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District Seeks Input from Community to Assess School Climate
Reno, NV (April 26, 2011) - Washoe County School District employees, parents and students are invited to take a survey to help the District determine how each group views its school environment.
"We know school climate has a direct influence on student achievement and is a critical factor in the District's ability to raise graduation rates," said Paul LaMarca, WCSD's chief accountability officer.
The WCSD strategic plan, Envision 2015 - Investing in our Future, highlights the need to provide positive, safe and engaging learning environments. The climate surveys are one tool that the District can use to measure its progress.
The survey addresses questions about a school's quality of education, communication with teachers, safety and customer service.
"It's essential that school staff and parents work in partnership to help students achieve," said WCSD Superintendent Heath Morrison. "Our strategic plan calls for providing better customer service to our most important constituents, our students and families, by improving the quality of the learning environment for our children."
Parents will receive the survey in a number of different ways. If parents provided an e-mail address to the District during school registration, they will have received an electronic link to the survey on April 25, when the survey launched. Paper surveys will be sent home with students at elementary schools for households without an e-mail address on file. The survey will be mailed home to parents with students in middle and high school. Each school also has a box in the front office where surveys can be returned with confidentiality.
The parent survey will be available from Monday, April 25 through Friday, May 13 and 10 $50 gift cards donated by Wal-Mart will be raffled for parents who complete the survey.
Students and school site staff also will be asked to participate in the survey. Students in grades 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
and 11 will complete the voluntary survey in their school's computer lab. School employees will receive a link to the survey through their e-mail. The student and staff survey will be available Monday, April 25 through Friday, May 27.
The survey is available online at http://www.k12insight.com/wcsd/climatesurvey2011.html.
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About Washoe County School District: The Washoe County School District includes the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, Incline Village, Gerlach, Empire and Wadsworth, Nevada. The District provides each of its 63,000 students with a superior education in a safe and challenging environment and is committed to graduate every child career and college ready. For more information visit www.washoecountyschools.org. Follow us on Twitter at WCSDTweet.
Washoe County School District
425 East Ninth Street
Reno, NV 89520
