School Climate Survey 2012

Instructions

Please distribute parent surveys beginning March 15, 2012, and schedule in-class time as soon as possiblefor students to complete the survey.

The annual School Climate Survey is an important component of City Schools’ efforts to monitor and improve the quality of the learning environment in Baltimore City’s public schools. It is used to inform individual school performance plans as well as the district’s Master Plan and the School Comprehensive Safety Plan. Climate data also inform School Progress Reports and the evaluation of school administrators.

City Schools has developed surveys for students in grades 3-12, for parents and for staff, to obtain their assessments of school climate. Climate surveys will be available for distribution (or, for staff, online completion) beginning on March 15.

Only parent surveys will be available in both English and Spanish. All students and staff must complete the survey in English. A Spanish version of the parent survey is available in limited quantities. Your school will receive an appropriate number of Spanish surveys determined based on enrollmentwith the other survey materials.

The following survey materials will be shipped to your school directly from the printer (Scantron) via UPS. Please alert your office staff to expect several packagescontaining the survey materials for your school. Each package will be clearly marked with a bright orange label affixed to the outside. Please instruct staff not to refuse delivery of these packages, and to inform you immediately when the boxes have been received.Your school should receive all forms by no later than March 15. The following items will be included in your shipment:

  1. Survey forms: Your school will receive student and parent/guardian survey forms, in quantities determined by the number of students enrolled in grades 3-12 at your school. Both English and Spanish parent surveys will be included, as appropriate. There are no forms for the staff survey, which will be completed online. Please remind all staff to watch for an email message with a link to the online staff survey.
  2. Postage-paid return envelopesfor the parent survey: Each school will receive a postage-paid return envelope for each student, grades 3-12,in the school. Return envelopes should be backpacked home by students for their household, along with the survey.
  3. Parentletter: Each school will receive a letter from Dr. Alonso for each child in the school. The letter should be backpacked home along with the survey and postage-paid envelope.
  4. Instructions for staff: These instructions should be distributed to all school-based staff.

If your school has not received its shipment of survey materials by close of business on March 16, the principal should contact the Office of Achievement and Accountability by email at or phone at 410-396-8962.

Student surveys: Principals should designate a date between March 16and March 23, for school-wide administration of the climate survey to students. On the designated date, all students in all classrooms should take the survey at the same time, preferably in the morning between 9 and 9:30 a.m., to prevent any students from completing a survey more than once.

  • Upon completion of the initial survey administration, student surveys should be delivered to the principal or the principal’s designee for return to the Office of Achievement and Accountability (OAA), Room 203, 200 E. North Ave., Baltimore, MD 21202, via interoffice mail—or in person, if a receipt for the surveys is desired.
  • Teachers should keep track of the students who were absent for the initial survey administration. After the initial administration, teachers should followup with students who were absent on the survey date and permit those students to complete the survey at the earliest convenient opportunity. These remaining completed survey forms should be returned to the principal or principal’s designee no later than April 11, for return to OAA via interoffice mail or in person by April 12.
  • PLEASE SAVE THE BOX(ES) IN WHICH THE SURVEYS WERE SHIPPED, AND RETURN THE COMPLETED SURVEYS IN THE BOX(ES) TO CENTRAL OFFICE. PLEASE DO NOT USE POSTAGE-PAID PARENT SURVEY ENVELOPES TO RETURN STUDENT SURVEYS, as this may lead to a delay in form processing.
  • Please note that City Schools’ Accountability Officer will be notified daily about the status of survey returns from each school. If the bulk of surveys are not received by March 28, the Accountability Officer will contact the principal to determine why surveys have not been received and make arrangements to have the surveys returned.

Parent surveys: The principal is responsible for distributing the parent survey forms, return envelopes and cover letters to teachers no later than March 15, so that they, in turn, can ensure that parent surveys are backpacked home with students on March 16. Please do not fold, staple, glue or affix anything to the survey forms.

If parents opt to return their survey to the school, it should be collected by an organized parent group or a community-based organization (CBO)working to increase parent involvement in the school. The parent group or CBO active at the school should organize a way for parents to return surveys directly to the parent group or CBO (e.g., drop box, drop-off and pick-up collections). If there is no parent group or CBO active at the school, parents should be encouraged to mail the survey using the postage-paid envelope.

The district’s Office of Communications will promote awareness of the survey through various means, including the Family Menu, Twitter, school and district websites and other tools, in order to encourage response.

Schools are asked to urge parents in various ways (e.g., phone calls, meetings, flyers, etc.) to complete and return the survey. However, school personnel should not handle the completed surveys.

Organized parent groups and CBOs shouldcollect completed parent surveys from March 16 through April 11, and return all surveys via interoffice mail or in person to the OAA, Room 203, 200 E. North Ave., Baltimore, MD 21202, by April 12.

Parents will be contacted via Global Connect call on March 22, and asked whether they have received a climate survey. If parents have not received a survey, one will be mailed to them, beginning March 23.

Parents should return their completed climate surveys, either by mail or to the school, by April 11.

On March 23, the Office of Engagement will contact schools, and theirorganized parent groups and CBOs, whose return rates are below 50 percent as of March 21. These school communities (school staff, organized parent groups and CBOs) will be asked to contact parents to urge them to complete the survey. Schools may conduct additional Global Connect calls as appropriate.

Staff surveys: All school-basedprofessional and paraprofessional staffwill receive an email onMarch 15, with a link to participate in this year’s School Climate Survey online. The completion of the survey online will ensure staff anonymity and prevent other school staff from reviewing the staff member’s responses prior to the survey being submitted.The staff survey takes about 20 minutes to complete. All school-based staff including teachers, support staff, principals,and assistant principals should participate. Teachers may wish to know that the adoption of an online survey, rather than a printed form,was planned collaboratively with the Baltimore Teachers Union. Instructions for completing the survey will be specified in the email. Staff should complete a survey no later than April 12.Staff should be instructed not to forward the email to others or to share the survey link.

Data will be scanned and analyzedby senior staff, and information on survey results will be made public in about June 2012.

Summary Calendar of Climate Survey Events and Deadlines

Date / Responsibility / Action
Mar 14-15 / Scantron/OAA / Survey forms distributed to school administrative offices.
Mar 16 / Principal / Deadline to notify OAA if your school has not received survey forms.
Mar 14-16 / Principal / Distribute student and parent survey materials to teachers with appropriate instructions; Remind staff to check their emails for survey link and complete the survey.
Mar 16- 23 / Teacher / Teachers should have students complete their survey forms during the designated school day (9:00-9:30 AM).
Mar 16 / Teacher / Parent surveys and note to parents sent home with students.
Mar 15 / All Staff / Staff should check email for their invitation to complete a climate survey.
Mar 22 / Office of Partnerships / Global connect call to parents to assess if they received survey.
Mar 16 - Apr 12 / Principal / Student surveys should be returned to OAA via interoffice mail or in person.
Mar 16-Apr 11 / Parents, organized parent groups, CBOs / Parents mail survey in postage paid envelope or organized parent group and community based organizations collect surveys and forward to OAA.
Apr 12 / Principal / Deadline for receipt of student surveys by OAA.
Apr 12 / Teacher / Deadline for submission of the online staff survey.
Apr 12 / Parents, organized parent groups, CBOs / Deadline for return of parent surveys to OAA.
June TBD / OAA / Deadline for return of survey results to school principals.

What Teachers Need to Know about the 2011-12 School Climate Survey

PLEASE DO NOT FOLD, STAPLE, GLUE OR OTHERWISE AFFIX ANYTHING TO THE SURVEY FORMS.

ALL STUDENTSin grades 3-12 will complete a climate survey on the date designated by the school principal, between March 16and March 23, 2012, at 9a.m.

After completion, surveys will be collected by teachers and returned to the school principal or principal’s designee, who will place them in interoffice mail or deliver the surveys in person to the Office of Achievement and Accountability (OAA) by close of business. If students are absent on the survey date, teachers should make additional attempts to have these students complete the survey. Please return any additional completed surveys to the principal or principal’s designee, who will place them in interoffice mail or deliver the surveys in person to OAA at 200 East North Avenue, Room 203, by close of business onApril 12, 2012.

On March 16, 2012, ALL STUDENTS should be givena parent survey, a letter to parents from Dr. Alonso, and a postage-paid return envelope to take home to their parent/caregiver to complete. The parent letter from Dr. Alonso asks parents to complete the survey and mail it inby April 12, 2012.

ALL STAFFshould check their email onMarch 15, 2012. The staff survey will be administered electronically; the staff email will contain a link to the survey, which must be completed online. Instructions for completing the survey will be included in the email. This process will ensure staff anonymity, as well as prevent other staff from reviewing a staff member’s survey responses prior to submission. All staff should complete and submit their surveys by April 12, 2012.

Dear City Schools Family,

Families are essential to great schools. Your ideas and feedback about your child’s education are important to the efforts of Baltimore City Public Schools to make all of its schools better. Your voice makes a difference.

Please take a few minutes to complete the enclosed School Climate Survey. City Schools conducts this survey each year to identify successes and highlight concerns. Completing the survey is a way for you to weigh in with school and district leaders so that, together, we can improve the educational experience of your child—and of all our students.

We ask that a parent or guardian complete one survey for each school where students in your household are enrolled. So, if you have more than one child in a single school, complete just one survey for that school. But if you have children who attend different schools, please complete one survey for each of the schools.

Please do not write your name on the survey. The survey is designed to be completely anonymous and confidential. After you complete the survey, simply seal it in the postage-paid envelope and drop it in any mailbox. If it is more convenient for you to return the completed survey to your school, please contact your PTA or other organized parent group to find out where the drop-off box is located. If you need contact information for your parent group, contact City Schools’ Office of Engagement at 410-545-1870.

Don’t wait—weigh in!

Please complete and return your School Climate Survey by Wednesday, April 11, 2012, using the enclosed postage-paid envelope.

Thank you for all that you do for our students and our schools. And thank you for your help in improving your school climate by completing this survey.

Sincerely,

Andrés A. Alonso, Ed.D.

CEO, Baltimore City Public Schools

Estimadas familias de las Escuelas de la Ciudad,

Las familias son una parte esencial de las grandes escuelas. Sus ideas y comentarios sobre la educación de su hijo son importantes para contribuir a los esfuerzos que hacen las Escuelas Públicas de de la Ciudad Baltimore para mejorar todas sus escuelas. Su opinión puede marcar una diferencia.

Les pedimos que dispongan unos minutos para completar la Encuesta adjunta sobre la situación actual de la escuela. Las Escuelas de la Ciudad realizan esta encuesta anualmente con el fin de identificar lo que se ha llevado a cabo con éxito y resaltar las inquietudes. Completar la encuesta es una forma en la que ustedes pueden contribuir con la escuela y con los líderes distritales para que, juntos, podamos mejorar la experiencia educativa de su hijo y de todos nuestros estudiantes.

Solicitamos que uno de los padres o tutor complete una encuesta por cada escuela en la que están inscritos los estudiantes de su familia. Entonces, si tiene más de un hijo en una misma escuela, solo completen una encuesta para dicha escuela. Sin embargo, si tienen hijos que asisten a distintas escuelas, les agradeceremos completar una encuesta por cada una de las escuelas.

No escriban su nombre en la encuesta. La encuesta está diseñada para ser completamente anónima yconfidencial. Después de completar la encuesta, simplemente colóquela y cierre el sobre de correopre-pagado y échenla en cualquier buzón de correo. Si les es más conveniente devolver la encuesta completa a su escuela, comuníquense con su PTA u otro grupo organizado de padres para averiguar dónde está ubicado el buzón para dejarla. Si requieren información de contacto para su grupo de padres, comuníquense con la Oficina de Relaciones (Office of Engagement) de las Escuelas de la Ciudad llamando al 410-545-1870.

¡No espere –contribuya!

Complete y devuelva su Encuesta sobre la situación actual de la escuela antes del miércoles 11 de abril de 2012 utilizando el sobre de correo pre-pagado.

Gracias por todo lo que hacen por nuestros estudiantes y por nuestras escuelas. Apreciamos su ayuda para mejorar la situación actual de su escuela al completar esta encuesta.

Atentamente,

Andrés A. Alonso, Ed.D.

CEO, Baltimore City Public Schools