NEWPORT CITY- The North Country Union Junior High School’s Principal Edie Flores announced the results of a Education Vital Signs survey of the school’s climate. The assessment identifies areas that provide support for, or interfere with, school success. The assessment focuses on communication, problem solving, and accountability.
On Tuesday evening at the junior high school board meeting, Flores said 265 people responded to the survey. There were 212 responses from the student body.
The survey creates a snapshot of the school’s climate. The connection between faculty, students, and parents within the school can strongly influence learning involvement, safety, and thriving students.
School engagement is divided into three groups, those who are engaged, disengaged, or neutral. The standard statewide is 50 percent neutral, and 25 percent each for disengaged and engaged. The junior high school scores are 64 percent disengaged, 29 percent neutral, and 7 percent engaged.
The Education Vital Signs model analyzes collective feelings, relationships, and reactions in the learning environment. A positive environment is enhanced by commitment, growth, connection, and accountability.
Once the data is collected and analyzed, the focus turns to outcomes. The scores tabulated for each element measures involvement, learning, safety, and thriving.
The survey asks if you participate in the school community and assesses the student’s academic growth, physical and emotional wellbeing, and long term viability.
The data compiled is divided into high and low scores. If the score is low, administrators must assess what are the underlying reasons for a low score, how does it affect students, to what degree are school leaders responsible, and what steps can be taken to address the problem?
If there’s a high score, ask why, how are these strengths manifesting in the school environment, can the strengths be used to address challenges, and how can the strengths be celebrated and recognized?
The five elements in this model can make a significant difference in the school’s effectiveness, which includes the people who work there. The survey scores are a one-time snapshot of the school environment. Organization personnel who conducted the survey and compiled results, remind the reader to not forget the school’s strengths. Too often criticism is focused on the low scores and weaknesses. Administrators can produce more productive results if strengths can be leveraged.
There’s a lot of data in the study which is available to the public. Contact the junior high school for access to the Education Vital Signs survey results.
“This gives us a good baseline,” Flores said.
