voice of the parent: how schools can engage with parents
TRANSCRIPT
1
Voice of the Parent: How Schools can Engage with Parents
House KeepingThe recording and slides for today’s presentation will be made available as soon as possible.
Please use the question window to submit questions throughout the webinar. We have time designated at the end for Q&A.
Webinar Presenters
Samantha Murray Principal Advisor for Academics
QUALTRICS
Phil CumminsManaging Director
CIRCLE
Today’s Agenda• Using surveys to strengthen
parent-school relationships (Samantha Murray)
• Asking the right questions to listen to the voice of the parents (Phil Cummins)
• Q&A
Webinar Presenters
Samantha Murray Principal Advisor for Academics
QUALTRICS
Phil CumminsManaging Director
CIRCLE
Voice of Parent Program Using Surveys to Strengthen Parent-School Relationships
Samantha A. MurrayPrincipal Advisor for Academics Qualtrics
Voice of Parent Program
Exploring how schools can use surveys to gather rich, actionable data in Qualtrics to strengthen parent-school
relationships.
7
Today’s Discussion
8
ActAnalyzeCollect
Qualtrics is a powerful, flexible, and scalable technology that transforms the way individual schools and school systems
collect, analyze and act on data - all in a single insights platform.
Learn RespondListen
If you could ask only 1 question to get a parent pulse, what would you ask?
Just to check inShould be a closed-ended question
9
If you could ask only 1 question to get a parent pulse, what would you ask?
Examples:
10
How would you rate the school year so
far?
How do you feel about ___ at this point in the school
year?
How happy are you with the
way the school year is going?
How satisfied are you with
your experience thus far?
How well are we serving
your family?
Over the course of a school year, when + how often would you ask that 1 check-in question?
Examples:
11
How would you rate the school year so
far?
How do you feel about ___ at this point in the school
year?
How happy are you with the
way the school year is going?
How satisfied are you with
your experience thus far?
How well are we serving
your family?
Voice of Parent Program DesignAn Example
12
13
Collect
Voice of Parent
Analyze
Act
ASK:1. How satisfied are you with your
experience thus far? (closed-ended)
2. What’s going well? (open-ended)3. What’s not going well? (open-
ended)
Wave 1
Monitor
14
Collect
Collect
Voice of Parent
Analyze Analyze
Act Act
Monitor
Wave 1 Wave 2
Monitor
ASK:1. How satisfied are you with your
experience thus far? (closed-ended)
2. What’s going well? (open-ended)3. What’s not going well? (open-
ended)
15
Collect
Collect
Voice of Parent
Analyze Analyze
Act Act
Monitor
Wave 1 Wave 2
Monitor
Collect
Analyze
Act
Wave 3
Monitor/Planning
ASK:1. How satisfied are you with your
experience thus far? (closed-ended)
2. What’s going well? (open-ended)3. What’s not going well? (open-
ended)
16
ActAnalyzeCollect
Using surveys to capture parent
voice can be quick and easy. By
asking just a few meaningful
questions you can build relational
trust and two-way communication.
Get a snapshot of how your parents
are feeling Are there any patterns? For
example: Is there a difference in
sentiment between new families and
returning families?
Follow up and consistency is key!
Schedule a personalized
follow-up e-mail to each parent who
provided feedback. Set realistic
expectations about closing the loop.
Key Enabling Factors for Voice of Parent Success
Leadership and Buy-InVision and Clarity
Engagement and CollaborationListening and Learning
Alignment, Action, and MonitoringPatience and Commitment
17
Webinar Presenters
Samantha Murray Principal Advisor for Academics
QUALTRICS
Phil CumminsManaging Director
CIRCLE
CIRCLE-QUALTRICS WEBINAROCTOBER 2016
Asking the right questions to listen to the voice of parents
Dr Phil Cummins
CONTEXT: ABOUT USCIRCLE – The Centre for Innovation, Research, Creativity and Leadership in Education
Working with over 1,750 schools internationally An educational agency that equips, empowers and enables schools and school leaders through consultancy and educational servicesAchieving better outcomes for more learners by building cultures of excellence in leadership and learning in communities of inquiryStrategic alliances with tertiary bodies (including the University of Tasmania) and professional associationsCreating educational software solutions for improving school performance including Touchstones
Dr Philip SA Cummins [email protected] Director, CIRCLEAdjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of TasmaniaWorking in and with schools since 1988
www.circle.educationwww.mytouchstones.com
@CIRCLEcentral
4 STRATEGIES FOR PARENT ENGAGEMENTExtracted from CIRCLE Nexus June 2016:• Planning: Planning for deliberate, targeted and intentional engagement through events,
campaigns, communications and other specific activity• Preparation: Rehearsing leaders in how to demonstrate their authentic care and concern and the
school’s approach in responding during informal contexts• Partnerships: Cultivating partnerships with parents that utilise their strengths and gifts in a
manner that best suits their capacity and availability to contribute• Politics: Using data collection and management to understand who is in the parent body, how
they think and what they want and need for their children– Who is your community? Who are the key stakeholders you are trying to engage?– How narrowly can you segment your stakeholder categories?– How do you know what your parent community thinks?– How do you know what your parent community wants from– your school?– What systems do you have in place to collect, identify, sort, analyse and evaluate the type
of data that will help you to answer these questions?– Who can help you with this in your school?
GATHERING AND INTERPRETING DATA IN A SCHOOL COMMUNITYThe CIRCLE Discovery Process• Discover: What do we know about our performance and
culture?– Survey tools– Focus group tools– Workshop tools
• Diagnose: What key patterns and trends can we observe from the data?
• Decide: What should we do?• Direct: What strategies can we use to do this well?• Deploy: How are we going to get there?
SEGMENTING YOUR COMMUNITY:STANDARDS-REFERENCED EVALUATIONUsing standards to evaluate both culture performance• We use a series of established standards to describe desirable attainment
across the 5 domains and the 5 criteria of the CIRCLE School Framework.• These standards can be used in full or in a selected fashion to identify holistic
or targeted culture and performance.• Each of the questions of the Discovery tool is linked to a specific standard and
stakeholders are asked to indicate a level of agreement on a 6 point Likert scale:1. Well below expectation2. Below expectation3. Sometimes meets expectation4. Meets expectation5. Above expectation6. Well above expectation
The CIRCLE School Framework:
Building cultures of
excellence in leadership
and learning
School culture: Led by values
that are for real, for change, for life, for others
Achievement: Do we
achieve good results?
Relationships: Do we have good
relationships?
Communicatios: Do we
communicate well?
Initiatives: Do we plan for, conduct and evaluate
initiatives well?
Reputation: Do we have a
good reputation?
CIRCLE’S STANDARDS FOR GREAT SCHOOL CULTURE
Great school culture …• Privileges the disciplined pursuit of achievement; encourages challenging individual and
collective goals; asserts confidence in the capability of all to be successful and seeks out the best processes by which this might be attained; and measures its effectiveness in attaining the best possible outcomes
• Builds robust and resilient learning relationships within supportive environments that inspire learners to grow in knowledge, skills and character so that they are equipped, empowered and enabled to assume responsibility for making a positive contribution to the world
• Listens to its community carefully and consistently, connecting and communicating with it by creating a credible narrative of the school that honours the legacy of its past, frames the complexity of its present and projects a compelling rationale for a preferred future that serves 21st century learning
• Invests significant hope, resources and commitment into research and development by planning, conducting and evaluating intentional projects and initiatives that are aligned to the schools mission, realize the school’s vision and demonstrate the school’s values in action
• Earns a strong reputation as a great school that exceeds expectations with relation to the quality of it outcomes, the efficiency and efficacy of its processes, its engagement with its community, the consistency of application of its ethos; and the execution of is strategy across the domains of achievement, relationships, communications and initiatives
Shaping culture through values for real, for change, for life and for others
SEGMENTING YOUR COMMUNITY:DISCOVERY QUESTIONS BY DOMAIN5 simple questions by school improvement domain – culture• Achievement: Do we achieve good results?
– Focus on what parents think about our culture of learning, leadership, service, sport and co-curricular.
• Relationships in our community: Do we have good relationships?:– Focus on what parents think about the key relationships that support student learning – students,
staff, parents, Board, alumni, broader community members.• Communication: Do we communicate well?
– Focus on what parents think about how we communicate among our community members and to others about what we are doing, why we are doing this and how well we are doing.
• School initiatives: Do we plan for, implement and evaluate our initiatives well?– Focus on what parents think about how well we implement what we see as the most important
programs that will benefit our community. • Reputation: Do we have a good reputation?
– Focus on what think about parents how we as individuals and a community care for and promote the school’s identity internally and externally, aligning individual and collective reputation with the needs of parents in relation to achievement, relationships, communication and initiatives.
The CIRCLE School Framework:
Building cultures of excellence in leadership
and learning
School performance:
Led by a commitment
to better outcomes for
more learners
Outcomes: Do we
achieve good results?
Processes: Do we have
good relationships
?
Community engagement:
Do we communicate
well?
Ethos: Do we plan for, conduct and
evaluate initiatives
well?
Strategic intent: Do we have a
good reputation?
CIRCLE’S STANDARDS FOROUTSTANDING SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
Outstanding school performance is …• Driven by a relentless passion for and shared practice in for setting, planning for, attaining, evaluating and
(where possible) improving the agreed key outcomes of the school that relate to the core learning, leadership, character, service, sport, co-curricular and developmental activity of the school in particular, as well as the financial, governance and business stewardship of the those resources needed to attain the educational mission of the school
• Enhanced by routine habits of researching, identifying and implementing the best possible teaching and learning, research and development, information recording and tracking, evaluation and decision-making, and resourcing and other business processes, based on cumulative internal data-gathering, regular programs of review and external research of other available options
• Energised by deliberate, targeted and intentional approaches to community engagement that is informed by an both understanding of the relationships between what stakeholders what and need, and what the school promises and delivers on an ongoing basis, and the identification of the broad and deep nature of community satisfaction with our school by testing the validity of parent assumptions and anecdote against key data about performance
• Strengthened by the robustness and resilience of its ethos, particularly through the alignment of its stated and unstated culture as demonstrated in the connections between our community’s words and its deeds, particularly the daily activity of students, staff and leaders
• Guided by a common understanding of and judgment about our strategic intent that is most visible in the close and mutually supporting relationship between our strategic vision, intention, planning, operations, communication and evaluation systems, and also our capacity to deliver better outcomes for more learners by building cultures of excellence in leadership and learning
Crafting performance through commitment to better outcomes for more learners
SEGMENTING YOUR COMMUNITY:DISCOVERY QUESTIONS BY CRITERIA5 simple questions by school improvement criteria – performance• Outcomes: Do we do what we set out to do?
– Focus on what parents think about our learning, leadership, character, service, sport, co-curricular and developmental results in particular, as well as key financial, governance and business outcomes.
• Processes: Do use the best available processes?– Focus on what parents think about teaching and learning, research and development, information
recording and tracking, evaluation and decision-making, and resourcing and other business processes.
• Community Engagement: Have we engaged with and satisfied our community’s expectations?– Focus on testing the validity of parent assumptions and anecdote against key data about
performance to identify the broad and deep nature of community satisfaction with our school.• Ethos: Have we enhanced our school’s ethos and values?
– Focus on parent perception of the alignment of stated and unstated culture as demonstrated in our words and our deeds, particularly the daily activity of students, staff and leaders.
• Strategic Intent: Are we aligned with and contributing to our strategic intent?– Focus on parent understanding of and judgment about our strategic intent that is most visible in
the close and mutually supporting relationship between our strategic vision, intention, planning, operations, communication and evaluation systems, and also our capacity to deliver better outcomes for more learners by building cultures of excellence in leadership and learning.
SEGMENTING YOUR COMMUNITY:REPORTING ON A DISCOVERY SURVEYA 5x5 grid relating culture to performance through a parent lens
Achievement Relationships Comms Initiatives Reputation
Outcomes 3.6 4.5 2.4 3.6 4.1
Processes 4 4 2.5 3.2 4.5
Community Engagement 3.5 4.2 2.3 3.8 3.9
Ethos 3.8 4.3 2.0 3.5 3.4
Strategic Intent 3.9 4.1 2.8 3.7 3.6
SEGMENTING YOUR COMMUNITY:4 PRINCIPLES FOR UNDERSTANDING PARENT DATALook for the real voices of different groups of parents1. Ask a big question and listen to the answer: Use broad questions
that help people to tell their authentic story rather than specific questions that are prescriptive of thinking or suggestive of an answer.
2. Honour the process: Ask the same questions every time and build them in to the processes of the whole school.
3. Keep it simple: Complicated dashboards work for a handful of us; just about anyone in your school can understand a simple matrix that is used again and again.
4. Framework = alignment: Linking everything to a common framework provides the alignment we need.
Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received…only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.
Francis of Assisi
Do you have other questions?Do you want to know more?
Dr Phil Cummins [email protected]
www.circle.educationwww.mytouchstones.com
@CIRCLEcentral
35
Q&A
Phil [email protected]
@CIRCLEcentral
Samantha [email protected]
www.qualtrics.com/k12@SamAngMurray
Do you have other questions?