[BHS etree] MISC: Parent Survey Invitation

[bhs at idiom.com]

Dear parents/guardians,

You are invited to participate in this year's parent/guardian
perception survey because you have a student in Academic Choice,
AHA!, CAS, the Comprehensive High School, CP Academy, or SSJE.  Each
year, Berkeley High School and BayCES will survey parents/guardians
of all small schools, programs and the comprehensive high school to
better understand how you feel about services provided to the
community, students, parent and teachers by your student's school.

The survey is titled: "Berkeley High School Parent/Guardian
Perception Survey 2006".  We encourage all parents and guardians to
participate by taking this online survey.  To participate, please
click on the link below.
<http://colettecann.com/parentsurvey2006/index.php?sid=2> 

Once you select this link, you will be asked to register to ensure
that each parent/guardian/family only participates once each year in
the survey. To register, simply enter your name and an email address.
You will be sent a unique link to the survey that can only be used
once after you have completed and saved the survey (if you start the
survey, but do not complete and save it, the link will remain active
for you to use later).

The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to answer all mandatory
questions (questions marked with a red star) and approximately an
additional 5 minutes to answer optional, open-ended questions.
Please contact the survey administrator, Colette Cann, if you have
any questions or concerns at colette at colettecann.com
<mailto:colette at colettecann.com> .  Feel free to contact her if a
paper copy of the survey would be better for you.  Send your first
and last name along with the mailing address and she will mail you a
paper copy.  Thanks so much for your time in advance!  The survey
will remain open until August 1st, 2006.  The results will be used to
evaluate how the different school choices work to serve all students.

Thank you,
Colette Cann

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Commonly asked questions:

Why should I take this survey?  The survey results add an important
dimension to the yearly quantitative data report given before the
Board as well as to the evaluation of the reform movement at Berkeley
High School.  It gives the parents and guardians an opportunity to
share how their family experiences this reform movement.  It is an
imperfect method of gaining your perceptions (interviews and focus
groups would be preferred), yet it has the advantage of taking up
less of your time and getting a more diverse group of folks'
opinions.

Who is administering this survey?  The survey is being administered
by Colette Cann, an external evaluator hired in accordance with
provisions in the Gates Foundation Grant received to support small
school reform as Berkeley High School outlined in their proposal.  

How will results be shared?  Results will be shared with the
community in the same manner that student and parent surveys were
shared this year (see Berkeley High School website for an example).
In addition, the yearly evaluation report will include results from
this survey.

Are my responses confidential?  Absolutely.  Even the survey
administrator cannot link responses with individual survey takers.

Then why do you ask for my email address?  The program asks for your
email address so that it can send you a personal website address that
only you can use to take the survey.  It allows the program to make
sure that each email address only takes the survey once (and thus
each person hopefully takes the survey only once).  It is not a
full-proof method to ensure that each person takes the survey only
once, but it is the best that I can do with the program that I use.  

Will I receive spam at my email address now?  The program does not
connect email addresses received with responses given nor do I, the
survey administrator, have access to the email addresses that were
given.  Thus, your address cannot and will not be spammed.