Client Services > K-12 Education > School Poll
A school district must have a clear
understanding of "educational quality" as defined by each of its
stakeholder groups. A school district must also be concerned about the
experiences that students, parents, and employees have with the district each
day. Each of these experiences has a direct impact on student motivation and
achievement, employee productivity and effectiveness, and parental support and
engagement.
Collecting data allows a district to understand stakeholder
requirements, expectations, and preferences. Hundreds of school districts across
the country, as well as the Department of Defense Education Activity Schools
worldwide, have used the Harris Interactive School Poll research program. This educational research program allows districts to
establish benchmarks, sharpen strategic planning and processes, and collect
trend data both at the district and building level. In addition, access to the
Harris Interactive multimillion member database provides an opportunity to
identify "best practices" as part of your district’s ongoing
continuous improvement efforts.
We have worked with a number of districts that have relied on the School Poll
data in applications for both local and state
level quality awards, such as the New York State Excelsior Award (now the
Governor’s Award for Excellence). School Poll data can
also be a critical piece of a Baldrige application.
Our Approach
Harris Interactive’s instruments contain experiential,
attitudinal, and demographic measures. Attitudinal measures are important in
that they document the key items the District seeks to improve. Experiential
measures are important because they provide more specific feedback to those
responsible for policy making.
Harris Interactive uses scales that make it possible to model
the data from the study. It is critical to understand which experiences drive
customer satisfaction in order to recommend actions that will improve customer
satisfaction. This "key driver" analysis is possible through
multivariate modeling (regression analysis).
Although the regression analysis is sophisticated, its
implication is not. The results indicate which items on the questionnaires, if
improved, will have the greatest impact on student, teacher, and parent
satisfaction. This analysis allows the District and the schools to focus their
quality improvement efforts.
|
“This study has been instrumental
in aligning the needs of the parents and students with the goals of the
districts and schools that I have served in three states. The
results are evident in terms of improved student achievement as well as the
passage of significant bond issues. The tool is powerful if it is
truly used to improve satisfaction of district stakeholders over time.”
Mr. Bob Moore, Superintendent
Oklahoma City Public Schools
|
Areas of
Assessment
Specific areas of the school experience are
covered by the School Poll survey. These areas include:
- School Atmosphere
- Equipment and Facilities
- School Bus
- Computer Technology
- Quality of Teaching
- Other Teachers/Staff
- Administration
- Curriculum/Training
- Involvement in Decision Making/Communications
- Students
- Parental Support
- Career
- Budget/The Budget Process
- Other Attitudes and Behaviors
|
