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By Kelly Cullen ’13 and Carly Walkowiak ’14 | Social Media Editor and Staff Writer
Full survey results available at the bottom of this article.
In the middle of October, a survey was sent to the entire Grosse Pointe community, including parents, students, and staff. This survey was to be taken online and completed within about a week.
The high school sub-committee of the 21st Century learning initiative group led by Assistant Superintendent Jon Dean created the survey said Brendan Walsh, a Grosse Pointe School Board trustee.
Since public education is a public service, Walsh said the survey was designed to get a better understanding of how customers (students) felt about important issues.
“We also need to make sure we are aware of the interests of our employees,” said Walsh. “Giving such a survey should be seen as a sign that the district is interested in these opinions.”
Results were tabulated by the administration and will be used among a variety of data points to help determine how to best position students to obtain the learning outcome they need to succeed after high school, Walsh said.
“We also need to compare learning results of other districts to determine, by use of objective data, whether our schedule and course enrollment correlates to better outcomes,” said Walsh.
A concern for English teacher Danielle Peck was that people could go back as many times as they wanted and retake the survey, which would skew the results.
“When conducting the online survey, this is always a concern, but there has to be a balance in efficiency and cost,” said Walsh. “A look at the survey responses would not seem to indicate this was rampant problem. Only 363 students responded out of roughly 2,700 and the distribution of answers and demographic characteristics would not seem to indicate a problem in the data collection methodology.”
The demographic data gathered would indicate that the survey was taken by a variety of students, teachers and parents, Walsh said. However, by the same token, Walsh’s opinion was that the responses showed more feedback from the South High School community and even among them a skew towards parents of students and the students who take more AP classes.
Peck thought it was hard to answer some of the questions and felt uncomfortable with the wording.
“While taking the survey, I tried to answer objectively because when anybody is conducting research they can get the answers they want depending on the way they ask the question,” said Peck.
In the faculty survey, teachers were asked if they felt the 49 minute classes were enough time “to meet the individual needs of my student.” Questions in this survey also asked about the possibility of longer classes and if it would provide more time with the students. Many respondents did not believe longer class periods would be more beneficial to students.
Peck believes 49 minute classes are enough time for students to engage with material, and it forces students and teachers to use their time wisely. The questions that looked further into the school schedule reminded Peck of the positives and negatives of block scheduling.
“I’ve been at a school that teaches on a block schedule and I found that although school was less stressful for students, it seemed to be a lot of time wasted for the students,” said Peck.
Although students would have a lot of time to do work, Peck feels teachers cover a lot more material with the current schedule and that it’s much more rigorous here compared to schools with different schedules.
“Students on a block schedule were at least two grades behind the students here at Grosse Pointe South,” said Peck.
One of the questions asked the faculty to select a statement that represents their feelings on the seven period day. More than 51 percent selected the statement declaring they are “favorably impressed” with the schedule and wouldn’t want to look into changes in the schedule. About 11 percent believe the seven period day isn’t meeting their student’s best needs, and about 37 percent were interested in learning about the changes.
Peck believes that possibly looking into change for the seven period days would take away from students being able to take more classes and also the chance to dip their toes into new subjects.
As the survey was taken online and accessible to all, Peck felt it would’ve been better to know about the survey ahead of time and allow for more open-ended responses, Peck said.
The faculty survey asked vague questions on blended learning and if they would be interested in using the format. Many agreed to these statements saying they would consider pursuing the format in the future.
Next, the faculty taking the survey was asked to comment on the positives and the negatives of the seven period schedule that is in session currently. Some of the positive responses included more opportunities to take electives, variety of courses, students not being overwhelmed with the schedule, and daily feedback.
Although there were a few negative responses that included too much passing time, classes being too short, and tutorials, many of the faculty and student responses said there were no negatives to the current schedule.
“It seems the survey was created with the intent of having a block schedule, as many of the questions state something about block scheduling, said Matt Kennedy ’15. “The person taking the survey must either agree or disagree, which certainly creates a biased survey.”
Additionally, Kennedy felt many of the blended learning questions were vague, as they ask if students are interested in it when many students don’t know what that term means.
“It is unknown if they favor incorporating minor technology or something drastic such as partially enrolling at a college,” said Kennedy.
Click on the links to see the full results of the 21st Century Learning Survey:
