The survey report summarizes feedback from Norwood School parents on their satisfaction in key areas such as academics, school experience, and communications. Parents were most satisfied with the school's academic program, character development offerings, extracurricular programs, and small class sizes. They felt students could be better prepared in areas like math, world languages, and balancing workload. The report recommends the school focus on improving teacher communications, the website and learning management system, and opportunities for community building. Annual parent surveys will help identify priorities and guide school goals and planning.

1. Parent Satisfaction
Survey Report (Jan 2013)
Norwood School Parent Association
Presentation
May 9, 2013
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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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