Culture/Climate

Survey
Michelle Kravetz
Spring 2015

Purpose

Purpose of the project

The purpose is to assess the climate and culture
of Defer Intermediate School in Streetsboro.
Through dialogue and surveys, strengths and
challenges will be identified. An action plan with
possible solutions will be proposed for each
challenge.

Culture of U.S. Education

Perspective from outside of the classroom
We are inundated with reform efforts from NCLB to
privatization (Ravitch, Stanford Education)
Schools characterized as failing by journalists and
researchers funded by conservative foundations
(English, 2014)
Perspective from inside the classroom
Focus needs to be on relationships with students
every child needs a champion (Pearson, TED talks)
Education is a human system culture is essential
(Robinson, TED talks)

Culture/Climate Team
Building principal
Teachers from the Building Leadership Team
Sampling of students

Conversation
with school
supervisor

Principal
Students feel cared about its genuine
Staff feel supported trying to stay positive
Students feel safe and feel good about their work
A way to go with keeping parents informed
PARCC/OTES our next crusade, separating truth from fiction
Policy practices unknown no committee involving all
stakeholders
Diverse family values we keeps things as general as possible,
look at things case by case
Kids would describe our school as a safe place with structure and
stability, family atmosphere, favorable view

Assessment of
school culture

School culture surveys

Staff was sent a survey via Survey Monkey
Sent to all staff members, received 29 responses
Gauge staffs perception of our building culture and identify outlier
responses
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2XCPKDY

Students were sent a survey via Google Forms

Taken during technology class time, received 275 responses from
various classes in grades 4-6
Compare students perceptions with staff responses
Students arent asked for opinions often enough
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/
12e4MIUpU5Qq3IR3pUr5MR7MCLBplfx71uBJse4hUDXU/viewform?
usp=send_form

Staff Survey Results

Response word analysis

Analysis of staff responses

Staff felt that students feel cared about by their teachers and
principals
Families do not necessarily feel comfortable understanding
what their children are learning at school issues with common
core, math series, etc.
We see a need for families to be more involved and welcome
in our school
Not all staff feels that teachers are involved in decision-making
(36% did not agree)

Student Survey Summary

84.4% overall said they
strongly agree/agree
89% of students of color
strongly agree/agree
Equal numbers of males
and females

85% said they strongly

agree/agree
89% of students of color
strongly agree/agree

 75.2% overall said they

strongly agree/agree
76% of students of color
strongly agree/agree

76.7% overall said they

strongly agree/agree
84.2% of students of color
strongly agree/agree
Equal numbers of males
and females do not

Describe our school

Do you feel your opinions are

listened to? By who?
72% said yes, there is an adult at school who listens to their opinions
12% said no, they do not feel anyone listens to their opinions
The other 16% felt somewhat listened to
Response analysis:

Analysis of student
responses
Students do feel that the staff at school cares about them
There werent any discrepancies between race or gender
regarding students feelings about our school
The lowest percentage of strongly agree/agree was for the
question regarding students feeling supported in their work
Students described the school as good, nice, and safe
Students feel that their opinions are listened to by teachers many students listed specific teachers rather than teachers as a
whole

Results reflection

Reflection
I learned that the majority of the students in our school feel that
teachers care about them not that I found it surprising, but I was
happy with how high the percentage was
One major concern that came out of the survey was families not
feeling comfortable with what their child is learning at school
teachers mostly felt this way
In a follow-up survey I would want to ask in more detail about
students feeling cared for and get more detailed feedback to see
if it is a general feeling of caring or if they each feel there is a
specific teacher who is their advocate
From the results, it seemed that the staff had a more negative
perception of our school culture than the students. The culture of
the building is so important to the student and community
perception of our school and their willingness to partner with us for
the students.

School community
strengths

School Community Strength

#1
Students feel cared for in our school by the
teachers and administration
84% feel that teachers care about them and 85% feel
that principals care about them
The percentages were even higher for students of
color at 89% for both
Students described our school frequently as nice,
good, and safe
89% of teachers also believed that students felt cared
for

School Community Strength

#2
School policies are equitable
71% of teachers agreed or strongly agree that our
school policies are equitable (fair to all groups of
people)

School Community Strength

#3
Students feel good about the work they do
at school
About 78% of students said that their strongly agree or agree that
the feel good about their work
It would be interesting to see how this data aligns with grades,
achievement test scores, etc.
Are the students who are not feeling good about their work the
students who struggle?

School Community Strength

#4
Our building is working towards more
collegiality and teamwork
68% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the building
has a sense of collegiality and teamwork
Another 21% neither agreed nor disagreed
One comment was that we have a lot of teamwork in
grade levels, but not as much as departments across
grades but this is improving
We have been having quarterly department meetings this
school year

School community
challenges

School Community
Challenge #1
Families need to feel more informed about
their childs learning
Only 46% of teachers felt that families are comfortable
understanding what their child is learning at school
Some concerns involved new curriculum, specifically in
math
Despite information being posted in several places, some
families claim to not know what their child is learning

Research-based solutions for

challenge #1
Staff professional development on
communicating student learning with
families
First step is to educate staff about the diverse needs and
backgrounds of the students and families in the community
(Laroucque, p. 116)
Often the familys culture can be very different from the teachers
Hosting more family nights for parents to come in and learn what
their child is learning done in 4th grade math already
Create communication tools and share them in a variety of
formats that match parents preferences (paper, email, social
media, etc.)

Action Plan for challenge

#1
1. Have staff training in cultural differences specific to
the students in our school community (race, poverty,
etc.)
Needed: time for training, money for a presenter, teacher and
leadership buy-in

2. Teacher collaboration about best ways to

communicate with parents
Needed: time for teachers to meet and share methods, possible
technology training, survey sent to parents regarding
communication

School Community
Challenge #2
Families need to feel more comfortable
about gaining access to our school
While 61% of teachers said that families are comfortable,
the other 39% left comments that made it clear that we
need more family involvement and to welcome families to
our school more
One particular comment noted that certain families who
are more involved in school (PTA, etc.) do feel
comfortable, but most families do not
The difficulty is getting the feedback from the families who
are less involved and determining how to reach out to
them

Research-based solutions for

challenge #2
Research and consider having teachers conduct home visits
Schools are seeing huge improvements for students and families
when a home-school relationship is established starting with a
home visit (Baeder, 2010, p. 58)
Meeting families in their own homes gives teachers a sense of
how students live
Families are given the opportunity to meet with teachers in a
setting more comfortable to them
When the relationship is formed early on, academics and
behavior are positively affected

Action Plan for challenge

#2
1. In a committee such as BLT, research the impact and
effectiveness of home visits and discuss possibility of
using it in our school
Needed: time for research and meeting

2. Have volunteer teachers pilot home visits and share its

impact with staff
Needed: leadership support, volunteer teachers, time to educate
the volunteer teachers in how to conduct a home visit, time for
staff discussion of the impact

Culture/climate
team feedback

Discussed project with the principal

Principal completed the rubric and gave feedback
The project will be presented to our Building
Leadership Team at our next meeting on May 21st to
consider using the research-based solutions
Principal said we should be able to use some of
them

Reflection

 I learned that our school community is generally more positive than I

thought it was with the exception of a few outliers. This made me
wonder who those teachers were and why those anomalies existed.
Our students feel very cared for by the teachers and principals.
When creating the survey, this was one of the questions I felt was
most important. I would like to dig deeper to see if each student
feels that there is one adult who they specifically feel advocates for
them Every kid needs a champion (Pearson)
I learned that as a future school leader, I want to seek student input
as much as possible and give students the opportunity to express
what they feel are strengths and needs of the school. The students
really gave thought to their responses and deserve to have a voice
in OUR school.
The most critical issues for our school community involved getting
families with all backgrounds, financial situations, etc. informed
about student learning and feeling welcomed into our school. This
has been brought up many times as a challenge because we invite
all families, but how do we really reach out to those who are
intimidated/uncomfortable coming to the school.

References
Baeder, A. (2010). Stepping into students worlds. Educational
Leadership, February, 56-60.
English, F. (2014). Educational leadership in the age of greed: A
requiem for res publica. Ypsilanti, Michigan: NCPEA Publications.
Ken Robinson: How to escape educations death valley. TED
talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc

References
Rita Pearson: Every kid needs a champion. TED talks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw
The death and life of the great American school system.
Stanford Education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZUDmBZ6Y4s
Larocque, M., Kleiman, I., & Darling, S. (n.d.). Parental
involvement: The missing link in school achievement.Preventing
School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and
Youth,55(3),115-122.