ONLINE SURVEY FOR COMMUNITY RESIDENTS IS NOW CLOSED
School District 64 hopes to better understand what community members know and think about our schools by teaming with consultant Patron Insight to conduct a wide-ranging evaluation this spring of our overall communications outreach.
“We want to hear what our community members are thinking and talking about when it comes to all things District 64, whether we are on target in meeting their needs for information, and how we can improve,” according to Superintendent Laurie Heinz.
“Our teachers share classroom news, school principals create blogs, our eNews emails and social media provide frequent updates, Board meeting videos and reports track current issues -- we hope to learn what information our community members value most and want to know, and how they prefer to learn about the quality education our talented teachers are providing to students today,” Dr. Heinz added.
“We have a growth mindset toward our communications as we do with how we approach everything in District 64, and hope our research this spring will provide rich insights that will help us continue improving,” Dr. Heinz added.
She noted that Patron Insight would be using a variety of research tools to provide both qualitative comments and thoughts as well as quantitative data gathered from the multi-dimensional audit process.
Dr. Heinz pointed out that members of the community who do not currently have students in District 64 schools are an important focus. “We are frequently in touch with families of our current students, but are far more limited in how we can directly reach non-parents,” she noted.
Working with its partner Market Research Associates, Patron Insight from April 5-15 will conduct random telephone surveys via both cell phones and landlines of 400 non-parent community members. An online survey also will be emailed to current families and staff members, and will be available for local residents via the District 64 website during that period.
Previously in March, Patron Insight assembled four focus groups with non-parent community members and also conducted individual phone interviews with about 15 community opinion leaders. Rounding out its evaluation, Patron Insight is reviewing outbound communication from the schools and District over the past two school years.
Strengthening two-way communication with the community is an ongoing District 64 goal, and was most recently explored extensively by the Board of Education at a November Committee-of-the-Whole meeting. The results of the study will be reported at the April 24, 2017 regular Board meeting.
“As we do with other important studies, we also will be sharing these community insights with teachers and administrators to help guide improvements in how we communicate about our successes and challenges in educating 4,500 students in our community to be future-ready learners and leaders,” she added.
Dr. Heinz noted this evaluation is similar in spirit to a system-wide assessment District 64 conducted by consultants from the Consortium for Educational Change in 2015, which helped lay the groundwork to develop the District’s 2020 Vision Strategic Plan.
It also builds on a Thoughtexchange online conversation District 64 conducted last year, which asked what the schools and District were doing well or could improve, and how community members felt about the areas of focus within the Strategic Plan. Nearly 1,200 stakeholders participated in that first-ever online forum.