DCPS Trendency Survey

[Anonymous]

I’ve been trying to show DCPS a lot of “grace” these past many months but I think the Trendency survey may have just been my last straw. What a waste of time! And I assume also my taxpayer money. Doesn’t ask any legit questions about going back into the classroom. It’s only 10 questions and about half of them are demographic. Then there are just a couple of questions where you overall rate on a scale from 1 to 100 how DL is going for your kid. Seriously? That is the data that they are paying a polling firm to collect?

And don’t even get me started on the fact that I had to create a login with my email, password and name to even be allowed to respond to the survey. That’s going to seriously skew the results. I’m a pretty engaged parent and I was almost so turned off by it that I almost didn’t go through the hassle.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I were just talking about our challenges with DL recently, and how it's frustrating that there are no good ways to convey our (constructive!) feedback to help make it better.

That's something a well-constructed survey could do -- not just see how families feel about return to in-person, but also explore ways to improve DL across the district so that if we must or choose to continue DL, it can be more effective. But they don't actually care about our experience, even though it's happening in our homes and we are directly involved in a way that parents NEVER are with in-person school. That seems relevant, but DCPS doesn't care.

There's also no nuance to the Trendency survey, even with the sliders to select preference. They are pushing you to say you want in-person or you don't, you support safety measures or you don't. It makes no sense. The vast majority of families want in-person, but have different feelings about when or if it can be made safe this year. But notice they don't ask THAT question because it would be too revealing (i.e. show that people desperately want in person but largely don't think DCPS can make it sufficiently safe). And regarding the safety measures questions -- is there anyone who is going to answer "Nah, I don't think safety measures like PPE and hot running water matter"? Of course people want the safety measures. The problem is that DCPS is too inept to do something as simple as making sure every elementary school in the city has functioning plumbing. The plumbing issue shouldn't even be a question, it's only a "safety measure" because so many schools in the system have been without functioning bathrooms or adequate supply of soap FOR YEARS.

[Anonymous]

I would NOT assume that the vast majority of families want in-person seats right now.

[Anonymous]

I've never even heard of the word trendency.

thats a new one

[Anonymous]

I sent them a very snippy email and got an extremely polite reply back so I'm cutting them some slack here.

here's what they said to me:

"Sorry for the delay in response.   I wanted to explain a bit more about this new type of survey we are trying out. 

First- your contact information (email) is linked to your child/children from enrollment data (including school data) so we did not need to ask about school information.  I hope that makes sense.  

Second, this survey is a new public opinion poll we are trying out; it’s a way for us to release multiple questions to a panel of parents over the next few months.  Through the regular touchpoints (we will send out more questions every week or so) we can gauge shifts in points of view and see the exact level of support for an issue or idea.  This poll/survey is an opportunity  to get a regular pulse check on how our families are feeling around how things are going and their perception of DCPS.  Further, we hope to use the data to gauge interest around in person learning, in person virtual classrooms (CARE) and virtual-only.   

We hope to learn more about what is working well as well as how we need to adjust our planning based on parent’s opinions and feedback.  I do hope you’ll consider participating moving forward. 

Again, thanks and take care.

[Anonymous]

Looks like the company's website was made on WIX or GoDaddy.

Another no bid contract. tax dollar waste.

Here' the company website you're giving your data to...

https://trendency.com/about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I were just talking about our challenges with DL recently, and how it's frustrating that there are no good ways to convey our (constructive!) feedback to help make it better.

That's something a well-constructed survey could do -- not just see how families feel about return to in-person, but also explore ways to improve DL across the district so that if we must or choose to continue DL, it can be more effective. But they don't actually care about our experience, even though it's happening in our homes and we are directly involved in a way that parents NEVER are with in-person school. That seems relevant, but DCPS doesn't care.

There's also no nuance to the Trendency survey, even with the sliders to select preference. They are pushing you to say you want in-person or you don't, you support safety measures or you don't. It makes no sense. The vast majority of families want in-person, but have different feelings about when or if it can be made safe this year. But notice they don't ask THAT question because it would be too revealing (i.e. show that people desperately want in person but largely don't think DCPS can make it sufficiently safe). And regarding the safety measures questions -- is there anyone who is going to answer "Nah, I don't think safety measures like PPE and hot running water matter"? Of course people want the safety measures. The problem is that DCPS is too inept to do something as simple as making sure every elementary school in the city has functioning plumbing. The plumbing issue shouldn't even be a question, it's only a "safety measure" because so many schools in the system have been without functioning bathrooms or adequate supply of soap FOR YEARS.

This.

[Anonymous]

DCPS: Here’s this plan to get kids back to school.
Parents: You need to listen to parent!!!
DCPS: [surveys parents]
Parents: This is the last straw DCPS! How dare you!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS: Here’s this plan to get kids back to school.
Parents: You need to listen to parent!!!
DCPS: [surveys parents]
Parents: This is the last straw DCPS! How dare you!!

The survey is DCPS talking points in question form so they can have a survey complete confirmation bias.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS: Here’s this plan to get kids back to school.
Parents: You need to listen to parent!!!
DCPS: [surveys parents]
Parents: This is the last straw DCPS! How dare you!!

The survey is DCPS talking points in question form so they can have a survey complete confirmation bias.

huh? It asks how well DL is going.

[Anonymous]

I did not understand why I needed to provide identifiable information to complete the survey. So I didn't do it.

[Anonymous]

The survey questions seem strange and the amount of hoops to jump through to complete it will be self selecting. But, they are really nice on twitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I were just talking about our challenges with DL recently, and how it's frustrating that there are no good ways to convey our (constructive!) feedback to help make it better.

That's something a well-constructed survey could do -- not just see how families feel about return to in-person, but also explore ways to improve DL across the district so that if we must or choose to continue DL, it can be more effective. But they don't actually care about our experience, even though it's happening in our homes and we are directly involved in a way that parents NEVER are with in-person school. That seems relevant, but DCPS doesn't care.

There's also no nuance to the Trendency survey, even with the sliders to select preference. They are pushing you to say you want in-person or you don't, you support safety measures or you don't. It makes no sense. The vast majority of families want in-person, but have different feelings about when or if it can be made safe this year. But notice they don't ask THAT question because it would be too revealing (i.e. show that people desperately want in person but largely don't think DCPS can make it sufficiently safe). And regarding the safety measures questions -- is there anyone who is going to answer "Nah, I don't think safety measures like PPE and hot running water matter"? Of course people want the safety measures. The problem is that DCPS is too inept to do something as simple as making sure every elementary school in the city has functioning plumbing. The plumbing issue shouldn't even be a question, it's only a "safety measure" because so many schools in the system have been without functioning bathrooms or adequate supply of soap FOR YEARS.

Have you tried speaking to your principal? I know a number of us have done so at our school and we've seen changes as a result -- changes to the specials schedule, reduced whole group class time, increased small group time, less screen time overall, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I were just talking about our challenges with DL recently, and how it's frustrating that there are no good ways to convey our (constructive!) feedback to help make it better.

That's something a well-constructed survey could do -- not just see how families feel about return to in-person, but also explore ways to improve DL across the district so that if we must or choose to continue DL, it can be more effective. But they don't actually care about our experience, even though it's happening in our homes and we are directly involved in a way that parents NEVER are with in-person school. That seems relevant, but DCPS doesn't care.

There's also no nuance to the Trendency survey, even with the sliders to select preference. They are pushing you to say you want in-person or you don't, you support safety measures or you don't. It makes no sense. The vast majority of families want in-person, but have different feelings about when or if it can be made safe this year. But notice they don't ask THAT question because it would be too revealing (i.e. show that people desperately want in person but largely don't think DCPS can make it sufficiently safe). And regarding the safety measures questions -- is there anyone who is going to answer "Nah, I don't think safety measures like PPE and hot running water matter"? Of course people want the safety measures. The problem is that DCPS is too inept to do something as simple as making sure every elementary school in the city has functioning plumbing. The plumbing issue shouldn't even be a question, it's only a "safety measure" because so many schools in the system have been without functioning bathrooms or adequate supply of soap FOR YEARS.

Have you tried speaking to your principal? I know a number of us have done so at our school and we've seen changes as a result -- changes to the specials schedule, reduced whole group class time, increased small group time, less screen time overall, etc.

Here’s the thing. I don’t wany the DL schedule to be decided by the squeaky wheel parents who bug the principal. I want the educational professionals to figure out some best practices because, you know, they are the experts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like the company's website was made on WIX or GoDaddy.

Another no bid contract. tax dollar waste.

Here' the company website you're giving your data to...

https://trendency.com/about

Correct! They used Squarespace.