Phone and Online Surveys
Data should be the driving force behind school district initiatives. Collecting stakeholders’ insights through surveys will help you better understand and respond to patrons’ views about the district, its people, your buildings and various other issues. We gather your data through statistically reliable telephone surveys and online surveys. Our survey products come with a presentation, a written executive summary and a dashboard that lets you study and interpret the data, until the perceptions of your patrons are etched in your mind. Our survey products include:
Pre-election Survey
LEARN MOREClimate Study Survey
LEARN MOREExit Survey
LEARN MOREAnnual Community Survey
LEARN MOREState-of-the-District Survey
LEARN MOREPre-election Survey
School districts need to know three things from their patrons when going to the ballet box.
1
How is the district perceived by the voting public?
2
What kind of ballot proposals are people willing to support?
3
How much money are patrons willing to invest?
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, work with us to create a survey that uncovers actionable information for you to use in developing a winning proposal for success on Election Day.
We have proven results – raising more than $7 billion in new tax revenues for our K-12 clients.
Climate and Culture Study
Climate and culture studies are a “deep dive” into what really happens in the various buildings of a school district. These surveys provide educators with contextual data, so both students and staff may perform at optimum levels. Topics include leadership performance, teacher/staff performance, building atmosphere, substance abuse, discipline, technology and more.
Consisting of four separate surveys for staff, students (as young as fifth grade), parents and the community, our format allows for question overlap as well as stand-alone questions.
Robust and detailed climate and culture studies are “must-have” data tools for districts who are leading the way in modern K-12 education.
Check out a climate study survey example.
Exit Survey
With the growing issues with recruitment and retention, it only makes sense to get the most data you can from departing employees. Our streamlined approach to data gathering will provide cleaner and more robust information than you are probably getting now. And our ability to provide an “index” of how you compare to similar districts gives you actionable data to make any course corrections.
Annual Community Survey
Many school districts conduct an Annual Community Survey. This allows them to collect longitudinal data to reveal trends in patron perception.
Similar in structure to a Pre-election Survey, the Annual Community Survey allows patrons to give voice to things they are happy about and things the district needs to address. Components include a grading section, statement exercise, communications questions, and questions regarding awareness of district programs. Additionally, several of our clients utilize this survey to pretest long range goals and strategies.
Annual surveys utilize proven phone survey protocol to ensure data captured is statistically accurate. Also, included in the process is a free online survey that mirrors the phone survey. While the data is supplemental (because patrons are self-selected), the online survey gives patrons the opportunity to share their thoughts.
State-of-the-District (SOTD) Survey
The SOTD survey is designed to give you a quick check on the pulse of your stakeholders. It uses the same questions (selected through collaboration with the school district) for all four audiences: community, parents, staff and high school students.
Using a “grading approach” and appropriate language for each audience, questions are written to determine patrons’ views on a subject, by assigning a letter grade to performance. Each stakeholder group sees only its question on the subject, which ensures continuity and the ability to compare results. Survey questions – up to 20 – can address teachers, facilities, technology, safety, etc.; a key communication source question; and demographics.
The SOTD survey is inexpensive and ideal for first-year superintendents, providing a benchmark for tracking your efforts to make improvements.
Take a look at a SOTD survey example.
Client Testimonials
Pre-election Survey
“The Pre-election Dashboard provided by ExcellenceK12 was incredibly useful to myself and my Board of Education. The data in the dashboard was very easy to navigate and allowed us to disaggregate it in multiple ways to help us make decisions about our future bond election.”
Dr. Brian Lane
Superintendent
Brentwood School District
Climate Study Survey
“For the past 10 years, I have been doing climate surveys in two school districts. The surveys have provided actionable data that has helped drive improvement in both districts. We have partnered with ExcellenceK12 for our surveys and the reports we receive back each year showing the data and our trends help us when we sit down to do strategic planning. I could not imagine doing strategic planning without the information we receive from our parents, students, and staff through our climate surveys.”
Stan Stratton
Superintendent
Riverview School District (Ark.)
Planning is the first step to success.
Whether you are taking steps to prepare the district for the next five years or seeking feedback from your patrons on current issues that are or will affect the district in the future, the first step is making sure you have the right short-term and long-term plans in place. And planning for the district’s future goes hand in hand with patron engagement – where their views and support of the district will determine how successful your plans are in the long run.
Strategic Planning
ExcellenceK12 is a leader in the field of Virtual Strategic Planning. However, unlike some others involved in this pursuit, we are not trying to find a way to use the same tired methodology, like a SWOT analysis, in a virtual world.
Our approach to Strategic Planning revolves around one feature with multiple benefits. We use cascading online surveys to reach various target markets to answer what we consider the core questions of any Strategic Plan:
• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to go?
• How are we going to get there?
We try to reach as many people in as many audiences as we can – staff, students, parents, key opinion leaders, general population, etc. We use questions we have developed from more than 40 years of research experience. Plus, there are more than 14,000 school districts in America, so there are some worthwhile “best practices” questions out there we also can use.
Virtual Citizens Advisory Committee (VCAC)
Involving citizens and getting their perspectives about your school district are key to the community supporting the district’s initiatives. We know people’s time is limited. We’ve developed an approach that bridges the gap between people who want to be involved, but who don’t have time to attend meetings.
The VCAC consists of short, bimonthly online surveys deployed to interested participants during the school year. Survey findings will be compiled into a report for the superintendent to share with the committee members in the months after the surveys are completed, providing the district with ongoing communication for the committee members.
Client Testimonials
Strategic Planning
“The ExcellenceK12 planning process helped us engage with more than 1,100 of our stakeholders. Having buy-in from patrons is very important because everybody has a say in what we’re doing, so everybody will be supportive of the action steps. We really appreciate the professionalism ExK12 brings to the table.”
Dr. Tim Hadfield
Retired Superintendent
Camdenton R-3 School District
Virtual Citizens Advisory Committee
“My board and I value the data and information we receive from the State-of-the-District Survey and the Virtual Citizens Advisory Committee products of ExcellenceK12. The team is extremely responsive and helpful, and they have been a valuable tool as we strive to reach our Board goals and live our vision.”
Lonnie Moser
Superintendent
Hiawatha School District
Communication is key to managing perception.
Strong communications are important to the success of every school district. The ones that do this well are those who use all their media tools (print, electronic, social media, etc.) to get out in front of the story and are transparent with their patrons about district happenings – good and bad. To ensure you’re hitting all the right notes with your communications and managing your patrons’ perception of the district, we offer a cadre of products.
Perception Management Dashboard
With Facebook being the #1 tool for sharing perceptions, managing perception starts with managing Facebook.
Our new Perception Management Dashboard rates the attitude and feelings of an individual’s Facebook posts. It allows you to stay confident in your stakeholders’ perceptions, monitor changes in sentiment – in times of rest and crisis – and track fluctuations in your district’s brand health, which can be valuable during a school bond election or boundary changes. The tool can also collect data from Twitter.
Communications Audit
How well a district approaches communication of all the good work happening in its schools each day determines how much trust and support it will receive from its students and families, teachers and staff, and community members.
The best way to determine this is through a Communications Audit. The process includes 1) telephone interviews with external key opinion leaders, 2) one-on-one interviews with district leaders, 3) online surveys for staff, parents, high school students and community members, and 4) a review of sample outbound content from the past 18 months to determine frequent themes and messages.
The results are presented in a comprehensive, written report that shows where the district is excelling in communications and areas where it could improve.
Client Testimonials
Community Telephone Survey
“I have used Rick Nobles and his team at Excellence K12 several times over the years. Most recently my district partnered with them for strategic planning and communication for a near 80% approval rate of a $65M issue-Proposition 67/25.”
Christopher Berger
Superintendent
Wright City R-II School District
Communications Audit
“ExcellenceK12 conducted a thorough audit that helped us determine how effectively we were using our key messages, while helping us to see the gaps that existed between what was in our communications programs versus what key stakeholders needed, wanted and expected.”
Beth Johnston
Chief Communications Officer
Lindbergh Schools
