Latest news with #5EssentialsSurvey
Chicago Tribune
30-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Waukegan school board mulling district survey results; ‘We are right in the middle'
With issuance of the annual Illinois State School Board of Education (ISBE) report card more than four months away, the Waukegan Community Unit School District community is getting an idea of its performance from students, teachers and parents. Parents, students and teachers all participated in the nationwide 5Essentials Survey of school wellness, judging five areas of school performance — ambitious instruction, collaborative teachers, effective leaders, involved families and a supportive environment. Taken by school districts in 22 states evaluating more than 6,000 schools, the 5Essentials Survey is required of all Illinois schools by the ISBE. District 60 Board of Education member Carolina Fabian said the results are incorporated into the ISBE's annual school report card. Members of the District 60 Board of Education learned the results of the 5Essentials Survey during a regularly scheduled meeting on June 24 at the Education Service Center in downtown Waukegan, learning how administrators will utilize the information. Amanda Patti, the associate superintendent of strategy and accountability, said in an email after the meeting that the survey results are a guide on what needs to be done and what successes can be utilized to better educate city youths. 'Increasing our ratings on post-secondary preparation, safety outside of the school, and having more parents complete the survey are areas we will focus on as we work with school leaders this year,' Patti said. Voting on the five areas of evaluation, the district's schools are judged on the improvement or decline in their past year. Eric Christenson, director of student support services, said schools are rated 'well organized,' 'organized,' 'moderately organized,' 'partially organized' or 'not yet organized.' 'Waukegan's overall district status is 'moderately organized,'' Christenson said. 'We are right in the middle, about what we were last year. The (middle) category is from 40 to 60, and you see they're all in there and they're all creeping up towards the strong?' Voting is done by students — fourth graders through high school — teachers and parents. Christenson said nearly all students participated, while teacher voting ranged from 60% at McCall Elementary School to 98.3% at Carman-Buckner Elementary School. Fabian said she is concerned with the overall level of teacher participation at 70%. She wants to see an effort made by the administration to make sure teachers vote. Unless they are absent, there are ample opportunities. 'What I really was noticing is why we don't have the teacher's participation at a higher rate when we have frequent staff meetings when all the teachers are together,' Fabian said. 'Why isn't there time being set aside. Teachers are there.' Christenson said the goal of parent participation is 20%. All schools except Waukegan High School, with 6%, achieved the standard. Participation drops significantly in high school. Patti said it is a concern that will be addressed. Learning perception exists that there is insufficient effort to prepare students for college was the lowest score on the entire survey. Board President Michael Rodriguez wanted to know the basis of the evaluation. Christenson said it is a composite score from students, teachers and parents. 'They ask teachers if your students will be successful in college,' Christenson said. 'They ask students if they are being prepared for post-secondary (education). They ask parents if you think your children are being prepared for post-secondary.' Board member Christine Lensing said she is glad trust between parents and teachers, and between students and teachers has increased, but she is displeased with the results within some segments of the community. It remains a problem. Lensing said that in the elementary schools, a large amount of time the first two weeks of school is devoted to relationship building as a 'community' is formed. Tough middle and high school students have multiple teachers and the same is true for instructors, relationship building must be emphasized. 'You really need to make sure you're building a community in your class even though you have six or seven of them throughout the day,' Lensing said. 'These kids need to come to you for a variety of reasons. You never know where these kids are going to find inspiration to propel them in life.' When teachers create 'communities within our classrooms, within our buildings,' Lensing said areas like preparation for post-secondary education and trust will improve.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New Study: Teacher Working Conditions Worsened After COVID — and Still Are
Teacher working conditions not only worsened when the pandemic began, but have continued to decline, a new study finds. The University of Missouri research discovered ongoing issues including increased classroom disruptions and declining trust between teachers and parents, principal and colleagues. The researchers analyzed data from the 5Essentials Survey which collected responses about school wellness from roughly 123,000 to 130,000 teachers in more than 3,300 Illinois schools annually from 2019 to 2023. 'I would have thought the 2020-21 school year was the big disrupted year,' said Cory Koedel, a University of Missouri professor who worked on the study. 'It's quite reasonable to think that was the worst. But this data is telling us that's clearly not true. And our findings give no indication that working conditions will rebound naturally now that the pandemic is behind us.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The 5Essentials survey identifies five main indicators of school success: effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supportive environments and ambitious instruction. Each year, teachers and students are asked to rate their experiences. The most dramatic change after the pandemic began was in classroom disruptions. A 2023 EdWeek survey found that 70% of educators said students in their schools misbehaved more than before the pandemic. In 2024, the percentage increased to 72%. Koedel's research found the quality of student discussions and professional development also declined from 2019 to 2023. The trust teachers felt toward parents, principals and other educators didn't worsen from 2019 to 2021 but deteriorated from 2021 to 2023. Teacher safety significantly improved in 2021, when most schools shifted to online learning, only to drop again in 2022 and 2023, once students returned to classrooms. A few working conditions initially declined but improved from 2021 to 2023, including collaborative practices and student engagement in learning The study also analyzed Illinois survey data by school demographics. Teachers from schools in wealthier communities had better working conditions, but experienced the same decline as educators in lower-income schools. Schools where instruction was delivered online during the 2020-21 school year also had larger declines in working conditions compared with schools where learning was in-person. Koedel said that while the study focuses on Illinois, educators nationwide have experienced similar working conditions. Related 'There's really no reason to think Illinois is some weird place that's so different from every other [state]' Koedel said. 'In my opinion, we should expect Illinois to be like other places, because a lot of what's happening in schools there is happening everywhere.' For example, other national studies have highlighted the link between teacher job satisfaction and educators' well-being and retention. A 2022 study from the RAND Corp. found that teachers who had administrator support and felt they belonged in their schools were less likely to report burnout and job-related stress. Those who had strong positive relationships with their colleagues and felt their students were engaged in learning were also much less likely to report poor well-being. 'There's a deeper question of, like, 'What exactly is it that's driving this?' ' Koedel said of the University of Missouri results. 'I believe this is telling us we have made some sort of bad decisions about how we're running schools, but this doesn't tell us what decisions we made that were bad, right? So I'm trying to understand that better.'
