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APCYF

Your Voice Matters Survey

your voice matters

2018 Survey Results

Public Dashboard

What is the Your Voice Matters Survey? This new survey is a collaboration between Arlington Public Schools (APS) and the Arlington Partnership for Children, Youth and Families (APCYF) to provide the Arlington community with a snapshot of school climate, staff engagement, and student and family well-being. This feedback is vital in helping Arlington strengthen programs for students and families.

The survey focus areas include:

  • bullying
  • communication
  • safety
  • quality of instruction

Why do we conduct the Your Voice Matters Survey? This collaborative effort has been undertaken to streamline previous survey efforts: the site-based survey, community satisfaction survey and Developmental Assets survey. APS and APCYF found that there were many thematic overlaps between the previous surveys and decided to develop a new survey that will reduce burden on survey takers, maximize impact of results, and keep on top of issues that matter to the Arlington community in a more timely manner.

Are the results confidential? Yes. All results are presented at a group, or aggregate, level. Additionally, Panorama Education administered the survey and compiled the results, so all responses will be strictly confidential.

Is participation voluntary? Yes.

Will the survey be administered in any foreign languages? Yes. The survey is currently translated into Spanish.

How is the survey administered? The student survey is administered in a classroom setting and completed online. Parents either received an email invitation or, if an email was not on file, they received a paper copy through the mail. APS staff received an email to complete the survey online and some staff, without ready access to a computer as part of their job, were given a paper survey.

How will results be used? APS will review a summary of each school’s results with the principal at the end of the school year to inform planning for next year. APS and APCYF will work together with additional stakeholders to identify trends and areas for further action. A link to an online dashboard can found on the APS and APCYF websites.

Where can I find trend results? The Spring 2018 survey was the first administration of the new survey instruments. Therefore, it is important that the results be viewed as a baseline for how APS stakeholders feel about a variety of topics. Trend results should be available in the coming years.

Can these results be considered representative? Yes. APS-wide results can be considered representative. This survey was given to all 5th grade homerooms and a representative sample of students in grades 6th-11th grade. (Given the time period of survey administration we could not guarantee enough 12th graders would be present to be surveyed. However, many 12th graders and ungraded students did take the survey and their results are included.) The survey was also given to all families and staff. Additional information about response rates and margin of error can be found in the Insights Report.

If you have additional questions or concerns you can contact Panorama Education at support+arlingtonva@panoramaed.com or Rebecca Hjelm at rhjelm@arlingtonva. us.