Parents in La Grange Elementary District 105 are being asked to complete a short survey that seeks their perceptions of how the district is succeeding and where it needs to improve.
Responses to the online survey, titled Illinois 5Essentials: Organizing Schools for Improvement, are due by Jan. 30.
The survey, which also has portions with questions for sixth- to eighth-grade students and for teachers and certified support staff, focuses on five areas that affect school success: leadership, collaboration, family involvement, school environment and instruction.
Students are completing their portions of the surveys by Jan. 30, too, said superintendent Glenn Schlichting.
Questions include whether students feel safe in hallways, if teachers feel responsible to help others teachers do their best, would parents recommend the school to other parents and whether they feel their voice is valued in the school.
Schlichting said the state-mandated survey is based on 20 years of research completed by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research The survey measures changes in a school organization and provides individualized, actionable reports for each school.
“Those reports are contained in the Illinois School Report Card, which will come in by the fall,” Schlichting said.
This is the third time the district has taken the survey over the past six years, he said.
“Illinois schools have to participate in a school climate survey every two years,” said Richard Bloomfield, a project manager for the consortium. “It’s like a predictor for school success.”
“It paints a picture of where a school is excelling and where it is lacking,” Bloomfield said.
Feedback from parents “will provide us with critical information to assess how well we are serving our students and progressing toward our school and district goals,” said Schlichting.
Schlichting said the responses to past surveys has helped the district improve in such area as communication about student progress and the rigor and individualization of the instructional program.
He said students’ response to a question about whether teachers wanted them to learn to be good memorizers or good thinkers brought a change. The district decided to focus on helping students learn about the importance of thinking over rote learning and to better challenge their critical thinking skills.
It also helped the district identify new programs that it now offers such as full-day kindergarten and use of technology in the classroom, including the fifth through eighth grade 1:1 initiatives, he said.
Schlichting noted that parental participation will also help the district compare how it is performing compared to other similar districts in the state.
“This gives us the opportunity to benchmark our processes against other districts,” he said.
Schlichting said its important for parents to participate because it takes at least 20 percent of parents to complete the survey for the state to release the results to the district.
Having fewer than the required responses will not give the district the full picture it seeks.
“It’s quite possible we could have 20 percent at one school and not have it at another,” Schlichting said.
In addition to the state survey, Schlichting said the district regularly conducts its own local surveys of parents, teachers and students.
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“It’s such an important part of our district goal-setting,” he said. “We really want to hear from our stakeholders.”
The survey is available in English and Spanish and can be found online at survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/survey/parent/login/
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