Sunday, January 29, 2012

Discuss advanced learning survey

The advanced learning task force put out a survey recently. By request, here is a new thread to discuss the survey.

22 comments:

Shannon said...

[Note: This comment was copied from the last open thread by the moderator to move it here for further discussion.]

Thoughts on the Advanced Learning Survey? I thought it was well done :)

I do think they should have listed something like "Enriched curriculum, depth and project based learning" as a possible reason to choose the program. Not just acceleration and rigor.

Shannon

Steve said...

Hmmm...our child is in APP, and I don't believe we got this survey. When did it come out, and what was on it?

Steve

Shannon said...

It arrived by email today, addressed from Bob Vaughn and says:

"Information from this survey will be carefully reviewed by our Advanced Learning Programs Task Force to develop recommendations for district leaders who are considering how best to accommodate and plan for our many advanced learners. "

The Survey closes on Feb 6th and they ask parents who have a child in any advanced learning program (ALO, APP, Spectrum) to complete it.

It asks parents how they value and rate various attributes of the program and then for their priorities going forward. Clearly directing towards program considerations like locating advanced learning in local schools vs stand alone etc.

An interesting question was how important would the option for a stand-alone APP and Spectrum elementary school, or middle school.

Shannon

Shannon

Anonymous said...

I just found the email in my spam folder, so you may want to check there.

Anonymous said...

I found the survey very hard to answer in many cases as they lumped Advanced Learning services together. I generally think APP is a good program, while Spectrum is much weaker and many ALOs are a joke. Do I ding AL services because of Spectrum and ALO, or do I rate it highly for APP? It seems like it's going to muddy the results. Some questions asked about my kid's program specifically and that seemed much better.

hschinske said...

I haven't gotten it either.

Helen Schinske

Shannon said...

You are supposed to answer the survey once for each child in an advanced learning program. Presumably, you would answer your Elementary APP Child's survey with Elementary APP in mind and your ALO in middle schooler in light of that program.

Anonymous said...

I did like that they chose both Advanced Learning families and those of us that qualified but did not choose to switch to an AL program. My daughter qualified for Spectrum, but the lack of a real Spectrum program in the SE kept up at our current school.

SE Parent Without Much Choice

Anonymous said...

I wonder if they didn't send it to families in just APP? I didn't get it either.

Anonymous said...

Both of our kids (are only two) are in APP only and we got in.

Anonymous said...

Opps - our not are

lendlees said...

The criteria for respondents were any family whose child was 'eligible' for an Advanced Learning program from 2009 - 2011 (including those who are currently enrolled).

If you think you fit that criteria, please email Bob Vaughan (rcvaughan@seattleschools.org) with your information so he can send you a link.

Bird said...

My kid is not in an AL program, but did qualify for one, and I received a survey.

I agree that the survey is not the best, as it does muddle APP, Spectrum and AOL, and I have different opinions for each.

I suspect that those using the survey may break out the responses by the program type that the student has qualified for. Given that, it might be worthwhile to answer the questions largely with your kid's program in mind. (I'm just imagining a results doc that says XX% of Spectrum parents want more rigor, XX% of parents want better support for sped etc.)

In any case, there are free response text boxes, where you can note your concerns and give more specific input about why you answered the questions the way you did.

Magnolia Mom said...

Shannon, will you be involved in evaluating results of the survey for the district?

Shannon said...

#Magnolia Mom.

No, I have no relationship with the survey project other than receiving one which I answered with my experience of my APP Elementary son in mind.

However, I did work in market research for a decade before kids, so I am always interested in the way they work :)

Anonymous said...

I received the survey today. My daughter qualified for APP last year, but went to a private school instead. Given our tenuous connection, I am sure that they meant to send it to everyone who is in any way involved with advanced learning.

Anonymous said...

Is there any reason not to post the survey's link here for anyone who is interested or on the AL school website?
And why do they ask for our student's ID (only optional though) in the survey?
Just wondering...

Anonymous said...

I believe they attempted to contact all those candidates that qualified for an advanced learning program regardless if they went.

Also I believe not posting the link is the right thing to do and allowing folks to use a student ID if they wish will help aggregate the data better.

Finally I have yet to take it but I hope they ask you which program you are replying for... especially if you can do it for multiple children.

L@L dad

Anonymous said...

if you received the request from Dr Vaughan you can see a separate survey request / letter for each qualified student of yours (they even provide the student ID for you if you are interested). So you always have to fill out the survey with one student and his or her program in mind only.

Greg Linden said...

Don't usually comment, but let me say that I'm pleased and grateful to see more use of surveys. I'm not sure parent preferences are all that well understood; more data is good. It's nice that surveys are so cheap to do these days.

hschinske said...

Got a letter about the survey today (for only one of my children). I answered based on what the question referenced: if it said the program your child is in, I answered with regard to that program. Everything else I answered with regard to my feelings about advanced learning programs in general.

I also copy/pasted my responses into a document, so I will know later how I answered.

Helen Schinske

Anonymous said...

Another letter from Dr Vaughan (it seems to me that they are trying really hard to reach everone involved):
Dear Parent or Guardian of
The Advanced Learning Office of the Seattle Public Schools would like you to participate in the survey described below --- if you have not already done so. Earlier this week, we sent this email out to 5300 families. Many emails “bounced back” because the addresses were not current. Today we received an additional 1650 addresses that may be more current, and so we are re-sending this email to improve our chances of reaching everyone.
If you have already responded to our survey, thank you! We have already received over 1500 responses! Please do not respond again.
If you have not responded to our survey, please keep reading and share your views.