Kobza's Komments

Each year at this time the government sends home survey information to parents for the Accountability Pillar so you may have already received your envelope in the mail.  This survey provides an opportunity for Alberta Education and school authorities to ensure that we are equipping students for success. The Accountability Pillar uses a set of 16 indicators consisting of Surveys of students, parents and teachers on various aspects of quality; Provincial Achievement Tests, and measures like High School Completion, Drop-Out and Transition to Pose-secondary Rates. All surveys are anonymous and ask questions about experiences with the school.  We only see the overall results at the school and not any individual responses. Students and teachers will be completing their surveys at school before the end of February.  Your participation in the survey helps provide important information on the quality of education your child is receiving, so we encourage you to complete your survey.

Here is some information for you about the survey that we hope will make it easier to complete:

1. In addition to English and French, the parent survey is available in Chinese, Punjabi, Arabic, Blackfoot, Cree, Korean, Spanish and Tagalog.  Please come see us at the office if you would like to do your survey in a different language.
2. All surveys can be completed either through paper or online.  You can drop off your paper copy at the office and we will send it off for you.
3. We have put a link to the online survey on our website under Resources and Publications:  Accountability Pillar Survey
4. The library is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays with computers if you want to stop in and complete a survey before or after picking up your child.
5. Previously only parents in grade 4 received the survey and this year parents in grades 4-6 will receive it. We are encouraging parents to complete the survey as our average response over the past years is 20 parents.  We have generated 90 codes and we want to hear from as many parents as possible.
6. You do not have to answer every question.  If you come across one that does not apply to you, you can leave it blank.  An example is that we see a lot of “Don’t know” for the high school preparing students for careers questions.  If you do not have a child in high school, you can leave that question blank.
7. We have put together some information about the pillar areas for parents to help you in completing the survey. We are posting them on our social media pages, around the school and in the newsletter.
8. Before the end of the year, we will receive a report with a color coded snapshot that details the responses from parents, students and teachers. Each year we create an Annual Educational Results Report from this information.
9. Every year we review the data from the responses and use that information to create our school’s improvement plan.
10. If you want to learn more about the survey, check out the Fact Sheet.

We appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey as we want to hear as many voices as possible to give us a true snapshot on what is happening at OLA.  The survey is open until the end of February.  My door is always open if you have further questions about the survey or anything else you want to chat about.