2018 Parent, Staff, and Student Survey Results: We Hear You!

We are committed to gathering the perspectives of parents, staff, and students to better understand our strengths and challenges as a district.

Last spring parents, students, and staff were invited to complete a survey to measure our progress as a District toward meeting school and District goals.  1,940 parents completed the District Survey – a 34% response rate. We combined the results of the Parent Survey with responses from 2,981 Students in grades 3 to 12 and 669 Staff to share highlights of the key findings:

Evidence of Progress Toward Meeting District Goals Shown for each goal as the average of percent favorable responses for Parents, Students, and Staff combined :

Goal 1 - Advance Learning for All Students: 85% favorable

·   Efficacy: How much students believe they can succeed (87%) / Parent perception on supporting their child’s learning (86%) / Staff perception on supporting students’ learning (96%)

·   School Engagement (student-only measure): How attentive and invested students feel about school (69%)

·   Homework furthering learning: Student perception (52%) / Parent perception (71%) / Staff perception (76%)

·   Involvement in decision-making about education: Student perception (71%) / Parent perception (88%) / Staff perception of encouraging parent involvement (93%)

·   Curriculum meeting needs: Student perception (86%) / Parent perception (91%) / Staff perception (92%)

·   High Academic Standards: Student perception (96%) / Parent perception (86%) / Staff perception (98%)

Goal 2 - Develop Social, Emotional, Wellness, and Citizenship Skills: 89% favorable

·   School Belonging: Students feeling like valued member of the school community (83%) / Parents reporting: “School matches my child’s development needs” (88%) / Staff feeling ready to address diversity in school community (95%)

·   School Climate: Perception of overall social and learning climate of school (Students 81%; Parents 92%; Staff 94%)

·   Social Awareness (student-only measure): How well students consider others’ perspectives and empathize (92%)

·   Feeling Safe: Student perception (93%) / Parent perception (95%) / Staff perception (94%)

·   Feeling Stressed: 39% of Students report feeling quite stressed or overwhelmed / 17% of Parents perceive their child feels quite stressed or overwhelmed by school / 35% of Staff perceive students feeling quite stressed and overwhelmed

                       

Goal 3 - Ensure Infrastructure Supports Learning Goals: 84% favorable

·   Adequacy of programs/services: Highest measures for Nursing (94%) and Media Center (95%), and lowest measures for Afterschool Programs and Food Services (85%)

·   Resources: Perception of adequacy of school’s resources including instructional, human, technology, facility (81%) with highest measure for “Ease of accessing extra support” (92%) and lowest measure for “Adequate number of staff/specialists to help students” (61% according to parents and 45% according to staff)

·   Effective Communication: Student perception (83%) / Parent perception (89%) / Staff Perception (87%)

·   Professional Learning: (staff-only measure) Perception of the amount and quality of professional growth and learning opportunities available to school staff (80%)

Representative open-ended comments from Parents, Students, and Staff:

Parents: “I think the teachers and administrators do a wonderful job of creating a positive learning environment for the students.” “I truly appreciate everything the district does to ensure a top-quality education for our children.” “Schools are underfunded and caseloads are way too high!” “Student-to-teacher ratios are such that we feel the teachers do not have enough time/energy to really get to know each student.” “Facilities could use some attention.” (701 parent comments)

Students: “Teachers are always there for me.” “I think this is a very strong school system and I think I am lucky to be in it.” “Homework can really make kids get stressed and overwhelmed if they have a lot.” “We need consistent heat and AC in every room.” “Get more assistant teachers to help some kids that need more help.” (1,411 student comments)

Staff: “Overall, NPS provides a positive, supportive teaching environment.” “I feel fortunate to work in a district that is dedicated to improving itself by soliciting feedback.” “Anxiety is significantly impacting students in my school more each year.” “Wish we had more support staff to help kids who struggle academically.” (54 staff comments)

Your voices have been heard, and we appreciate your feedback!  The survey allows our district to celebrate strengths and respond to goal areas needing attention. Over the next several months we will engage parents, staff, students, and our School Councils in analyzing the survey findings and incorporate the data, and appropriate action steps, into our school improvement plans.

To view the survey results, check out the District’s website: 2018 NPS Parent, Staff, and Student Survey Results