Article by Katya Dashkevich, RMS Research Associate –
Recently, Research and Marketing Strategies partnered with a local school district to conduct a climate study across its three stakeholder groups: students, parents, and staff. The objective of this study was to use the information to help the district make informed decisions about issues affecting students, parents, and staff.
While these studies are useful for addressing immediate concerns, they can also be leveraged to improve the school district in the long run and support a district’s strategic planning initiatives.
Some areas that climate studies can help enhance include:
- Overall social and emotional learning (SEL) of students
- Support staff in achieving their goals and instructional practices
- Increase engagement of parents and understand their perspectives of the district
- Continuously assess how to maximize creating a positive learning environment for all students.
In addition to fostering a better environment for students, management can also use these studies to support staff as they work to create the best learning conditions. These studies also help strengthen relationships between parents and staff, ensuring that parents remain informed about the district’s overarching goals.
When looking at the responses from students, staff can recognize any overarching areas of concern. And, they are able to create a short-term solutions while also avoiding certain issues from re-occurring in the long run. Which in turn helps students feel safer and creates an environment where learning can be a priority.
Additionally, these climate studies allow staff to anonymously communicate frustrations to upper management. This gives staff the opportunity to express issues that may not be visible at the management level, allowing leadership to address problems while maintaining staff satisfaction and focusing on their educational goals.
Why is triangulation of these studies important?
The triangulation of these climate studies serves as a method to validate the data gathered from all stakeholder groups. In qualitative research within school settings, validation from key stakeholders is especially important to confirm consistency and identify common themes.
Retaining the credibility of the collected data helps not only keep the data consistent but it also helps reduce the chance that the data will be misunderstood by stakeholders. Also, by triangulating all the finds, analysts can identify gaps or discrepancies that one stakeholder group might not see, but the rest of the stakeholder groups see.
Altogether the triangulation study creates a complete picture without bias, gathering all key stakeholders’ perspectives can help those who are receiving this data make informed decisions when trying to achieve their goals.
RMS has experience conducting Climate Studies, if you are required to conduct a study or investing resources to best optimize your school climate, please reach out to Sandy Baker, Vice President of Corporate Development, sandyb@rmsresults.com.
About the Author – Katya Dashkevich
Katya brings years of market research experience to the RMS Analytics Department, programming surveys, coordinating recruitment, and cleaning, analyzing, and reporting survey data. Katya also supports many other divisions at RMS, including helping with phone recruitment in our call center or research needs within our healthcare division.
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About RMS
Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS) is a full-service market research firm in Central New York. Formed in 2002, RMS helps organizations that are looking to know more about their customers and/or potential customers. We conduct surveys, focus groups, mystery shopping, studies, and analyses. Each project is customized and gets personal attention so that actionable, data-driven findings are delivered. RMS has a reputation for getting results. We offer an independent, professional means to conduct telephone, on-line, and mail surveying, as well as in-depth interviews, intercept interviews, and participant recruitment. We also host discussion groups through QualiSight, our onsite call center and focus group facility. We have a proven reputation for successfully recruiting and moderating focus groups, community forums, and town meetings.
