Posted: 05/23/2022 15:47:06 Modified: 05/23/2022 15:45:12 Have you recently been asked to complete an online survey? An end-of-yea...
Posted: 05/23/2022 15:47:06
Modified: 05/23/2022 15:45:12
Have you recently been asked to complete an online survey? An end-of-year program feedback form, perhaps?
They seem to be popping up like tulips these days. Not only have I been asked many times this week, but I’m also part of a team that’s throwing one all over town. This makes me think carefully about why we’re asking for 15 minutes of people’s time.
I work for the Northampton Public Schools Early Childhood Center. We have a relatively new formal partnership between public schools and community preschools, child care centers and home child care programs. It is publicly funded through the Department of Early Childhood Education and Care (EEC).
After three years, it’s time to assess how things are going before applying for another round of grants. As our team of 10 writes the survey and focus group questions, I keep thinking, “Doesn’t everyone already know that child care is underfunded? Haven’t we read enough about how the teachers of our youngest learners earn the lowest salaries? Why are we asking parents if it’s hard to find daycare and/or pay for it when we know it’s hard?
And here’s the thing, we need to know more than what we, who work in the field, notice and think. We need to know if the new services funded by the partnership have made a difference, such as providing special education services at community sites rather than at the public school alone.
We need our city’s perspective on the issues so that we can continue to refine and develop new partnership programs in a way that makes sense to local families. Or perhaps we need to change course with new programmatic solutions to address systemic issues in the early learning and child care system. So we are developing questions that will give families and early childhood educators a better understanding.
Should you evaluate your work and programs with feedback from clients and constituents? Could you send out a marketing survey, a farm pick-up preference feedback form, or maybe just a Doodle poll? I will keep an eye on my inbox for surveys and do my best to complete them to provide you with the information you need.
And if you have or work with young children, please consider taking the Early Years Needs Assessment Survey on NorthamptonFamilies.com.
Laura Frogameni is a resident of Florence and works as the Northampton Public Schools Nursery and Partnerships Coordinator. You can reach her at lfrogameni@northampton-k12.us
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