Customer Satisfaction Surveys

The following goal, or something similar, has been defeated 1:4, Cindy Wilcox approving, for several years.

Implement and refine an annual system for administrators to gather anonymous student and parent feedback, by teacher and course, on classroom instruction, homework assignments, assessment* preparation and graded assessment review.

*assessment:  normally refers to a test, quiz, essay, report.  May include anything rated or graded such as a project, group presentation, performance.

The current, approved goal does not include the items in italics:  annual, by teacher and course, anonymous.
If you have ongoing concerns about teaching practices in the District, please ask School Board members why they
have voted against this goal. Some of them have voted against it several times.

Talk is easy.  If we want to reform the school district, board members need to cast the tough votes to collect and analyze data in a systematic way!

Right now, according to the teachers’ contract, page 53, item VII.D:
All certificated employees [that means teachers and others] shall annually obtain feedback from parents, students, and peers for personal professional growth.

My experience is that very few teachers do conduct surveys or gather feedback, but I understand this is improving.  One of the concerns, if the teachers do the survey, the administrators have no right to see the results.

My reading of the contract, the teachers are encouraged to collect feedback.  The contract does not prevent the District from running surveys that are reviewed by the administrators and shared with the teachers.

Critics have said:

“Parents and students have no idea how to evaluate teachers.”

Let me be clear, surveys are not intended to replace evaluation by an administrator.

However, surveys can help inform the administrator and the teacher.

For example, what if a large number of surveys noted that the tests given by one teacher did not match the current curriculum and textbook?   That should be a wake-up call for both the teacher and administrator.

The School District needs to be data-driven and informed in designing improvement strategies.  By the way, multiple choice questions are easy to tally, but to be helpful; the survey needs to include a space for open-ended comments.

The great news is, the District has many outstanding teachers and educators, and they deserve to receive the accolades that would come from regular surveys.

The teachers that receive less than stellar results; they can work to improve.  We do not need to protect them, and I resent the implication that intelligent, high-functioning employees can not handle this.

I gather the colleges use a variety of methods to conduct surveys.  My general impression is the colleges are ahead of us on this.  We would not need to start from scratch.

I’m pleased with the new District web site, Superintendent’s columns, Board President’s columns, and various newsletters, but this is not enough.

Effective communication needs to be deliberate and move in both directions.