The Board of Education likes the idea of having feedback for teachers but still has questions about the design of the surveys meant to be sent out online this spring.
“What about parents who have multiple children at the middle school and high school level that each have six or seven teachers?” asked vice chairman Irene Burgess. “That’s a lot of teachers and a lot of surveys — that can be overwhelming.”
“We don’t have all the details yet,” said Karen Dewing, the director of personnel. “But that’s one of the issues we’re looking at improving before the surveys go out to parents.”
The first 10 parent questions, which will be sent out to all parents in the district, are school-specific, focusing on issues such as safe school climate.
The next six questions are teacher-specific and the feedback will be used by teachers to create a class-specific goal.
The student surveys, which will be sent to students in fourth grade and above, will be split in two categories — one for elementary students and one for middle school and high school students — and will each feature 10 questions about the teacher.
Students will remain anonymous.
The scoring scale will range from “1 — Strongly disagree” to “4 — Strongly agree.”
Despite some questions about implementation, the board favored the type of questions being asked and how they will be weighed.
“The questions are well thought out and will demand respect from the community,” said board member Chris Murray. “I expect they will draw good participation when they’re sent out in a few months.”
“This is the standard practice in college,” added board member Richard Steinhart. “We’ve been pushing for this for a very long time — it’s good to see it’s coming together.”