How engaged are you?

The Millard Public Schools and Gallup are teaming up for a first-of-its-kind measurement of how engaged students, parents and employees are in the school district.

Determining how many people are “actively disengaged,” or are hurting the educational process, will help the district identify problems and target strategies to increase engagement.

That big goal is being accomplished with three different surveys, administered to thousands of individuals.

Every student in grades five through 12 — more than 13,000 — took the Gallup Student Poll last month.

Every single staff member — all of the more than 3,000 from the superintendent to groundskeepers — is taking Gallup's Q12 employee engagement survey.

And in early November about 7,500 randomly selected parents will be asked to take an Internet-based survey that is a meld of questions designed by Gallup to measure customer satisfaction and engagement in the schools their children attend.

“It's not enough to get a measurement,” said Millard district administrator Jon Lopez. Supervisors, from kitchen managers to principals, will receive tailored training from Gallup on how to increase engagement of employees, parents and students.

“During the same school year we'll be able to start making an impact,” Lopez said.

The school district has surveyed its employees and parents for years. But this is different, said Gallup's Gary Gordon. He is author of the book “Building Engaged Schools” and is working with the district on this project.

“The bottom line is Millard is looking for some external comparisons, rather than just comparing to themselves,” Gordon said. By using these fine-tuned, research-based questions, Millard will be able to see how many people — from students and parents to staff — are actively disengaged in education. For Millard's purposes, that basically means attitudes that get in the way of learning.

Engagement directly relates, Gordon said, to student achievement.

“The engagement level of parents has a tremendous amount to do with achievement,” he said. And Gallup research shows that “the engagement level of students and teachers contributed to achievement at every school level.”

Gallup unveiled its Student Poll last spring. The Omaha Public Schools was the first local district to use it. This fall OPS gave it again, and Millard, Council Bluffs and Ralston students took it as well.

The poll measures the hope, engagement and well-being of young people through a series of 20 questions. Gallup wants every fifth- through 12th-grader in the country to be surveyed within five years. The organization's purpose is to help school districts and communities identify struggling young people and zero in on the type of help they need most.

Students in more than 30 states took the poll in October. It's free to school districts and takes about 10 minutes to complete.

“It made me think,” said Cameron Urquhart, 10, a fifth-grader at Millard's Upchurch Elementary, near 168th Street and Giles Road.

One question asks students to imagine a ladder. The top rung (10) represents the best possible life. The bottom rung (0) represents the worst. Students are asked to rank their lives from 0 to 10 now and what they anticipate in five years.

Gallup's Shane Lopez said that question measures both a student's sense of hope (things will get better) and overall well-being. That's important because hope has been shown to be a predictor of grade point average, school attendance and high school credits earned, he said.

Cameron got the chance to imagine himself now and in high school.

“The ladder made me think if I really like my friends, my house, how I appreciate everything I get.”

While Millard's results won't include Cameron's name and individual responses, the district will see information for fifth-graders at Upchurch, for example. That way, the response for each building can be tailored based on its individual needs.

Contact the writer:

444-1037, michaela.saunders@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share