Yorkville Administers Illinois 5Essentials Survey to Help Improve Student Learning

The following is a press release from Yorkville District 115.

Yorkville School District 115 will join the Illinois State Board of Education in providing a unique opportunity for teachers, students, and parents across the state to have a role in improving their schools. Between Feb. 1 and the end of March, teachers, students and parents will be asked to take a 15-minute research-based survey to help identify strengths and weaknesses in their school’s climate and learning conditions.

“Feedback from our teachers, students and parents is crucial to the advancement of the District,” said Yorkville Superintendent Scott Wakeley. “In order for improvement to happen, everyone has to be involved.”

The Illinois 5 Essentials Survey (Organizing Schools for Improvement) provides a comprehensive assessment of school organizational culture with actionable reports to help drive school improvement on five indicators or essentials:

• Effective Leaders
• Collaborative Teachers
• Involved Families
• Supportive Environment
• Ambitious Instruction

Illinois 5Essentials generates data that helps schools target resources and make decisions that help accelerate learning and test score gains. Illinois 5Essentials also demonstrates that teachers and students can play a crucial role in school reform: What they share about their schools reliably predicts whether those schools are likely to improve or stagnate.

The Illinois 5Essentials Survey, required to be implemented this school year by legislation passed in 2011, represents the first attempt by a state to administer a statewide survey of learning conditions to teachers, students, and parents. Statewide summary results will be shared with ISBE this summer. School-level results will be sent to schools this summer and will be part of the 2013 school report cards, typically released by ISBE at the end of October. Federal Race to the Top funds are covering the cost of the survey.