In talking to schools preparing for accreditation, I have often joked that I'm waiting for a school to rename their mascot the Survey Monkey. In the past five to ten years, the survey has become the darling of school consultants and analysts. Every step of the school accreditation process calls for surveys of various levels of school stakeholders. Through analysis of this data, the school makes decisions about its current programs and future directions.
In this practice our schools are mirroring the rest of the society. There isn't a night that I don't hang up on at least one caller asking me to participate in a “short” survey. Over the phone, in writing, and even occasionally in person, everyone is trying to find out what I think.
And I see the reason for this. The point of customer service (and school falls into this category) is giving people what they want and need. I'm certain many school parents and others appreciate being asked what they think. I'm also certain that much of the data derived from surveys is useful and brings about good things. It is also good for us to remember who we work for and keep our focus outside of ourselves.
However, I've noticed that I basically don't respond to surveys very often. When I have to do one, I usually do it as quickly as possible, with little thought and no response to comments. Now, I consider myself a fairly reasonable and knowledgeable person (you certainly can comment on this below) and my input is not part of survey data in any substantial way. Thinking further, I suspect that the people who do participate in surveys are those who feel most passionately about an institution either positively or negatively (primarily negatively because we have much more time to feed our darker angels). So the glut of surveys is leading to less accurate data.
I don't have an answer to this, but maybe we need to open this conversation as we continue down the survey track. If only there were a way to find out what other people felt about this…
As always, I invite your comments.
Image Credit: Survey Monkey Logo
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