During a live stream discussion on Oct. 12, the Arkport Central School District administration reviewed the results from their latest Thoughtexchange and discussed how the district plans on using the feedback to improve the 2020-21 school year. Click here to view a recording of the Oct. 12 livestream, or read below for a summary of the results.
We appreciate your thoughts
The district frequently uses the Thoughtexchange platform to gather the school-community’s perspectives on critical issues and topics. Through the district’s Thoughtexchanges, staff, students and parents/guardians anonymously share their thoughts and rate the thoughts of others.
Earlier this month, we launched a Thoughtexchange that asked the school-community to reflect on how well the start of the 2020-21 school year is going. We asked participants to share what they thought was going well and what might need to be improved.
What did we learn?
You can find a full report from the October 2020 ThoughtExchange, including all thoughts and top themes here. The following is a broad summary of what we learned.
We learned that the school community…
- overwhelmingly supports the district’s procedures and practices that are new to 2020-21 school year due to COVID-19;
- feels relieved to see that, despite these new procedures and practices, students are enjoying their school year thus far; and
- is proud of each other.
We learned that there is confusion about…
- who to contact when a student has a technical issue;
- how the district plans on communicating about positive COVID-19 cases; and
- why students need to have their attendance taken every day, even if they are not physically in school.
We learned that the district could improve its…
- cafeteria procedures;
- parent-teacher communication; and
- presence on social media.
We learned that parents/guardians would like…
- clearer guidance on grading and student expectations;
- training with district’s content management system, Schoology; and
- to see more photos of students in the classroom.
What are we doing next?
The district will…
- create a resource for parents/guardians that outlines all protocols and procedures for the 2020-21 school year in one convenient spot;
- make a concerted effort to share more snapshots of students’ day to day experiences in school;
- make arrangements to hold Schoology training sessions in the coming weeks;
- reach out to parents/guardians to provide them with clearer student expectations and let them know where they can find academic support, social and emotional support and technology support.