Instructions for Use of Survey

Tabulation of Survey Results

Prepare the Survey

Administer the Survey

Prepare Completed Surveys

Reviewing Survey Results

Additional Assistance


I. Instructions for Use of Survey

A. Review this set of instructions, then fill out the survey order form and fax to ISACS at (312) 255-1244.

B. Determine if you want to attempt a census or select a random sample of each constituent group.

Schools should seek the return of at least 100 surveys per constituent group. An attempted census is suggested where appropriate. That is, an effort to obtain responses from all constituents provides the best possible data regarding your school. Previous experience indicates that you can expect a 30-40% return from parents and 20 - 25% return from alumni. The constituents most often surveyed include:

• parents;
• faculty;
• administration/staff;
• trustees;
• alumni;
• students.

Small to medium-size schools typically order enough surveys for all on the mailing list and each of the other constituent groups. Larger schools tend to order enough surveys for all parents but only a sampling of alumni (e.g. 1000 out of an alumni base of 5000). We suggest that you order enough surveys for all constituents including smaller groups such as faculty, trustees, staff, administration, and students.

C. Determine your survey administrative plan.

The following questions might help you to plan for the survey.

• When do you need the survey results?
• How many constituents will be included?
• How will you administer the survey to various groups - mail , in-person, etc.?
• When will you administer the survey?
• How would you like the data to be tabulated?
• What breakout tabulation groups are most appropriate?
• Will you use customized questions?
• Are there any special issues that should be included in the plan?

II. Tabulation of the Survey Results

Before you begin using the survey, it is important that you determine how you would like the data to be tabulated and reported. The banner is the set of constituents or data segments that define how you want to tabulate and read the results of the survey. For example, each constituent group should be included in the banner. You must specify the type of banner you prefer when you order the surveys for your school. You may select one of two standard banner options as part of the ISCAS survey package:

• Standard Banner
• Division Banner

The two standard banners have been pre-programmed and separate the data into various constituent groups or other important segments. Please note the attached banners for details of the Standard banner and the Divison banner. You will receive the Standard banner by default unless specified when you contact ISACS. If you want to review the results of the survey by school division you may want to order the Divison banner.

Please note that you can order both banners for an additional charge. However, you may want to develop a custom banner for your specific school. A custom banner allows you to specify the eleven constituent groups, or other data units that you would like to review. This can be accomplished for an additional charge. Please note the additional information on each banner that is provided below.

Standard banner
The Standard banner of data columns includes breakout tabulation of results for parents, faculty, administration and staff, students, alumni, young alumni, trustees as well as breakout tabulation results by gender (male and female) and by race/ethnicity (Caucasian and people of color).

Division banner
The Division banner includes breakouts according to division levels (parents and faculty by pre-school, lower school, middle school and upper school tabulations) and breakouts according to income levels.

Custom Banner
In addition, you are able to order a Custom banner specifically for your school or situation for an additional charge.* This would allow you to specifically design the banner for your purpose. This might include special groups or constituents or the results from the ISACS survey for your school several years ago as compared to the results of the survey this year. You will need to indicate your desire for a custom banner to the ISACS office and then contact Bob Dicus at Marketing Research Technologies to discuss and design the custom banner. (Marketing Research Technologies: 317-733-1660.) *Call ISACS for current charges, 312-255-1244 ext. 100.

III. Prepare the Survey
Cover Letter
We suggest that you add a cover letter from the school head urging each constituent who receives the survey to complete it and return it to the school promptly. The letter should emphasize the:

• importance to the school of this effort;
• anonymity of the process;
• relatively short amount of time needed to complete the survey (10 minutes);
• how to return the completed survey.

Further, the letter should indicate that ISACS tabulates the numerical data and school authorities read and tabulate the written responses. You may want to emphasize in the cover letter the questions that your constituents should choose "DNA" for Does Not Apply if appropriate. Also, it is suggested that you attach a copy of the school's mission statement to the head's cover letter.

Custom Questions
There is a section at the end of the survey - titled Customized Questions - which will enable you to add up to 10 custom questions for each constituent group. Please note that you are able to ask different sets of questions to the different breakout or constituent groups. The custom questions need to be provided to each respondent on a separate page with instructions that direct the respondent to answer the questions by filling in the corresponding response in the Customized Questions portion of the survey. As can be seen, each of the custom questions offers up to 9 responses, labeled a-i. For example:

Customized Question #1: Which three of the following six (or seven or nine) school priorities are the most important ones for the school to pursue at this time? (Circle up to three responses.) (a) Build a new gymnasium (b) Raise faculty salaries (c) Integrate the new technologies (d) Reduce class size (e) Add extended day program (f) Increase alumni services

Customized Question #2: (for a Jewish day school): How would you categorize your religious affiliation? (a) Reform (b) Conservative (c) Orthodox (d) Other

Customized Question #3: Do you favor the addition of a learning resource center staff member for tutorials, funded by a tuition increase? (a) Yes (b) No (c) Don’t Know

Do not staple these questions to the ISACS survey. Please keep in mind that the only documents that will be sent to MRT for tabulation will be the completed ISACS survey sheets.

In addition, you might consider adding a few narrative, open-end response questions to the page that contains the custom questions. For example:

What are the primary reasons that you selected ABC Academy?
What are the most important issues that the ABC Academy address in the future?
What are your suggestions for improving ABC Academy?

These questions will not be tabulated. You will be responsible for reading and reviewing the answers to these narrative, open-ended questions.

IV. Administer the Survey

Once the survey is ready (custom questions are designed and material is ready), the survey should be administered to each constituent group.

Parents
Most often the survey, associated materials and a stamped return envelope is mailed to the home for a parent to complete. However, some schools have asked parents to complete the survey at a “back to school” night or another special parent gathering. Also, some schools have sent the survey home in a project folder asking the parent to return the completed survey in the same folder. Whatever method of distribution, it is important that all parents have an opportunity to complete the survey.

Other Constituents
Administer the survey to all faculty, trustees, administrators & staff, and students in a manner that allows for all constituents to participate in an efficient manner. For these groups, you might administer the survey to a "captive audience" (i.e., at board and faculty meetings), thus securing a "census" of these groups and ensuring a complete data set. It is suggested that you administer the survey to students (e.g. grades 8-12) in English (or other core) classes, to ensure the proper setting and the return of the forms.

NOTE: For the student group, the survey administrator should fill in Question 13a before distributing the survey, identifying the respondent as a middle or upper school student. Elementary schools: please note that you should identify your upper grade students as middle school, even if you call your upper grades "upper school." It should be noted that precompleting this portion of the survey is very important. Problems have occurred when students identify themselves as other than students; this compromises the results of the entire survey when tabulated. Please remember that the completed surveys are optical scanned.

V. Prepare Completed Surveys
The surveys should be collected and the additional page with the custom and narrative questions should be separated from the ISACS surveys. Only the ISACS surveys should be sent to Marketing Research Technologies. The school is responsible for reading, reviewing and collating all other responses, such as narrative questions.

It is very important that you unfold each survey and stack the surveys for optical scanning by constituent group before sending to Marketing Research Technologies. There will be additional charges if the surveys are not ready for scanning when they arrive. That is, the survey should be removed from envelopes and unfolded before sending.

Box and ship the surveys using UPS or FEDEX to:

Marketing Research Technologies (MRT)
2734 Deer Run
Zionsville, IN 46077
Tel. 317-733-1660.

There will be an additional charge if a delivery method or service other than UPS or FEDEX is used.

In addition, notify Marketing Research Technologies by email -MRT@iquest.net - the date the surveys are shipped. (Please note that the surveys will not be returned.)

VI. Reviewing Survey Results

Tabulated data
Data entry and tabulation of the results will require about two weeks depending on the volume of schools completing surveys at the same time. Surveys will be processed in the order that they are received. Marketing Research Technologies will email to the school's survey contact a Word file with the 100+ page tabulated report (the standard or customer banners you have ordered, one page for each question) showing responses to the survey questions by the various constituencies and benchmarking responses against comparable schools. The data will be in a format similar to the attached examples. Summary results are outlined in the beginning of this tabulated data report. These tables summarize the results for easier interpretation and analysis. You will probably use these tables most often. The detailed tabulated results can be used for further analysis and support information.

Distribute the results as appropriate. For example, you may want to form a team to review the survey results. After you analyze the results you may want to form focus groups of parents, students, faculty for discussions to flesh out responses that are particularly interesting or problematic. We suggest that the results be treated as confidential information.

Correlation and Regression analysis
Additionally, a correlation and regression analyses are attempted using the parent’s survey data. These analyses require a minimum of 50 parent surveys. It will require several weeks (after you receive the tabulated banner report) to complete these analyses. The results of the analyses will be emailed to the school contact person. Technical notes accompany the analyses. It is suggested that you read the technical notes before reviewing the correlation and regression analyses. The school contact will be notified if the parents data will not support this type of analyses.

Please note that ISACS offers workshops at the annual conference to help schools effectively use the report data. These workshops cover the administration of the survey as well as the analysis of the survey results.

VII. Additional Assistance

Additionally, schools have the option to contract with our marketing consultant for more detailed analysis and consultation. Schools have asked Chris Everett to present the results of the survey to the board, faculty or parents, or to discuss the implications of the survey and work with specific departments such as admissions or communications. In addition, a workshop, similar to that presented at the ISACS conference, on how to review and understand the survey results has been presented for some schools preparing for an ISACS visitation. Please contact Chris Everett directly if you would like additional assistance.

Chris Everett
Kensington Group, Inc.
911 E. 86th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46240
317-252-5744
chris@tkgresearch.com