School/District Culture Survey (Spring 2023) 

What is 'culture' and why should it be evaluated? 

Building and maintaining a positive culture should be every systems’ and schools’ goal.  Positive school cultures
provide safety, support, encouragement and healthy challenges for students and staff, which in turn fosters students’
academic achievement and growth.  Positive school cultures increase satisfaction, morale, and effectiveness for the
staff while simultaneously increasing learning, fulfillment, and well-being for the students. School culture is the way
things are done in the school - the personality of the school, with underlying norms and values.  Culture and climate
overlap and influence each other, however, climate can change rapidly (for better or worse), while culture goes deeper
and takes longer to turn. 

As part of the Kansans Can School Redesign Project, all Redesign Schools were asked to administer a School Culture
Survey annually. During the summer of 2020, the KSDE Redesign Team worked with our state comprehensive center
artners at McRel to recreate the culture survey based on existing surveys and research regarding schools as learning
rganizations. The finished survey measures 5 Constructs of Culture (shown on the right). The culture survey is one tool
that you can use to obtain perception feedback from internal, building and district-level certified staff.

You can preview the survey items here.

How can I learn more about the survey? 

If you are interested in administering the survey in your school or district, start by reviewing the following resources: 

• Administration Guidance Fact Sheet
• Introductory Slides for the Culture Survey
• Frequently Asked Questions Sheet
• Sample Email Template for Staff
• Sample Report
  • Note, this report shows the previous culture survey data for buidlings only. Reports generated moving forward will show both the perception at the district level and building level. 

I took the survey and received my results; what do I do now? 

Once you have received your survey results, review the Culture Toolkit for ideas regarding how you and your team can address each one of the culture constructs. 

Component Baseline Analysis

The Component Baseline Analysis is a perception survey that was created by the KSDE Accreditation and Design Team in partnership with Kansas MTSS and our Educational Service Centers. The purpose of the CBA is to identify district and building-level perception data in six key component areas of continuous school improvement. District level staff will respond to each item for the district only; whereas building level staff will provide their perception for their building and the district for each item.

All systems should conduct a needs assessment at the start of each improvement cycle with opportunities
for ongoing data collection and analysis built into the cycle. A robust needs assessment means that you
are examining both your quantitative and qualitative data in addition to taking stock of your current work
and gathering stakeholder feedback. The Component Baseline Analysis is one tool that you can use to
obtain perception feedback from internal, building and district-level certified staff. You can preview the
survey items here.

If you are interested in learning more about the survey and how to administer it, review our 
Administration Overview/Q&A Webinar! 

• Powerpoint
• Recording

To support you introducing the survey to staff, we are also providing you with an email template that you can copy and modify to meet the messaging needs of your system. 

Additional Resources: 

• CBA Administration Guidance 
  • The Qualtrics link for the CBA Survey is embedded in this document!
• CBA Results Guidance - Using your CBA Data
  • Sample Report 

Family Engagement Survey (KPIRC)

The Family Engagement Survey—Version 2 (FES-2; Gaumer Erickson, et al., 2022) is an online survey to inform district and building leaders about their success at engaging parents in the education of children. The survey is designed to be distributed to every student’s parent or guardian and measures success across five domains:

• Welcoming Environment
• Supporting Student Learning
• Effective Communication
• Sharing Power and Advocacy
• Community Involvement

This survey is based on the PTA National Standards for Family–School Partnerships and is a reliable and valid measurement tool (see the Overview and Instructions document linked in the resources below). The FES-2 is comprised of 20 questions, and it is quick and easy to complete online or by using a paper form if desired (see links below).

Schools administering the survey have access to survey results in real-time and may generate a variety of reports to meet their needs, such as viewing the data by student population subgroups.

School administering the survey through https://districttools.org have access to the FES- 2 in 11 languages.

You can watch the overview video here or visit the KPIRC Family Engagment Survey webpage here. 

Note, you can always email tasneval@ku.edu if you have questions or need help with the survey.