Parent Engagement Survey Under ESSA

  1. SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM

Context: Your overall opinions on how you think Indiana’s schools are performing.

Questions:

  1. What letter grade would you give Indiana’s schools?(circle one)

A B C D F

  1. What are schools doing well and how can they be improved?

______

  1. What letter grade would you give your child’s schools?(circle one)

A B C D F

  1. What defines a good school?

______

  1. REPORTING ON SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

Context: ESSA requires that schools be measured on specific academic indicators but also at least one state selected academic or non-academic indicator.

Questions:

  1. When thinking about your child’s school, what are the things that matter most to you?

______

  1. What are things that matter the least?

______

  1. Rank the following Academic indicators that you think should be considered to use to measure school performance?(Rank from 1-3)

______Graduation Rate

______State Standardized Test Scores

______English Language Learner Proficiency

______Other ______

  1. Rank the following NON-Academic indicators that you think should be considered to use to measure school performance? (Rank from 1-3)

______School Safety

______Learning Environment

______Discipline Rates

______Attendance Rates

______Parent Satisfaction

______Family Engagement

______Resource Equity

  1. REPORT CARD

Context: ESSA also requires that states publically share how every school performs on an annual report card. Giving an adequate funding to every school is critical to ensure that all schools and students have the opportunity to meet high standards. For example, state report cards must include how much money is spent per student and then this must be broken down to show how much of the funds are spent on staff as well as how much funding came from each level of government.

Questions:

  1. What kind of information would you want to see on a school report card?

Highlight on your Performance Report Handout which items you want to see.

  1. How would you like to receive the report card?(Check ONE)

______Direct mail

______Email

______In-person during parent/teacher conferences

______Backpack mail

  1. Would you rather see (a) a collection of different kinds of data on your child’s school or (b) an overall rating, like a number or letter grade so you can easily rank schools across the state or (c) a combination of the two?

______

  1. How might our state prioritize or target funding to close gaps?

______

  1. Which students, schools, districts, and issues need the most attention?

______

  1. What state programs can augment ESSA’s focus to accelerate funding equity?

______

  1. Is the information easy to understand? IF NOT, what is confusing to you?

______

  1. Is there any information about the school that you would like to know that is missing?

______

  1. SUPPORTING EFFECTIVE TEACHERS

Context: ESSA specifically asks states to describe how they will recruit, train, retain, and support their teachers.

Questions:

  1. What role do teachers play in determining a school’s performance?

______

  1. What type of additional support do you think your child’s teachers need?

______

  1. ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

Context: Standards are the learning goals in each subject and grade that outline what a child should know and be able to do at the end of each school year.

Questions:

  1. Do you think all students in Indiana are currently held to the same standards?(circle one)

YES or NO

  1. Are those standards challenging enough?(circle one)

YES or NO

  1. How important is it that the every student across Indiana is held to the same expectations?

Not very important 1 ...... 2 ...... 3 ...... 4 ...... 5 Very Important

  1. Students who are not proficient in English, known as English language learners, have a separate set of standards to make sure they learn and master the English language. What do you think is the best way to measure how well they are learning English?

______

  1. SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Context: ESSA reinforces the work that states have been doing to help low-performing schools improve.

Questions:

  1. If your child’s school received an unsatisfactory rating(F) on the report card, what would you do?

______

  1. If your child’s school received an unsatisfactory rating (F)on the report card, what would you want to know?

______

  1. What do you think should be done to support low-performing schools?

______

  1. Whose responsibility is it to help your child’s school improve?

______Parents

______Teachers

______Principals

______District Leaders

______State Leaders

  1. What role should parents play in helping their child’s school improve?

______

  1. OVERALL STATE EDUCATION PLAN

Context: ESSA allows each state to develop its own educational plan, with a set of goals and then decide how to measure the achieved goals.

Questions:

  1. What do you think is the biggest issue-facing student in our state?

______

  1. An achievement gap is when some student populations, such as low-income, special education, or communities of color have lower achievement scores than their peers. How serious of a problem do you think this is for Indiana?

NOT Serious 1 ...... 2 ...... 3 ...... 4 ...... 5 Very Serious

  1. What student populations need the most support?

______

  1. Continued Parent and Family Engagement

Context: As we continue to work on developing our goals, we will need to create a detailed plan for the state, and want to continue getting your feedback.

Questions:

  1. Would you like to keep informed, moving forward?

YES or NO

  1. What is the best way to keep you informed moving forward?

______Direct mail

______Email

______In-person during parent/teacher conferences

  1. What is the best way to engage parents in education decisions long term?

______

  1. What education decisions do you want to be engaged in?

______

  1. What do you expect to happen as a result of being engaged in this process?

______