SY13-14 Survey Administration Guidance

Office of Achievement and Accountability

200 East North Avenue, Room 203

Baltimore, MD 21231

Table of Contents

Survey Type Page

School Survey………………………………………………………………………………………………3-8

City Schools Student Survey on Teachers………………………………..……………………9-13

Val-Ed Survey on School Leaders…………………………………………………….………….15-16

School Survey

The annual School Survey is an important component of City Schools’ efforts to monitor and improve the quality of the learning environment in Baltimore City’s public schools. City Schools has developed surveys for students in grades 3-12, for parents of students in Prek-12, and for school-based professional and paraprofessional staff to obtain their impressions of their school and teachers. Survey resultsare used to inform individual School Performance Plans, school budgets, School Progress Reports, City Schools’ Master Plan, and the School Comprehensive Safety Plan.The School Survey is also a part of the Learning Environment category within the School Performance Measure .The School Performance Measure is currently part of the evaluation system for both teachers and principals, although the inclusion of the measure may be impacted by whether or not Maryland is granted a waiver (for more information on the waiver see For more details about the School Performance Measure, please visit

An extensive revision to the annual School Survey was undertaken in Fall 2012 in an effort to improve the usefulness of the data gathered from the survey, and to improve administration processes with the goal of achieving higher response rates.Steps were also taken at the close of the SY2012-13 survey administration to improve the quality and usefulness of the survey results shared with schools and district offices.

Paper Survey Materials:

The following paper survey materials will be shipped to your school directly from Scantron via UPS and should arrive on January 8. Please alert your office staff that survey materials should arrive in a single shipment that may include multiple packages. Each package will be clearly marked with a bright orange label affixed to the outside. Please instruct staff not to refuse delivery of these packages, and to inform the principal and survey coordinator immediately when the boxes have been received. The following items will be included in your shipment:

  1. Survey formsfor three different surveys:
  2. Survey for students in grades 3-5
  3. Survey for students in grades 6-12
  4. Survey for parents of students in PreK-12.

(The quantities provided are based on the number of students enrolled at your school. Spanish versions of parent and student surveys are included if that is appropriate for your school. There are no paper forms for the staff survey as this will be completed online.)

  1. Postage-paid return envelopes: A postage-paid return envelope is included for each parent in the school. Return envelopes should be sent home along with the survey to parents.
  2. Instructions for Teachers: These instructions should be distributed to all classroom teachers.

If your school has not received its shipment of survey materials by close of business on January 10, the principal or survey coordinator should contact the Office of Achievement and Accountability by email at or phone at 410-396-8962.

The sections below include more details about the administration of the student, parent, and staff versions of the School Survey.

School Survey for Parents:

  1. Beginning January 13, 2014, the parent version of the School Survey should be sent home with all students (PreK-12).
  2. Parents will be contacted via Global Connect call on January 23 and asked whether they have received a School Survey. If parents have not received a survey, one will be mailed to them from the district office.
  3. At the top of the survey are directions for parents that encourage them to complete the survey on paper or online, and return the survey by mail in the enclosed postage-paid envelope, to the school, or to submit it online.
  4. If parents opt to return their survey to their child’s school, the surveys should be returned to a designated location in the main office (e.g., drop box), or collected by a school representative or an organized parent group or community-based organization (CBO) if the school has this type of team between January 13 and February 24.
  5. The link to the electronic version of the parent survey is provided on the paper survey. Schools can also share the link to the survey with their parent community through any school-wide communications. Please note that the link will not become active until January 13. The link is:
  6. The electronic version of the parent survey is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Nepali, and Spanish
  7. City Schools’ Office of Communications will promote awareness of the School Survey forparents through various means, including flyers, the Family Menu, Twitter, school and district websites and other tools, in order to encourage response.
  8. Schools should also encourage parents in various ways (e.g. phone calls, emails, meetings, flyers) to complete and return the survey by one of the methods described above by February 24, 2014.

School Survey for Students:

This year the student survey will be available both in paper form and electronically. Schools can decide whether to participate in the online administration of the survey and to what extent (e.g., the whole school, select classrooms, only students needing the alternate languages). Please note that the paper version of the student survey is only available in English and Spanish whereas the online version of the survey is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Nepali, and Spanish. Below you will find guidance on both the paper and online administrations of the student survey. Please note that each student should only participate in one form of survey administration, not both.

  1. Paper Administration:
  2. Please designate a specific date or dates between January 13andFebruary 14 for school-wide administration of the School Survey.
  3. All students in grades 3-12 should complete this survey only once.
  4. Immediately after the school-wide administration, all completed surveys should be delivered to the survey coordinator for return to OAA.
  5. If a student has an IEP that provides accommodations for reading, these same accommodations should be provided to the student during survey administration.
  6. If students are absent during survey administration, please ask teachers to provide opportunities for these students to take the survey during breaks from instruction.
  7. All completed surveys should be returned to the survey coordinator or principal by February 21 for return to OAA by February 24.
  8. PLEASE RETURN THE COMPLETED SURVEYS IN THE PACKAGES IN WHICH YOU RECEIVED THEM. PLEASE DO NOT USE POSTAGE-PAID PARENT SURVEY ENVELOPES TO RETURN STUDENT SURVEYS, as this may lead to a delay in form processing.
  1. Online Administration:
  2. The student versions (grades 3-5 & grades 6-12) of the School Surveywill also be available electronically this year.
  3. Please consult with your school community to determine whether the whole school or certain grades at the school should participate in the electronic administration of the survey.
  4. If you decide to conduct some or all of the student survey administration online, we encourage you to develop a schedule that gives individual classes about 45 minutes in your school’s computer lab between January 13and February 14 to complete the survey.
  5. We recommend that you also schedule one or more make-up administrations in the computer lab for those students who are absent during the initial administration.
  6. All online surveys must be completed by no later than February 21.
  7. Please note that the online survey is identical to the paper survey except for two additional questions/prompts that students will need to answer online that are not included on the paper survey.
  8. The firstprompt asks the student to choose what language they would like to complete the survey in by selecting one of the tabs above, and the options are English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Nepali, or Spanish.
  9. The second question follows the question about what school the student attends, and asks the student to provide a unique username in order to complete the survey. This username should be a single word and can include numbers. Because this is an anonymous survey, please encourage students not to use their name as their username.
  10. The links to the student survey are provided below and also provided to all teachers via the teacher instruction sheet. Teachers should provide these links to the students who are participating in the online survey administration. Please note that these links will not be active until January 13.

Student Survey, Grades 3-5:

Student Survey, Grades 6-12:

Returning Completed Student and Parent School Surveys to Central Office/Scantron:

  1. All completed studentsurveys should be addressed to Amie Bettencourt and returned to the Office of Achievement and Accountability (OAA), Room 203, 200 East North Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21202in the packages in which they were shipped via interoffice mail, or in person by February 25. Please do not use postage-paid parent survey envelopes to return student surveys as this may lead to a delay in form processing.
  2. Please note that City Schools’ Chief Accountability Officer will be notified daily about the status of survey returns from each school. If the bulk of completed student surveys are not received by February 14, the Accountability Officer will contact the principal to determine why surveys have not been completed and received and to make arrangements to have the completed student surveys returned.
  3. If parents return surveys directly to the school, a representative from the school can either:
  4. Place the surveys in regular mail for return to Scantron if the surveys are already sealed in the postage-paid return envelopes; OR
  5. Place the parent surveys in a larger envelope or box and return them to the OAA via interoffice mail or in person by February 25.

School Survey for Staff: All school-based professional and paraprofessional staff will receive an email with a link to participate in this year’s School Surveyonline on January13. The completion of the survey online will ensure staff anonymity, and prevent review of survey contents by others prior to the survey being submitted.The staff survey takes about 20 minutes to complete. All school-based staff including teachers, support staff, principals and assistant principals should participate. Teachers may wish to know that the use of an online survey, rather than a printed form, was planned collaboratively with the Baltimore Teachers Union. Instructions for completing the survey will be specified in the email. Staff should complete a survey no later thanFebruary 24. STAFF SHOULD BE INSTRUCTED TO NOT FORWARD THE LINK IN THEIR EMAIL TO ANY OTHER STAFF MEMBER.

Summary Calendar of School Survey Events and Deadlines

Date / Responsibility / Action
Jan 8 / Scantron/OAA / Allstudent and parent survey forms arrive in schools
Jan 10 / Scantron/OAA / Flyers promoting the parent version of the School Survey will arrive in schools via school mail. Flyers should be distributed to parents as a reminder to parents to fill out the survey.
Jan 10 / Principal/
Survey Coordinator / Contact OAA by email at or phone at 410-396-8962 if paper survey materials have not arrived at the school.
Jan13 / Principal/
Survey Coordinator / Distribute parent and student survey materials to teachers with appropriate instructions; Remind staff to check their emails for survey link and complete the survey.
Jan13 / Teacher / Parent surveys sent home with students.
Jan13 / All Staff / Staff should check email for their invitation to complete a school survey.
Jan13-Feb 24 / Survey Coordinator, Administrative Staff,Organized parentgroups, CBOs / Parents complete and return survey via one of the following methods: mail survey in postage paid envelope, return survey to designated staff or organized parent or community group at child’s school, or complete the survey online.
Jan 13- Feb 14 / Teacher / Teachers should have students complete the survey on the designated school day during the designated class period.
Jan23 / Office of Engagement / Global connect call to parents to assess if they received a survey.
Feb 14-Feb 24 / Teacher/Survey Coordinator / Teachers should administer the survey to students who were absent during the initial survey administration period.
Jan14- Feb25 / Survey Coordinator / Completed paper student surveys should be returned to OAA via interoffice mail or in person.
Feb 24 / School Staff / Deadline for submission of the online staff survey.
Feb 25 / Survey Coordinator / Deadline for return of all completed parent surveys to OAA.
Late April / OAA / Sharing of survey results with schools.

What Teachers Need to Know about the City Schools SY2013-14 School Survey

Parent Survey: On January 13, 2014, ALL STUDENTS should be given a parent survey, and a postage-paid return envelope to take home to their parent/caregiver. Please make sure that parents know that the surveys are to be returned by February 24. Parent surveys are also available electronically and the following link is printed on the paper surveys:

Student Survey:

Paper Administration: ALL STUDENTS in grades 3-12 will complete the School Survey on the date and during the class period designated by the school principal and survey coordinator between January 13and February 14. Immediately after administering the survey to your students, please collect the completed surveys and deliver them to the principal or survey coordinator, who will return the forms to the Office of Achievement and Accountability (OAA). The goal is to have all students participate in the survey. If students are absent when the survey is administered, please provide an opportunity for these students to take the survey during a break from instruction. The remaining completed surveys should be returned to the survey coordinator or principal by February 21.

Online Administration: For the first time this year, we are making the student versions (grades 3-5 & grades 6-12) of the School Survey available electronically. If you would like to administer the student survey to your class electronically, please collaborate with the survey coordinator to set this up. Your class will need a 45 minute block of time between January 13and February 14 in your school’s computer lab to complete the survey. If students are absent during the electronic administration, please schedule an alternate time in the computer lab for these students to complete the survey. All online surveys must be completed by no later than February 21.

There will be two additional questions that students will need to answer online that are not included on the paper survey. The first prompt asks the student to choose what language they would like to complete the survey in by selecting one of the tabs above, and the options are English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Nepali, or Spanish. The second question follows the question about what school the student attends, and asks the student to provide a unique username in order to complete the survey. This username should be a single word and can include numbers. Because this is an anonymous survey, please encourage students not to use their name as their username.

Student Survey link, Grades 3-5:

Student Survey link, Grades 6-12:

Staff Survey:

The staff survey will be administered electronically. ALL STAFF should receive a link to the survey via email on January 13, 2014. Instructions for completing the survey will be included in the email with the survey link. Each staff member’s survey link is unique, which ensures staff anonymity and prevents other individuals from reviewing a staff member’s survey responses prior to submission. All staff should complete and submit their surveys by February 24.

Please contact the Office of Achievement and Accountability at or at (410) 396-8962 with questions or concerns related to the School Survey.

City Schools Student Survey on Teachers

The City SchoolsStudent Survey on Teachers asks students to respond to specific questions about their teacher(s). This survey is being administered as part of the second year field test of potential measures for the district’s teacher evaluation system. This year’s survey will have two versions, one for students in grades 3-5 and a separate survey for students in grades 6-12. Also new this year, schools will have the option of administering the survey on paper or online. Schools can decide whether to participate in the online administration of the survey and to what extent (e.g., the whole school, select classrooms, only students needing the alternate languages). Please note that the paper version of the City Schools Student Survey on Teachers is only available in English and Spanish whereas the online version of the survey is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Nepali, and Spanish.Please complete the following brief survey to indicate if you will administer the paper or online survey at your school. If you plan to use the paper survey, you’ll also need to provide the number of surveys needed for each teacher with your planning worksheet (discussed during the training).The survey link was included in your Outlook invitation to the survey coordinator training. Please complete this survey by January 17.