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The usefulness of data coming from a community survey to be used in helping to determine long term goals for the Lansing Central School District was challenged at last Monday's Board of Education meeting.  District officials are working with consulting firm PLC Associates, Inc. to build out a five year strategic plan that will influence all aspects of long and short term planning including budget and curriculum development, and capital needs.  Board members said that rather than a scientific, random sample approach, the survey is likely to simply reflect the opinions of people who wanted to take the survey.

"All these data show is what these 308 people felt, but it's not representative of Lansing," said board member Christine Iacobucci.  "It doesn't say anything about our community."

School board member David Dittman asked how the consultants are controlling for self-selection bias in the surveys.  He explained that self-selection bias is when a certain group of people with a certain point of view elect to take the survey.

"We don't know if the community as a whole feels this way, or if it's just how the people who are responding feel," he said.  "Why would the community believe the results?"

Grimm said that the faculty and staff survey was e-mailed directly to that group, and computers were set up for them to answer the survey.  He said faculty and staff together come to under 300 people.  177 from that group responded.  589 students responded to their survey.  Grimm said that certain kinds of responses (such as checking off 'A' to all the answers) disqualified some of those responses.

"The one that's least perfect is community engagement," he said.  "We had to make a decision after we sent out the information in the district bulletin to homeowners and only got 50 responses.  Then it slowed down to a creeping halt."

The district responded by sending a mailing, and a Lansing Star article also reportedly brought more responses, bringing the total of community responses up to 308 (as of last Monday).  But Grimm says those responses could come from anyone, and that self-selection bias could apply.

"We take this as what it is," Grimm said.  "It's just one piece.  But it starts to align itself with the picture that is being painted by the other data."

PLC Associates consultant Penny Ciaburri said that part of the purpose of the survey is to allow the community at large to feel they are involved in the process.  She also said it is the first step in getting people used to taking the surveys, which she said people will look forward to doing every couple of years.

"One of the problems you have is the point to engage the community," she said.  "We oftentimes hear the less than positive feedback that 'I was not one of the lucky few selected to be in the random sampling.'"

But that implied that the district values participation over getting an accurate take on what the community as a whole thinks.  With the foundation of the strategic plan being based on the data it raised the question of whether it will be based on a sound understanding of district residents' values for their school system.

That was exactly the response of district resident Vickey Beaver, who wrote a letter to the Editor in last week's Lansing Star.  Beaver criticized the district's handling of letting people -- especially those who do not have children in the schools -- know about the survey.  She also said that questions on the survey were biased and asked what respondents think the community thinks rather than what the respondents think.

"Vickey Beaver didn't feel the survey was designed with community members who have no attachments to the district regarding employment or students," Iacobucci noted.  "We could certainly invite Vickey and other people that she thinks would have opinions into a forum.  The board used to have community forums so that everybody would have the opportunity to be heard."

"We would never take it at face value," said Ciaburri.  "It's critical that the information filters through collective inquiry and the groups in play.  The task forces are looking for consistency with other pieces of data and asking themselves the question, 'Is this in synch with our current perceptions?'.  We could do a random sampling, and that would be representative of stakeholders across the board of different demographics."

Grimm said that where the information seems vague the district can delve deeper to get better data.  He said that focus groups could present a clearer picture of what the community really feels on targeted issues.

"We are making sure we are using a multi-faceted approach," Ciaburri said.  "Is it perfect?  No.  But it moves the district and the community in the right direction."

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