I covered the AASD Parents Pulse Survey results earlier, but there was a teachers survey that warrants highlighting also. The survey results were presented by AASD’s Studer Corporation coach JoAnn Sternke to the Board of Education at the 12/14/2020 Board of Education Work Session (which you can watch here.).
1,521 staff members took the survey. AASD’s Covid Tracker lists 1,925 staff members so it seems like they had almost 80% participation.
They asked AASD staff members 5 questions.
- I feel confident that our school system is creating a safe work and learning environment.
- I am aware of what is occurring in our school system to meet these challenges.
- I am involved with providing input to overcome these challenges.
- I am confident that our school system will overcome these challenges.
- I am aware of and understand the AASD COVID safety protocols and mitigation strategies that are in place.
Regarding statement 1 (I feel confident that our school system is creating a safe work and learning environment.), JoAnn said that in a normal year when that question is asked not in relation to coronavirus it usually garners about 70% agreement/strong agreement. She felt that 49% agreement demonstrated a high degree of confidence. [My initial impression was that 49% vs a typical baseline of 70% seemed really bad.]
She pointed out that statement 3 (I am involved with providing input to overcome these challenges) seemed to garner the most polarized responses with 42% disagreeing and 32% agreeing. In JoAnn’s opinion, the issue of taking input was difficult in terms of how many opinions could realistically be taken and then how far people couldbe allowed to act on those opinions. She stated that the point of the question was that, if they did the survey again, people would have had the opportunity (presumably through having participated in the first survey) to provide input and that their agreement with that statement would go up with subsequent surveys. [It honestly sounded to me like she said the whole point of the question was not for it to prompt some kind of action on the administration’s part but rather to just show rising agreement with subsequent askings…which would make it a circular and unnecessary question.]
JoAnn then went on to offer a couple slides entitled “Another Way To Consider This Data”.
[My impression was that she really tried to guide the Board into how they ought to think about the information she presented. Again, when she opened things up for questions, she did not simply ask for comments from the Board but provided a series of leading questions for the Board members to notice and consider. A really useful consultant would have striven to present the data as free from bias as possible and let the Board form its own opinions and ask its own questions.]
My key takeaways from these survey results are…
56% of staff respondents could not say they thought AASD will overcome the challenges it is facing. That seems like an abysmally low number to me.
I was also struck by the fact that statements 2 and D1/5 didn’t really ask anything that would result in actionable intelligence.
I also think statement 3 was unnecessary. It would have been much more useful to ask something along the lines of “I feel the district has provided me the resources to overcome these challenges.” Although even that question lacks clarity because it doesn’t explain what the “challenges” are.
Gary Janke pointed out the ambiguity and lack of definition of the “challenges” referenced in questions 2 and 3. He wondered if the lack of definition lead to some of the ambiguity they were seeing in the answers in that respondents weren’t quite clear in what was being referenced. He wanted to know if Studer had intentionally chosen to not be specific.
Per JoAnn, it was an intentional word choice. They opened things up so staff could view the Covid response more broadly than just about the decision of in-person vs. virtual instruction. According to her, assistant superintendents are really looking at the input at the school level and district level and are hoping to get more nuance around those questions. In her opinion, the best survey is the start of focused discussion which is how AASD is viewing this particular survey, which, in her opinion, is a good thing. [That seemed like a very vague roundabout answer that did not clearly explain things.]
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