Introduction

A local school district contacted Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. for assistance with benchmarking progress, and assessing community response to a variety of issues in the district. Over the previous four years, Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. conducted annual community telephone surveys to obtain these benchmarking numbers and to understand the perceptions of the community.

Research Objectives

After a meeting with district administration and staff, the following research objectives were developed for this project:

• Benchmark how the community feels about progress toward district objectives
• Define what roles parents want to play in their schools.
• Quantify the community perception of the school district.
• Understand how the community feels about the school district compared to other districts, and their preferred choice of school district
• Gather information on the community's interest in strategies under consideration

Research Process

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. completed the following activities for the district:

1. Developed a customized telephone survey, incorporating the ideas and concerns of the district to meet accepted survey practices. The customized survey included 34 questions, and averaged six minutes to complete.
   
2. Conducted 400 surveys with district residents using random-digit dialing. The surveys were executed between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. local time.
   
3. Analyzed and summarized the survey data. The survey data was analyzed on a general level, and then by factors such as age, gender, and household income to determine if there were statistically significant differences.
   
4. Developed a final report and recommendations as to the important issues as perceived by district residents. After the report was completed, Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. consultants met with district administrators to review the results of the survey.

Reporting

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. prepares a narrative summary report for every project we complete. To see some sample pages from the narrative summary report for this project – click here:

Narrative Summary Report Sample (Adobe Acrobat format)

In addition to the narrative summary report, all research projects include a statistical reference binder with the statistical information from the report. To see some of sample pages from the statistical reference binder for this project – click here:

Statistical Reference Binder Sample (Adobe Acrobat format)