Understanding the Community

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Understanding the Community

• EDUG 543

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School-Community Relations(Public Relations)

• Duty of the school district to furnish taxpayers
  with complete, accurate and understandable
  information regarding its needs and activities
  and to use the information to develop educational
  policies and programs that reflect popular
  interests and desires. It includes the
  involvement and participation of citizens in the
  educational decision making process.

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School-Community Relations(Public Relations)

• A systematic function of all levels of a school
  system, established as a program to improve and
  maintain optimal level of student achievement and
  to build public support (Holiday).
• Foster student achievement through the
  establishment of a positive school climate and
  parent and citizen involvement.
• Building citizen knowledge and understanding
  leading to financial support

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Public Opinion

• Any widespread beliefs, attitudes or consensus
  arrived at by members of one or more groups, or
  prevailing customs and traditions handed down by
  past generations.
• Public opinion is a collection of individual
  viewpoints held more or less in common by members
  of a group regarding some person, condition or
  proposal

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Public Relations Models

• Press agentry/publicity
• One-way communication with propaganda
• 15 of all schools
• Public information
• One-way dissemination of truthful information
• 50 of all schools
• Two-way asymmetric
• Scientific persuasion with the intent of two-way
  communication
• Communicator gets feedback from the public and
  then applies the latest communication and
  persuasion theories to persuade the public to
  accept the organization's point of view
• 20 of all schools

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Public Relations Models

• Two-way symmetrical communication
• Communicator is the go-between for the
  organization and the public
• Communicator uses all methods of communication
  available to attempt to get all parties
  point-of-view to be understood
• If persuasion takes place between any parties, it
  is because two-way communication is taking place
  between the public and the organization
• Used by 15 of all schools

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Understanding the Community

• Social Inventory
• Helps district know who makes up the community
• Know the power structures
• Interrelations among individuals with vested
  interest who have the ability to control other
  people, obtain their conformity, or command their
  services
• Measure public opinion
• Measure attitudes of all vested parties
• Taxpayers. Parents, teachers students
• Electronic Polling
• Professionally conducted
• Web site
• Telephone surveys

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Social Inventory

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Social Inventory

• Customs and traditions
• Ideas, attitudes and habits of people
• Folkways, mores and lifestyles
• Race, religion, nationality background, economics
  and social class structure

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Population Characteristics

• Education attainment, age, sex occupation,
  nationality, race and religion
• Often used for stratifying a random sample
• Good estimate of community reaction to a proposal
• Education attainment by category
• Elementary, secondary, trade school, associates
  degree, bachelors degree, masters degree and
  doctorate
• Age distribution by category
• Judges the vitality of the community
• Younger population has more educational demands
• Older population has greater tax concerns
• Sex distribution by category

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Population Characteristics

• Occupation Info
• Used to check population stability
• Changing opportunities
• Distribution of occupation classes
• Nationality, race and religion
• Helps with understanding of community
• Analyzing social tension and conflict

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Communication Channels

• Since public opinion takes place through the
  exchange of ideas and information, schools must
  know what communication channels exist in the
  community.
• Which channels are used most extensively
• Which channels reach different segments of the
  community
• Television, radio and newspapers
• Clubs, organizations, religious pulpits, labor
  unions

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Community Groups

• School must know the purpose and program of
  community groups
• Community organizations
• Groups that are highly involved in schools but do
  not focus on education students
• Taxpayers Federation Taxation
• Homeowner associations
• Groups supporting education
• Retired teachers association
• PTOs
• Special interest groups
• Promote philosophical positions
• Prayer, textbook adoption, pro life

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Leadership

• Formal and informal
• Mayor with a subordinate leader
• Local legislator is decision maker for a mayoral
  community
• Recognize leaders of community groups and
  organizations
• They have influenced on attitudes and opinions of
  members
• Leader information
• Personal backgrounds, family connections, group
  affiliations, business interests, fraternal
  memberships, political convictions, special
  competencies and attitudes toward public
  education.

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Other

• Economic conditions
• Ability to pay
• Increased taxes
• Increased fees
• Political structure
• Mayoral/aldermanic
• City manager/City council
• Social tensions

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Social Inventory Sources of Information

• School records (Family Rights and Privacy Act)
• Family members, addresses, occupations
• Board of Education minutes
• City directories and telephone books
• Voter registration
• Bureau of the Census
• Historical societies
• Chamber of Commerce
• Newspaper files
• Community efforts, social tensions,leaders
  accomplishments, group conflicts
• Personal interviews and surveys

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Power Structures

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Elite Power Model

• Pyramidal community power structure
• Elite group represents industrial, commercial and
  financial interests of community

Power Concentration
Lower Echelons
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Pluralistic and Amorphous Power

• Pluralistic
• Similar to elite except more than one pyramidal
  structure exists in a community
• Different issues are handled by different groups
  based on their attitudes and opinions
• Amorphous
• Found in rural areas
• Power is absent or latent
• Resembles a situation where those in power
  maintain the status quo

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General Characteristics of Power Structure

• Controlled by people who try to shape community
  decision in ways that protect or advance their
  own interests
• Usually sincerely concerned with the well being
  of the community especially economic interests
• Usually aligned with political groups
• Use reward and punishments to influence decisions

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Opinion Research

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Uses of Opinion Research

• Determine how people get information about
  schools
• Learn about perceived quality of schools and the
  criterion used
• To determine if a proposal will be controversial
• To discover if a shift in public opinion is
  taking place
• To learn the goals and aspirations of parents and
  citizens concerning schools
• Reveal areas of improvement desired by the
  community
• Gain information about opponents of a tax
  referendum or a bond issue

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Types of Opinion Research

• Quantitative (formal) (scientific) (probability)
• Can be applied to the entire population
• Statistical random sampling
• The normative or parametric distribution sampling
  of the population is of utmost importance
• Emphasizes methodology
• Qualitative (informal) (unscientific)
  (non-probability)
• Can not be applied to the entire population
• The formative answers of the opinion research
  tools are of utmost important
• Emphasizes feelings of respondents
• Triangulation is important

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Types of Opinion Research

• Forums and conferences
• Selected topics e.g.. taxes
• Panel of experts
• State their position
• Audience then responds with comments or questions
• Note Audience response time should be limited to
  an amount of time. This amount can be repeated
• Forums are difficult to defend as quantitative

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Types of Opinion Research

• Advisory Committee
• Selected group of laypeople
• Cross section of the community
• Express the needs of the community
• Recommendations are not binding
• Practical method for determining attitudes
• Sometimes difficult to defend since the method is
  difficult to regulate and duplicate

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Types of Opinion Research

• Panels (focus panels) (ad hoc or continuous)
• Panel is interviewed by trained members of the
  school staff
• Ad hoc
• Panel members either individually or as a group
  are interviewed before a change is announced and
  then after a change occurs.
• Continuous
• Panel members are interviewed individually
• Interviews are informal and open ended questions
  are used
• No written material due to informality of
  interview
• Highlights are recorded in private by the
  interviewer
• Can be emotional over time
• Found to be statistically reliable if done
  properly
• Good method for bringing out and analyzing causes
  for changes of opinion

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Types of Opinion Research

• Four types of public opinion surveys
• Most precise and statistically accurate if done
  properly
• Personal interview
• Usually greatest validity and reliability
• Telephone interview
• Most widely used
• Mailed questionnaire
• Lowest returns
• Drop off/pick up questionnaire
• More expensive than mailed version
• See page 29 for advantages of the different types
  of surveys

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Surveying Sampling

• Must be done randomly
• 400 properly identified samples can be applied to
  a large population if done accurately (within a
  predictable 5 margin of error)
• Normality testing
• Random Number Charts
• Stratified sampling
• Gallup survey is done with 1600 individuals with
  a margin of error of 2.5
• If your determining public opinion on school
  uniforms a 95 level of confidence and a margin
  of error of 5 is usually acceptable
• If your launching a space shuttle a 99.9 level
  of confidence and a margin of error of 1.0 may
  be needed
• Confidence level means the number of times the
  results you have gathered may have occurred by
  chance alone.
• Margin of error is directly related to the size
  and normal distribution level of your sample

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Formulating Questionnaires

• Two types - Open ended vs. closed ended
• No answers vs. answers
• Guidelines
• Be concise
• Use words and language people understand
• Worth of property vs. equalized assessed
  valuation
• Soda, sodi or pop?
• Structure questions with exact information for
  answers.
• How long have you lived in Chicago
• Not an open ended question
• 1-5 years, 6-10 years,.
• Avoid leading questions
• I your taxes were lowered, would you vote for
• Avoid double barreled questions
• Do you own a car or do you ride the bus? _ Yes _
  No
• Always pretest

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Questionnaire Design

• Introduction
• Brief description of surveys purpose
• Survey sponsor
• Instructions on completion and return (if
  written)
• No threatening or provoking questions
• Main Section
• Opinion questions that deal with the basic
  problems of which the school is concerned
• Questions should be in a sequence that promotes a
  logical thought process
• Conclusion
• Open ended questions to initiate unanticipated
  comments
• Demographic question
• Age, sex, length of residency, of students in
  school