Evaluating the Action Projects

The Action Team met again on November 18th. This session took place after the long-awaited Piney Branch parent-teacher conferences. Those following this blog will remember that the Action Team developed and created action projects meant to enhance the conference experience for teachers and parents alike (see November 12th post).


With the action projects completed, the Team was in a celebratory mood and opened the session by sharing a giant chocolate chip cookie and conference day stories. Check out this video to hear Team members' thoughts on the projects and participation on the Action Team.





These parent-teacher conference projects are a pilot and are meant to help Team members hone their "moving into action" skills. During our debrief of the projects, we identified several lessons learned that should be helpful as we look to implement deeper and wider culture-shifting projects in the future. Here are a few of the learned lessons:

• It is necessary to have the help of others outside the group.

• For larger projects, we will need to allot much more time for planning.

• For these types of projects which affect parents, kids and teachers, there needs to be complete transparency and open communication with all three before, during and after implementation.

In addition to the anecdotes shared about the projects, there was also sharing of hard data. One of the action projects was to create a parent evaluation that would measure the effectiveness of the projects on enhancing the conference experience. Here is an actual evaluation form:





Parents were asked to complete conference evaluations before leaving the building post-conference. In total, 107 parent evaluations were received--almost every parent attending a conference completed an evaluation form! The feedback on the projects was overwhelmingly positive. Here are the compiled evaluation results:


Did you get to review your child's report card before the conference?



97% did, 3% did not (their conferences were prior to the actual conference day)



One a scale from 1-5 (5 being very helpful), was it helpful to have the report card before the conference?



Average score: 4.6



Did you receive a conference planner via backpack mail?



80% did, 20% did not



On a scale from 1-5 (5 being very helpful) was the planner helpful to prepare for the conference?



Average score: 4



How would you rate the school environment on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest)?



Average score: 4.6