The results are in for Saline Area Schools (SAS), and one of the main takeaways indicates that more than 80 percent of respondents – staff, students, and parents/guardians alike – rated the quality of education in the district as “Excellent” or “Good”.
The results of Saline’s 2023-24 District Quality survey were presented at the Aug. 27 SAS Board of Education meeting. Both the board and community got to see and hear the results of the survey that many of them participated in. The presentation was given by Kara Davis, Saline schools’ Executive Director of Teaching and Learning.
Partnering with the company, K12 Insight, SAS administers this survey annually to better monitor growth on goals and collect stakeholder feedback. It’s given to staff, students in grades 3rd-12th and parents/guardians of SAS students. This is third year of same survey, which is being done with the intent to be able to better compare results.
As far as response totals, for grades 3rd-5th there was 734 responses, 598 responses from parents/guardians and 193 from staff. Student participation, specifically with grades 6-12, went up from the year before, with 113 responses in 2022-2023 to 1,313 in 2023-2024.
The Sun Times News followed up with Davis to learn more.
“Saline is committed to leveraging stakeholder feedback for ongoing improvement,” Davis said. “The Quality Survey is distributed on an annual basis in late spring. The district encourages all Saline Schools stakeholders to complete it to have their perspectives heard. The district values the feedback provided.”
Davis said the SAS Quality Survey “affirms the great work that Saline Schools’ staff and students do on a daily basis.
“Overall, the feedback is very positive,” Davis said.
Here some of the main takeaways, she said:
“The survey results indicate that more than 80 percent of respondents – staff, students, and parents/guardians alike – rated the quality of education in the district as “Excellent” or “Good”, outperforming the national averages across the three participant groups. The majority of survey participants also agree or strongly agree that Saline’s curriculum is rigorous, that students are developing important transferable skills which are reflected in Saline’s graduate profile, the SAS Compass, and that teachers have high learning standards and expectations for all students.”
“It’s encouraging to see a strong connection between the district’s strategic efforts in key areas such as safety and security and enhancing a positive district culture. For example, of all participants, 96 percent of campus-based staff members, 88 percent of parents/guardians, and 79 percent of secondary students said their school is safe, and 86 percent of elementary students said they feel safe at school. Feelings of school safety have increased for all participant groups compared with last school year.”
“There is also high agreement among participant groups that their school is welcoming to all families and that students have a trusted adult such as a teacher, counselor, or other staff member to whom they can go for help with a school problem. This sense of positive culture extends to the staff as well with over 90 percent of participating staff members indicating that their colleagues support them and that they work in an atmosphere where there is mutual respect among staff.”
As far as opportunities for growth, Davis said:
“One noticeable trend in some categories is the high number of ‘don’t know’ responses from students and families as relates to district opportunities and initiatives. This indicates a need for more intentional communication on these topics, ensuring that information is easily accessible and more clear for everyone.”
“In conjunction with this, although the majority of families feel communication is strong, around 29 percent of families feel that the materials sent home do not adequately support student success. Knowing this, we will continue assessing the effectiveness of the communication loop between school, classroom, and home and take steps to continue to build on district-family partnerships in this regard.”
So how are these survey results used?
“Saline uses the Quality survey results as a key tool for data-driven decision-making,” Davis said. “The feedback helps to monitor growth on strategic goals, identify areas needing improvement, and guide initiatives like curriculum enhancements and communication strategies. The consistency in surveys delivered each year also allows us to notice trends, both positive and negative.”
