The most important part of any survey process is what you do with the results. We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: If you are not intending to act, don’t ask.
Conducting the student perception survey is the easy part. Now, it’s time to get to work. When you and the survey leadership team get the feedback, it can feel overwhelming. You could have survey responses from hundreds, even thousands, of students, depending on the survey size.
How should you begin?
Where do you go from here?
With CustomInsight for Schools survey platform, our FocalEDU dashboard does a lot of the groundwork for you and your team. The results are displayed in an interactive dashboard highlighting bright spots, growth areas, and demographic and stakeholder gaps. We leverage cutting-edge AI to support data analysis and action planning.
This information, though, needs you and your team to put ideas into action. Your educators need leaders who can honor student voice and guide teachers and administrators in responding to the data. It’s not easy to confront our weak spots as teachers, schools, and school districts.
Reinforce the fact that the survey was administered by a third-party company. Remind teachers, administration, and students that the survey instrument is reliable, fair, and developed by educational and psychometric experts.
Remind your community that these results are perceptions, not absolute facts.
Share results with your community and ask them to take time to reflect:
What were your initial reactions to the results?
Were your pre-survey ideas confirmed or challenged?
Identify two strengths, weaknesses, and surprises from the survey results
Dig Into the Data:
Do patterns or trends emerge?
Look at the distribution of responses. Two questions can have the same favorable percentage, but one of the two might have many more “never” responses. This response distribution can highlight areas for improvement.
Identify Key Findings:
Prior to administering the survey, your team, with our educational expert, defined the goals and objectives of the survey.
Look beyond individual responses, and look at the whole. Again, identify patterns that emerge.
Examine results across demographic groups to see if discrepancies emerge.
Focus on themes that pop up across multiple schools, grade levels, departments, and even school buildings.
Take Action:
Prioritize: Choose 1 – 3 high-impact areas to focus on. Set specific, measurable objectives to address these issues (SMART goals).
Involve teachers, administrators, and students in developing strategies to address student feedback.
Implement changes systematically.
Communicate actions taken to students and the school community. Link actions to the perception survey. This shows students that their voice is valued, and their perceptions are instrumental to improving school and school district policies.
How CustomInsight for Schools Helps Your School and/or District Turn Survey Data into Action:
When you take student voice seriously, and when your school and school district act on feedback, you can improve student engagement, learning outcomes, school safety, and more. Involve your students and community to work toward meaningful change.
Our Student Perception Survey can give you the blueprint for meaningful change.
We uphold the highest ethical standards in data collection, analysis, and reporting to ensure trust, transparency, and security
We leverage cutting-edge AI to support data analysis.
Our easy-to-read results can help your team turn data into actions.
We can provide your school with additional support from our educational experts.
As educators, administrators, and even parents, it’s natural that we’ve distanced ourselves from what it’s like to be young. We forget about the overwhelming immediacy of everything in the day-to-day lives of children and adolescents.
Edutopia contributor Mark Philips asks, “What would the social-emotional environment of middle schools look like if school leaders, teachers, and reformers listened to 11-year-olds as they looked at the nature of their schools and classrooms?”
What would the social-emotional environment of middle schools look like if school leaders, teachers, and reformers listened to 11-year-olds as they looked at the nature of their schools and classrooms?
As educational survey leaders, we pose this question to all of our clients. When your school and school districts ask about their students’ experiences in their schools, the classroom, and how their days unfold, this feedback can be a powerful catalyst for meaningful change. Involving students is fundamental.
Start the new year with the resolve to make positive changes in your school. And that begins by listening to your students, giving them a voice.
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” — Benjamin Franklin
