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Have you ever checked the weather forecast before leaving home in the morning, glanced at your car’s fuel gauge before backing out of the driveway, or read the nutrition panel on your cereal box while eating breakfast?
"If you did any of these things, you collected data – data to help you prepare for your day, make good decisions for your health, and avoid costly delays," said Carmen Ayala, Illinois State Superintendent, in her January 18 weekly message. "Those are the same types of benefits school administrators can receive through our annual school climate survey, the data collection known as the 5Essentials."
Every year, District 2 administers the Illinois 5Essentials Survey to stakeholders across the District to collect data to help it improve teaching and learning by improving the culture and climate in its schools and classrooms.
The 5Essentials survey window opened Tuesday, January 24, and responses from students, teachers, and parents will be collected through Friday, March 31. Students in Grades 4-8 will take the survey during class, while parents and teachers are invited to click the link below to complete the survey.
MORE ABOUT 5ESSENTIALS
The Illinois 5Essentials Survey was developed by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, and it’s called 5Essentials for good reason: it uses the handful of crucial indicators that improve test scores, student attendance, and overall student outcomes, and provides actionable reports to each school. Those 5Es are Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environments, and Ambitious Instruction. Two decades of research in more than 400 schools has shown that schools that were strong on at least three of these “5Essentials” indicators were 10 times more likely to improve student learning gains in math and reading than those that were weak on three or more indicators. That data held true even after controlling for poverty, gender, race, and neighborhood characteristics.
The validity of 5Essentials is why - every year - District 2 asks students in Grades 4-8, parents, and teachers to spend up to half an hour anonymously registering their opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of their school. The student survey asks about 120 questions covering experiences, attitudes, and activities; the teacher survey asks about instruction, professional development, and the school as a workplace. A shorter supplemental survey gives parents and caregivers the opportunity to provide feedback about their relationship with the school.
No individual teachers, students, or parents will be identified in the school reports, and no individual level survey responses will ever be shown to school administrators or ISBE. Instead, school-level 5Essentials Reports present aggregated information, such as the percent of teachers who agree that they feel respected by parents.
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