After making transparent the results of my own evaluation by both myself and my faculty, it is time to turn to our other annual survey: the Annual Parent Survey. [For comparison sake, you are welcome to explore last year’s reflection.]
I will try to highlight any trends I see over the years as well as indicate anything of import in this year’s survey.
The first trend is that this year more parents (32 vs 22 vs. 39 vs. 64) filled out surveys! This is the first time the number has gone up, although it is still a low number considering this represents the number of students whose parents filled them out. (Remember, it isn’t that 32 separate parents took the survey. It is the parents of 32 students (many of whom are siblings) who took the survey.
Possible explanations for ongoing low turnout?
Families could be thrilled with what’s going on. Families could be resigned that the results are not taken seriously enough to invest the time in. There could be a certain amount of apathy. Or perhaps we are not marketing the surveys enough.
Possible explanations for slightly higher turnout this year?
Families could be more satisfied or unsatisfied than last year. Families may believe that the results are taken seriously enough to invest the time in.
Regardless, we have the data we have, so in the spirit of hoping to learn from whatever there is to learn…let’s move on to the results.
This actually maps pretty well to last year’s distribution once you take into account class size. Let’s look at the BIG PICTURE:
The score is still promising, although a bit lower. On a scale of 1-10, our average score wound up being a 7.8. Last year we scored an 8.0. It is a fairly stable score – especially considering the sample – but definitely leaves us some room to grow. Let’s dig deeper.
[If you would like to see the full text of the questions, I need to refer you back to last year’s blog post. Our survey software changed and I cannot create a clean graph that has the full labels written out. For consistency sake, I like using the same survey each year, but we may revisit this in the future.]
When it comes to communication, we dipped down almost a full point in just about every category (except electronic communication). The biggest drop came in providing opportunities for parents to be involved in student learning (which was the highest improvement last year after having been the lowest one the prior year). Another decrease – and one that takes me by surprises – was in parent-teacher conferences, which this year saw us expand our Student-Led Conferences from Grades 4-5 to Grades 4-8. Feedback we received specific to those conferences was positive, so I would have imagined scoring better here. We will have to go back and be sure we are being clear in what our expectations are in the new format and whether we are meeting them. I am additionally disappointed considering our renewed emphasis on “Community of Kindness” that our sense of being welcoming dropped. I do wonder if this is a result of increased expectations, which should only stimulate us to reach higher. And one place to keep working appears to be ongoing communication about children’s academic status.
All in all, it is a disappointment to see us drop in this area and we will need to do our due diligence in reflecting and planning to do better. [I will have a thought at the end about what this all means in light of being in transition to a new head of school.]
I know it is a little crowded, so let me break down some of the highlights.
Let me unpack the non-subject specific areas first:
- Very similar to above, everything is down about a point.
- One category worth watching is homework. We have completely revised the homework guidelines and philosophy this year and I will be very curious to see how this changes in next year’s survey.
General Studies:
- The big picture remains stable (as does our overall school satisfaction number).
- Continue to be pleased with the impact of Singapore Math and look to see next year what the impact of expanded use of the Daily 5 will be.
- The greatest jump up was in Science! I will attribute this having a first-time, full-time K-8 Science Instructor.
- But there is still room to grow. Writing took a drop. Don’t know if this is connected to our iPad initiative and what the perception of that is on “writing”, but I do know that writing is a critical skill and we either need to do a better job hitting our writing benchmarks and/or we need to do a better job (as it says above) communicating to parents about what we are doing in this curricular area.
Jewish Studies, Resources and Extracurricular Activities:
- Our marks in all these areas are up from last year! Perhaps the renewed commitment to Hebrew immersion has finally kicked in, but our Jewish Studies marks are way up and that is something to be proud of!
- All our resources are up and even our extracurricular activities went up! We have had new offerings this year and hopefully they are something we can continue to build on.
So there you have it for 2013-2014!
Thanks to all the parents who took the time and care to fill out surveys. In addition to the multiple choice questions, there were opportunities for open-ended responses. They added an additional layer of depth; one which is difficult to summarize for a post like this. But please know that all comments will be shared with those they concern as we use this data to make enhancements and improvements headed into next year. This is especially true in a year of transition.
As I begin to work with Rabbi Rogozen to prepare for his assumption of this headship, my hope and my prayer is simple…
Everything that we already do well, I hope under Rabbi Rogozen’s leadership we continue to do and do even better. And in each area that we have room to grow, I hope with Rabbi Rogozen’s experience and expertise we grow and grow demonstrably. I will surely share my thoughts as my time here draws to a close about what we accomplished and experienced together while I was here. But as a returning parent and as someone who cares deeply about this school, my thoughts about the future could not be more clear – let it only be better and brighter than today…and I am confident that it will!
