Questions & Answers (QA's)What questions are on the survey?The standard questions can be viewed for each respondent group. Grade 4* (PDF, 207KB) Is the survey available in different languages?Yes. The student and staff survey is available in English and French. The parent survey is available in English, French, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Filipino, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Urdu and Vietnamese. How do schools or districts add questions?Questions should be submitted to the survey administrator, AWIS, by December of the school year in which the survey is being administered. It is recommended that schools work with their districts to coordinate additional questions to reduce duplication and costs. There is a small charge for schools to add questions. What format can district or school questions be in? (open-ended; different response scale, etc)Any format is acceptable and the questions can have a different response scale from the rest of the survey. Is the survey a good source of information?The Satisfaction Survey is a province-wide census of target respondents and, as such, provides a representative picture of the education experience in British Columbia. In technical analyses (conducted in 2005, 2006 and 2007), the survey was also found to be valid and reliable. In other words, the survey questions measure the themes they claim to measure (e.g., safety or human and social development), and they measure those themes consistently from respondent to respondent. Data from the survey are used by schools, districts, government Ministries, external organizations and third party researchers for planning and research. The Survey is also flexible to changing needs. The questions were developed with input from a range of stakeholders, and they have been adjusted and reviewed annually based on feedback from respondents, school administrators, and educational researchers. In addition, the survey system enables some customizability. For example, schools and districts can add their own questions, additional grades can be included, and the survey can be repeated later in the same year to follow up on change. How soon are results available?Public reports for schools, districts and the province are posted toward the end of each school year at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/. The reports include information about survey participation rates and the percent of responses to each question on the survey. Principals have password secured access to their schools’ interim results reports immediately after surveys are completed. These reports are available once the survey has opened at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/sat_survey/results.htm Parents have access to their districts' interim results for parent responses immediately after surveys are completed. These reports are available once the survey has opened at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/sat_survey/results.htm Why did the Ministry move to an online format?There are many benefits associated with online surveying, apart from the reduction of costs and paper:
To accommodate participants without access to computers or the internet, schools may consider opening a computer lab outside of class hours or providing assistance with locating access in the community (e.g., public libraries). Schools can also request a copy of the survey in PDF format from the survey administrator for participants who cannot access computers. Why was the particular response scale (At no times...All the time) chosen?To ensure the broadest range of participants are able to respond to the survey questions. Experts recommended the response options be as concrete as possible so they could be easily understood by some students with special needs or lower levels of literacy. Field tests confirmed that very young students had an easier time responding to the survey when the response options were based on frequency of occurrence (“at no time”...”all the time”) rather than levels of agreement (for example, “strongly disagree”... “strongly agree”). The same response scale is used for many of the questions because, in the first year, the survey was limited to one side of one printed page. This left no room for multiple response scales. Now that the survey is entirely online, it is not limited by page size. We have been reluctant to change existing response scales because this would mean that results could not be compared to previous years and trends would be disrupted. However, response scales for new questions are individually developed. How has participant feedback affected the survey?A number of features on the survey have been added or modified as a result of participant feedback, including:
How is information from the survey used?The Survey has been administered since 2002 and provides a stable source of trend data on the education experience. The Survey data have been used for planning and research purposes by:
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Parents |
Districts/Schools |
|
|---|---|---|
| Technical support | X |
X |
| Coordinating survey administration | X |
|
| Navigating the online form | X |
X |
| Obtaining a PDF version of the survey | X |
|
| Accessing results reports | X |
X |
| Adding local questions | X |
|
| Surveying additional grades | X |
|
| Surveying more than once per year | X |
|
| Ideas to increase participation | X |
|
| Administering other surveys | X |
For more information, please contact AWIS at 1-866-558-5339 or support@awinfosys.com
