Carroll ISD reviewed the results of its first Dragon Cultural Survey during its regular board meeting on Monday, Feb. 3. Conducted from Dec. 4-18, the district launched a survey to evaluate diversity perceptions at CISD. The survey was conducted in collaboration with education research company K12 Insight, who compiled the survey's responses and presented them to the board of trustees.
“We do this sort of work with about 250 school districts across the country – collecting stakeholder feedback to help inform decision making,” K12 Head of Research Dr. David Blaiklock says to the board of trustees. “My experience with Carroll ISD is that you are cutting-edge as far as addressing these issues. When I work with school districts now who talk about some of these issues, this is the district I think of and the model I recommend to them.”
According to the survey results, more than half of participating parents and over three-quarters of staff agreed that equity is a priority for the district, and that all students have a fair opportunity to succeed. About 83% of parents also said they feel welcome in their child’s school, while 86% feel that school rules are fairly applied to their child.
However, 36% of parent respondents say that they don’t know whether the district takes reports of discrimination seriously, and 39% say they don’t know if the district responds quickly to discrimination issues. Julie Thannum, Assistant Superintendent for Board and Community Relations, says those responses indicate an opportunity for the district.
“That’s an opportunity for us to share and look at what they do not know and share a little bit more about what the district is doing,” Julie says. “We will dig a lot deeper into this.”
Dr. Blaiklock says survey results show 80% of students feel welcome in their school. Meanwhile, 61% feel that differences among all people are respected. Survey results show that 30% of students have felt unwelcome or uncomfortable at school because of their grades, while 29% say it’s because of their looks.
Janet McDade, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, says this survey has provided an information baseline that will help the district develop its cultural competence action plan, which will be presented to the board of trustees later in April.
“We had no idea we’d be going towards a survey at the very beginning,” Janet says. “We’ve made a lot of progress, but handing this data over to the [District Diversity Council] is the one missing piece that will help guide our plan that we’ve been working on.”
One such idea that Julie mused was having a diversity dashboard that would break down the district’s demographics. She also suggested pulling data from the survey’s top six religions, looking up key observances and being mindful of them during the district’s calendar planning.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for us to break down that information – especially for greater awareness,” Julie remarks. “I think it's really important for our students to know that comments that are shared in the survey, we are listening to it. More than anything, we wouldn’t be asking this if we didn’t want an effective action plan to make sure things get better.”
You can stream the presentation of the results on the district’s website at SouthlakeCarroll.edu.