A focus group model for community input.

Involving communities in school district planning is an especially difficult challenge for rural districts, which often lack resources, personnel and even a geography conducive to the collection of data from a community.

A good communication program should determine the needs of the community and school through dialogue and then shape school goals around those needs. The result is a more informed and more involved public that has an improved image of its local schools.

My school district is small and agricultural with 1,350 students. The community has no local newspaper or other media outlets. There are no city government officials, no Chamber of Commerce, not even any coffee shops or barber shops that might serve as focal points for public opinion.

As such, I developed a process for gathering public opinion that could feed into our school district's long-range planning after a previous survey attempt netted a pitiful return. I invited members of the public to participate in focus groups with the intent of recognizing and identifying diverse opinions. I was pleasantly surprised at community members' willingness to participate and at the quality of data that resulted.

Gathering Insights

The focus group is a way to identify and explore people's reactions to specific issues. The interaction of the group increases participants' understanding of the issues, and the group members' responses provide valuable qualitative data. The process I used involved these steps:

* Identify topics to be discussed.

The administrative team (four building principals, the curriculum director and the superintendent) surveyed a random group of community members plus staff, teachers and board members. The team used the information we collected to develop four questions for use with the focus groups:

What goals might you identify for improvement within our schools?

What community education programs would be beneficial?

How might the communication between the schools and the community be best conducted?

What school building (facility) issues do you think would best address our community needs?

Topics could be specific interests of administrators, such as seeking community input on instruction, curriculum or student outcomes.

* Select the focus group participants.

In my district, several categories of people needed to be consulted about school issues: business people, parents, retirees, clergy and farmers. The latter two categories are influential in our community because local concerns are discussed at church and Farm Bureau meetings.

The administrative team identified specific people to invite from each category. Ultimately, from 6 to 10 individuals participated in each of the eight focus groups, a total of 70 participants.

* Conduct the focus groups.

We held our focus groups in the school library or cafeteria. An administrator acted as moderator and recorded each person's comments on a large flip chart. The discussion also was tape-recorded. Each member of the focus group was asked to prioritize the importance of the comments, using dime-sized stickers to assign weights.

* Provide for informal socializing.

After the focus groups, we provided pizza and soda, enabling participants to elaborate on their positions or philosophies on specific issues. As superintendent, I invited participants to discuss any topic with me and answered any questions they raised. These conversations provided insight to the underlying feelings that motivated particular answers.

Subsequently, moderators gathered to record and discuss the additional input. We were pleased and a little surprised at how many participants thanked us for the privilege of participating.

Benefits for Us

The highest priority needs identified by the focus groups will feed into our continuous improvement planning. In order, they are new school facilities with a community center at a central location; schools as continuing education sites for adults; improved use of technology for communicating with parents and community members; and community events hosted by the schools.

The administrative team had assumed there would be significant differences in the opinions of the two distinct communities that long ago consolidated to form the district. We were wrong. The two communities had amazingly similar goals for the school system.

Participants enjoyed the opportunity to interact with school leaders and have their opinions shape school improvement efforts. Principals used the data to form building-level goals and initiatives. These have become part of each school's continuous improvement plan, and the building administrator will be evaluated in part on the degree of successful implementation of these goals.

School board members are pleased that community input will be used as the basis for the revised continuous improvement efforts of the district. Our self-analysis will continue to serve the district in a way few external studies could.

The immersion of our school leaders in the topic of better communication with our community has served as a catalyst that will drive our district forward in the months and years ahead.

Brent Winand is the superintendent of the Northmor Local School District, 5247 County Road 29, Galion OH 44833. E-mail: winand.brent @northmor.k12.oh.us