U-46 designates Feb. 8-12 as '5Essentials Week'

Elgin Area School District U-46 is designating the week of Feb. 8 as "5Essentials Week" to encourage teachers, students and parents to complete the online survey about school climate and learning conditions.

While K-12 teachers and sixth- through 12th graders can take the survey during the school day, U-46 encourages all parents to take 15 minutes to complete the confidential survey next week at home, on their mobile phone, at their child's school or a local library.

"We encourage every parent to let their voice be heard by sharing what's going great in their child's school and what areas need improvement," said U-46 CEO Tony Sanders. "The confidential survey results provide critical information to help district and school leaders identify our strengths and those areas that need to be addressed with strategic improvement initiatives."

The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research developed the 5Essentials Survey through more than 20 years of research in schools and it is now administered across Illinois and in districts in several other states.

The 5Essentials System asks for feedback on school organizational culture and learning conditions and generates reports to help drive school improvement on the five leading indicators or "essentials," which are:

• Effective Leaders

• Collaborative Teachers

• Involved Families

• Supportive Environment

• Ambitious Instruction

U of C research in more than 400 schools has shown that schools that were strong on at least three of these five indicators were 10 times more likely to improve student learning gains in math and reading than those that were weak on three or more essentials.

A school must receive completed surveys from at least 20 percent of its parent population in order to generate survey results and receive a report. A summary report of teacher and student results for each school is published as part of the Illinois Report Card.

Already, 10 of the district's 53 schools have met the threshold.

"As a school community, if we get enough responses from parents, we'll be able to start painting a picture of what success looks like," said Harriet Gifford Principal Joe Corcoran. "The 5Essentials survey provides a snapshot of what parents are thinking; they (parents) reflect on how it relates to them as individuals."

The survey will never be connected to a parent or their child. It is available in English and Spanish. Parents can take the survey at survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/.

The survey has been offered since Jan. 11 and will remain open until Friday, March 11.

"We really take a hard look at the data that we receive, so that we can have effective leaders and good teachers in the classroom," said Spring Trail Principal Amy Kendryna. "I want to know what parents think, so that I can be a better principal and for learning to take place at Spring Trail."