Form 1 STAC Grantee Survey

GRANTEE SURVEY QUESTIONS

Survey Instructions

As you know, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), with its contractor Abt Associates, is conducting the second year of the national evaluation a study of the School Turnaround AmeriCorps program, a partnership between CNCS and the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of the study is to learn how the School Turnaround AmeriCorps program is being implemented and how it is helping schools address their turnaround goals.

All grantees are being asked to complete a survey as part of the study. Your perspective is very important, so please answer honestly. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. Refusing to participate will not involve any penalty or affect your employment. Your responses to this survey will not affect the status of your grant.

All responses are anonymous and your responses will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law. The information you provide in the survey will be summarized with the information from other respondents and included in a report that will be shared with CNCS.

Please proceed to the next page of this survey if you agree to participate.

Please contact Erin Sullivan at 844-868-4994 or via email at schoolturnaround@abtassoc.com with any questions regarding this research.

1. Did your organization’s relationship with the school(s) your grant is operating in exist before you established a partnership agreement for the School Turnaround AmeriCorps program?

____ Yes, with all schools

____ Yes, with some schools

____ No

1. If yes, how long has your organization been collaborating with the school(s)?How many years total has your organization worked at this school, including this year?

____ Less than 6 months

____ 6 months to less than one year

____ One year

____ Two years

____ Three or more years

____ Varies by school (please check all that apply above)

2. To the best of your knowledge, doid School Turnaround AmeriCorps members provide direct services to individual students, or to the whole classroom, or to all students in the school during the 2015-16 school year?during the 2014-15 school year? (Check all that apply.)

__ AmeriCorps programming was targeted to individual students

__ AmeriCorps programming supported the whole classroom(s)

__ AmeriCorps programming supported all students in the school

__Varies by school (please check all that apply above)

__Don’t know

3. Do you know which students were served by School Turnaround AmeriCorps members ?

Yes: _____ No: _____ Some but not all For some, not all schools _____

4. For the purpose of the School Turnaround AmeriCorps program, how does your organization define program completion for a particular student?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Please review the list below to confirm the schools to which your organization assigned School Turnaround AmeriCorps members. Fill in the number of members who serve at each school during 2015-162014-15, and the targeted number of students that you expect to serve and complete the program this school year. If you don’t know, please write in “DK.”

Which schools were served by the School Turnaround AmeriCorps members engaged by your organization?	Number of AmeriCorps members	Target number of students to be directly served by School Turnaround AmeriCorps program (2015-16)	Target number of students to complete an expected to receive School Turnaround AmeriCorps program/services this school year (2015-16)*
[PREPOPULATED SCHOOL NAME]

• *Please do not include students who dropped out of the program or left the school or district in this count.

Please fill in the following information on the characteristics of School Turnaround AmeriCorps programming at each school served by your organization this school year (2015-162014-15).

6. If you don’t know, please write in “DK.”

Which schools were served by the School Turnaround AmeriCorps members engaged by your organization?	Number of School Turnaround AmeriCorps members	On average, Average number of hours per week each School Turnaround AmeriCorps members serves spend per week (2015-16) in this school	On average, nNumber of weeks School Turnaround AmeriCorps members spendt in this school this school year (2015-16 2014-15)	Number of students served by School Turnaround AmeriCorps program in this school this school year (2015-16)	Number of students completing an expected to complete AmeriCorps program in this school this school year (2015-16)*
[PREPOPULATED SCHOOL NAME]

*Please do not include students who dropped out of the program or left the school or district in this count.

7. On average, how often do the School Turnaround AmeriCorps members meet with school staff to discuss data on the progress of all students? Please select the option that is closest to your members’ experience.

____More than twice per month Once a week

____Twice per month

____ Once per month

____ Once every six months

____ Once per year

____ Very different from school to school (please explain): _____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____Don’t know

8. To the best of your knowledge, which mechanisms did the school(s) use to identify students for to participate in activities led by School Turnaround AmeriCorps members? (Check all that apply.)

___ Teacher recommendation

___ Counselor recommendation

___ Parent request

___ Student request

___ Standardized test scores

___ Performance in class and on homework

___ Other (please explain): ______________________________

__ Don’t know

9. To the best of your knowledge, what are the reasons that students were identified to participate in School Turnaround AmeriCorps programming? (Check all that apply.)

__ To improve academic achievement (standardized test scores and/or grades)

__ To improve academic engagement (attendance, interest in school)

__ To assist students at risk of dropping out

__ To improve self-esteem or socio-emotional health

__ To improve behavior

__ To sustain academic performance

__ Other (please explain): _______________________________

____Don’t know

10. What do you consider to be the most important school turnaround outcomes for students over the next two years? (Check all that apply.) Please rank from 1 up to 9, with 1 being most important. Please only rank an outcome if you believe it is important.

___ Enhanced academic achievement

___Improved grades

___Improved completion of assignments

___Increased motivation

___Increased self-esteem

___ Improved attendance

___Improved socio-emotional health

___Improved behavior

___Other (other, if other please specifyplease explain)__________________

__ Not applicable

If Not applicable is selected, none of the others should be ranked

11. Please fill in the following table about student outcomes.school turnaround outcomes for students.

	Was there improvement in this area in one or more of the for students in your schoolss with served by AmeriCorps your grantee served by School Turnaround AmeriCorps members last year (2014-15) this year?	If you marked “Yes,” what were the outcomes with the greatest degree of improvement, across schools? Rank from 1 up to -9, with 1=Greatest improvement and 9=Least improvement. Do not rank outcomes where you marked “No.”
Enhanced academic achievement	__ Yes, in all schools __Yes, in most schools (more than 50%) Yes, in some schools (25-49%) __Yes, in a small number of schools (less than 25%) __No
Improved grades	Same options as above
Improved completion of assignments	Same options as above
Increased motivation	Same options as above
Increased self-esteem	Same options as above
Improved attendance	Same options as above
Improved socio-emotional health	Same options as above
Improved behavior	Same options as above
Other (please specify): __________________________	Same options as above

12. Please indicate your level of agreement/disagreement about your organization’s collaboration with your school partner(s) for each statement element listed below. Please try to respond by thinking in reference to the typical school,, if you work with more than one.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree	Very different school to school	Not applicable Don’t Know
It is easy for me to get in touch with someone from the school(s).
There is frequent communication between my organization and the school(s) (e.g., visits to each other’s offices, meetings, written information and telephone communications).
The school(s) responds follows-up, if needed, when I make contact
The school(s) is(are) committed to making our collaboration a success.
The school(s) has(have) the ability to accomplish set goals.
The school(s) puts forth effort to maintain relationship(s) with my organization.
My organization perceives our relationship with the school(s) as a priority.

13. For the items in #12 where you marked “Very different school to school,” please explain the variation below:

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. For this school year (2015-16), please indicate your level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction with each of the elements listed below. (Mark one response in each row.)For this school year, please indicate how satisfied you are with each of the elements listed below:

	Very Dissatisfied	Dissatisfied	Satisfied	Very Satisfied	Very different school to school	Not applicable (e.g., this is not part of the structure of services
Communication and collaboration between teachers and School Turnaround AmeriCorps members Communication between school leadership(s) and grantee staff
Communication and collaboration between school leadership and AmeriCorps members Communication and collaboration between teachers and School Turnaround AmeriCorps members
Communication and collaboration between school leadership and AmeriCorps membersCommunication between school leadership and grantee staff
Implementation of the roles and responsibilities outlined in the school partnership agreements
Placement of members in meaningful service activities
Referral of students to receive services offered by AmeriCorps members
Matching of members to students in need of academic strengthening and/or social/emotional supports
Alignment of AmeriCorps member activities with school turnaround plans
Sharing of outcome data by the school/district

15. For the items in #14 where you marked “Very different school to school,” please explain the variation below:

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

#___ ­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. How important are the following characteristics to successfully implementing your School Turnaround AmeriCorps program at a typical school?

	Not at All Important	Somewhat Important	Important	Very Important	Not Applicable (e.g. my program doesn’t offer this)
Orientation and training of AmeriCorps members before they serve at the school
Comprehensive trainings of AmeriCorps members and program support staff during their year(s) of service
Clearly defined, mMulti-layered supervisory structure to ensure fidelity of program implementation
(Clearly dDefined framework (e.g., RTI) to guide objective instructional choices and allow for the assessment of program effectiveness
Highly defined Limited set of highly research-based scripted interventions that have been shown to be effective (i.e., research based) to improve in achieving desired student-level outcomes
Alignment of AmeriCorps activities to the strategies outlined in the school’s turnaround plan
AmeriCorps member rRecruitment and selection process that effectively is effective in identifiesing members and selects members with characteristics/skills alignedthat correspond with the program’s objectives

11