Thursday, October 30, 2014

The district should begin measuring its effectiveness with specific exit interviews and questionnaires to respond to changes.  Many changes are driven by catalysts, or things that should be corrected and aren't because people fear reprisal or have no interest in the environment once they are separated from it.  People may have very specific reasons for changing schools, busing, etc. that the district should be aware of to better meet students parents and teachers needs and correct inappropriate behavior.  But that information may not be shared unless asked.

Whenever teachers, staff, and students make a major change the district should ask the staff/parent to fill out an exit interview.  When teachers transfer schools, get promoted, or leave the district to another teaching environment, or leave the profession the district should request they fill out an exit survey that includeds a comment section and one question should be why did you decide to make this change.   The same for when parents choose to open enroll their students in a different school within the district, or have their student educated outside the district, begin busing, quit busing, quit an athletic team or extra curricular activity,  or drops out or switch a classes.  I believe adding exit surveys would help the district better meet students parents and teachers needs and expectations, and would also catch problems early instead of allowing them to fester over the years.  They could also be used as a measure of health for that portion of the district.  Teachers promoted or transferred out of a school have good insight into how well that school functions and how affective the administration is, similarly parents whose students graduate from a school have insight into how effective the schools staff informs and interacts with parents and students. 

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