Rutgers University.]