2. Overview
I. Purpose & Context
II. Academic Experience
III.Overall School Experience
IV.Communications
V. Outreach
VI.Conclusions
VII.Next Steps
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3. I. Introduction
• Purpose
▫ Collect both quantitative and qualitative feedback
▫ Identify trends and areas of interest
▫ Focus future efforts
Information gleaned from this year’s Parent Survey will
help guide the School in setting goals and priorities for
the upcoming and future school years.
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4. • Background and Context
▫ Historically, Norwood has surveyed in conjunction with Strategic
Planning
▫ Going forward, plan annual surveys
▫ NAIS Parent Satisfaction Survey (K-8 Long Version) selected
▫ Survey open for two week period in January
▫ Participation Rate 25.3%
Within acceptable range
Demographics of participants reflected larger school population
▫ AWP Research, Tony Casilio
▫ Bench marking data unavailable due to the small number
participants in the NAIS K-8 survey,
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I. Introduction cont’d.
5. II. Academic Experience
• Quality of his/her teachers
• Challenging curriculum in core
academic subjects
• Small class size
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Areas of Greatest Importance to Parents
6. Top Reasons for Choosing Norwood
• Academic program
• School climate, culture, and values
• Small class size
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II. Academic Experience cont’d.
7. Parents feel students are best prepared
in the following areas:
• Appreciating and/or participating
in the arts
• Being creative and innovative
• Being open-minded
• Contributing to class discussions
• English: literature
• Empathizing with others
• Health/Physical Education
• History
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• Performing Arts
• Public speaking
• Practicing sports and/or exercising
regularly
• Science
• Using technology
• Visual Arts
• Working collaboratively on a team
II. Academic Experience cont’d.
8. Parents feel students are somewhat less
prepared in these areas:
• Balancing workload
• Conducting research
• Geography
• Interpreting mathematical/scientific concepts
• Math
• Studying
• Taking a leadership role
• World Languages (French, Spanish, Mandarin)
• Writing
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II. Academic Experience cont’d.
9. III. Overall School Experience
• Secondary school placement
services
• Character development
• Leadership development
• Character education/moral
development program
• School safety
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Areas of Greatest Importance to Parents
10. Areas of Greatest Satisfaction to Parents
• Extracurricular drama, music, and arts
programs
• Academic resources (e.g., books, technology)
• School facilities (e.g., gymnasium, theater)
• Character education/moral development
program
• Athletic program
• Community service/service learning program
• Financial aid services
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III. Overall School Experience
11. IV. Parent & School Communications
• Parents are most satisfied with the following
modes of communication:
▫ School newsletter (our Thursday Memo)
▫ All school communications from the School
▫ Personalized communications with child’s
teachers
• Parents would like better communication with
head of school and other administrators
• Considerable frustration with Haiku and the
Norwood website
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12. V. Outreach
• Word of mouth referrals from a friend, neighbor,
other parent or alumnus, family member, or
educational consultant dominate the way
parents initially hear about Norwood.
• A very small portion also hear about Norwood
from school signage, an independent school
directory, or a realtor.
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13. Parents recommend Norwood
for the following reasons:
• teacher quality
• curriculum quality
• the overall environment
• the fact that their child enjoys the school
• good facilities
• appropriate focus on areas of interest (with
arts/humanities often mentioned)
• small class size
• focus on areas beyond academics, such as
character and values development
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V. Outreach cont’d.
14. VI. Conclusions
• academic rigor
• parent-school communications channels, such
as the Norwood website and Haiku
• communication quality (e.g., more informative
and better structured emails, etc.)
• connection between parents and the school
• teacher quality
• changes in school focus and impact on the
Norwood experience
Continued and future focus is needed in the
following areas:
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15. VII. Next Steps
• Academic Experience
• Review Curriculum
• Continue ongoing, systematic, and comprehensive review
process (Example: math and writing)
• Focus Professional Development
• Continue and expand targeted professional development
• Implement new faculty evaluation process
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16. VII. Next Steps cont’d.
• Communications
• Address User Concerns with Haiku and Related
Website Issues
• Improve Consistency and Quality of Teacher/Parent
Communications
• Improve Consistency and Quality of Administrative
Communications
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17. VII. Next Steps cont’d.
• Community
• Support Community Building Activities
• Review calendar of events: modify current activities and/or
develop new activities as appropriate
• Focus on Strengthening Connections
• Work with Parents Association to identify opportunities
• Strengthen School Messaging
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18. Thank you for participating!
We look forward to surveying
parents on an annual basis.
Questions?
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