“Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
– Vince Lombardi

In DPS109 we measure success in many ways. We measure student academic performance, we measure staff culture, we measure all stakeholder satisfaction and we probe into special areas for discoveries about ways we can improve. This year we administered an all staff Culture Survey for the second year in a row. The all-district results will be shared at the September 15, 2014, school board meeting. Last year’s summary results were presented to the Board in October, 2013 and are linked here. This year’s culture survey will show levels of engagement and satisfaction with comparisons to last year’s results. Our aim is excellence and our aim is continuous improvement. Our teachers have high expectations for students, our students have high expectations for themselves, and we leverage our vast instructional resources to support learning and provide timely feedback.

Like our aims for student learning, growth, success, and excellence, one of the Big 5 in our District is Organizational Culture. We address Organizational Culture through multiple measures and through multiple behaviors. Behaviors include collaborative leadership, teamwork, presence in the schools and classrooms, and overall follow up and focus on morale. Measures include a number of surveys, observations, focus groups, and data analytics.

Last year we measured the climate and satisfaction levels of the community, staff, and for the students in the 1:1 pilot classrooms. Later this fall, in October, we will again administer climate surveys to our stakeholders – by comparing results from one year to another we can track trends in the data as well as data as compared to our goal setting and implementation. This year we are adding a section to the climate survey on special education programming. Our aim is to listen, hear, and act in the best interests of students, staff, and the community.

This year we are also working with Let’s Talk for ongoing climate/culture/satisfaction/concern collection. We encourage anyone to use Let’s Talk so that we can track trends of interest in the school district.

In addition, we are getting ready to measure the impact(s) of the 1:1 Roll Out. On September 15, 2014, and again on March 15, 2015, we are going to send out links to online survey instruments to all students, staff, and parents regarding the 1:1 roll out. With our research partner Bright Bytes, using an algorithm from MIT and Stanford researchers, we will measure and learn about impacts on learning, classroom, access, schools, and environment.

Please know, we are listening and we truly care about what you have to say! Please reach out, please share your thoughts about what we are doing well, in what areas we can improve, and if we ask you to complete a survey or two or three, please take the time to do so – we truly appreciate your input!!