New student survey to begin at Pine-Richland

Sign up for one of our email newsletters.Updated 5 hours ago Students at Pine-Richland will make their voices heard through a new annual student survey. Students in grades 3, 6, 8 and 12 will be able to take an online survey each spring rating their satisfaction...

New student survey to begin at Pine-Richland

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Updated 5 hours ago

Students at Pine-Richland will make their voices heard through a new annual student survey.

Students in grades 3, 6, 8 and 12 will be able to take an online survey each spring rating their satisfaction on a variety of topics

“Student voice is an extremely powerful feedback for us in an effective education program,” said district director of pupil services Laura Davis. “They are in my opinion our key stakeholder.”

Communication and engagement is one of the focuses from the district's 2016-19 strategic plan, and one of the initiatives was to launch an annual student survey, said Davis.

She said they'd like to give seniors the survey in March before year-end testing takes over their schedules, while the other three grades will do the survey in May. It will be taken online during the school day and requires about 15 minutes to complete.

The survey is voluntary and anonymous. Davis said parents receive a letter informing them of the survey before test dates and opting out is an option.

The survey asks about satisfaction with things like school lunches, transportation, academics, school culture and support offered.

Grades 3, 6, 8 and 12 were chosen because those are the last grades in each school building, so students will have had the most experience in that school to report back on.

They'll be asking some of the same questions that are on the annual parent survey, which the district began administering in the 2014-15 school year.

“Like the results of the student survey, the parent survey gives information about parent satisfaction that the district uses to make improvement in the communication with and engagement of our families,” Davis said.

Superintendent Brian Miller said the results of the parent survey over the past two years, have been shared with administrators and staff to help them set goals and make improvements.

Davis said they have a strong history of collecting the student voice in a variety of ways at Pine-Richland, from student feedback in evaluating textbooks and other curriculum resources to round-table discussions about Google Apps.

But they lacked a consistent, year-to-year survey that could be given to students and used to see trends and analyze feedback over time, Davis said.

Results from the student surveys will be shared with administrators, school board and community.

“We will use the results to help us continue to make improvements to our educational programs,” Davis said.

A sample of the student survey can be found in the school board's Meetings & Latest Board Actions/Agendas section under the School Board tab at pinerichland.org

Rachel Farkas is a Tribune-Review contributor.

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