Later this week, you will be receiving and important email from the American School of Warsaw inviting you to participate in a schoolwide survey. Similar to our last survey of this type conducted back in 2016, we begin an annual process for gathering regular and consistent data from parents and students about our programs and services.
In his book Visible Learning, John Hattie confirmed that data and research is one of our best tools for continuous school improvement. One of the most important tools we have is our own action towards gathering feedback and developing action plans around these measured results. The survey you are being asked to complete will be used annually at the end of each school year and progress will be monitored over time. Only about 10-15% of the survey will change each year, such that we maintain a solid core of data that can be compared year after year.
Note that each parent will receive a seperate email for EACH student in the family. Invitations include a personalized link to the survey that is associated with a specific child and parent. Each survey is somewhat customized based on the grade level of the child, but many of the questions will be the same for each child in a given family. Anonymity is protected in the application since responses are recorded in a database that is seperate and unlinked to our invitation list.
All parents are invited to interpret their child’s experience and their own understanding of that experience to contribute to the survey, potentially differently for each child. In some cases, one parent or the other may choose not to participate. A seperate link in the email will allow a parent to opt out of the survey. If you do not participate and use the link provided, you will continue to receive email reminders from us until the survey closes on July 1, 2018.
We will compile the results and start sharing the findings in the fall shortly after the opening of school. Thank you in advance for your kind attention to this important task!!
Great idea!