GSA School Culture Survey
The Importance of School Culture
If you are like many school leaders, you probably focus much more on teaching and learning than your school culture. Of course, this is natural given that you are in the business of teaching and learning.
However, time and time again education experts tell us that a positive school culture is one of the most critical factors in creating a great school. Consider what recognised US education expert Thomas J Sergiovanni says about the answer to a successful school:
“Most successful school leaders will tell you…its getting the culture right.” [The Lifeworld of Leadership]
More evidence for the importance of your school culture is outlined below. For the moment, what’s important to recognise is that you don’t need to focus on school culture instead of teaching and learning - you need to focus on both. In fact, if you improve your school culture, you will automatically enhance the school’s teaching and learning.
About the School Culture Survey
In order to assist you to get some feedback on your school’s culture, we have developed our Great School Culture Survey.
The survey consists of 20 questions and will take you about 5 minutes to complete.
To get full value from this survey, you need to be totally honest with your answers. Keep in mind that no leader or organisation is perfect and that your aim here is to get a reflection of your position NOT to feel comfortable that everything is rosy.
We also STRONGLY recommend that you invite other members of staff, parents and students to anonymously complete the survey.
The Significance of Your GSA School Survey Score
No school (or any organisation) ever stays the same. At any given moment, you are either moving towards greatness or away from it. There is also never any limit to how you can improve as an organisation and how you can improve your school culture.
What is far more significant than your actual score at any moment is what direction your school is headed in.
Accordingly, we recommend that you use this survey not as a snapshot of your situation but as a guide to how your school changes over time.
One way to do this is to take the survey now and then diarise to do it again later in 3, 6 or 12 months time. If you like this idea, you may want to diarise now when you will take the survey again. (There is no limit to the number of times each school can take the survey.)
What If You’re a Parent or Student?
The survey has been developed bearing in mind the idea that it will not only be taken by school staff but also parents and students.
However, as a parent or student, your knowledge of the school will not be as deep as the school leaders and staff. You should nonetheless answer the survey based on your impressions. Should you find a question where you have absolutely no sense of the correct answer, we recommend that you answer ‘3′.
Confidentiality
Your results are kept strictly confidential; however, should you still be concerned about security, feel free to submit the assessment without providing your name or email address.
How Accurate Is the GSA School Culture Survey?
The survey has been developed with combined input from a number of authoritative resources on school culture (see below).
However, the very nature of culture is that it is not given to exact measurement. Accordingly, we suggest that you use the survey as a guide only. We again emphasise that what is far more important than your current situation and score is your movement over time.
Resources on Which the GSA School Culture Survey Has Been Based
Deal, T.D. & Peterson, K.D. (1998). Shaping school culture: The heart of leadership. Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Butler, J.A. & Dickson, K.M. (1984). Improving school culture - Centennial high school. http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/1/snap2.html
Rosenholtz, S.J. (1991). Teachers’ workplace: The social organization of schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
Center for Improving School Culture (www.schoolculture.net)
Boyd, V. (1992). The school culture. School Context: Bridge or Barrier? Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.http://www.sedl.org/change/school/culture.html
Stolp, S. (1994). Leadership for school culture. ERIC Digest 91. http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/digests/digest091.html
Richardson, J. (2001) Shared culture: A consensus of individual values. http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/results/res5-01rich.cfm
Richardson, J. (1999) Harness the potential of staff meetings.: http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools10-99rich.cfm
Saphier, J. & King, M. (1998) Good Seeds Grow in Strong Cultures: Student learning grows in professional cultures. http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/8-98lead.cfm
More Evidence on the Importance of School Culture
If it were needed, here’s 2 more quotes from recognised leaders in education:
‘It is the cultural change that supports the teaching- learning process which leads to enhanced outcomes for students. The more leadership understands about school culture and their roles in shaping it, the better equipped they will be to avoid the common pitfalls of change and reform.’ Deal and Peterson, The Principal’s Role in Shaping School Culture. Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Washington, D.C.
“…other researchers have developed impressive empirical evidence to suggest that the mediating variable, school culture, can make a school a place in which teachers feel positive about their work and students are motivated to learn. A positive school culture is associated with higher student motivation and achievement, improved teacher collaboration and improved attitudes of teachers toward their job. [Leadership behaviour of secondary school principals, teacher outcomes and school culture, Kerry Barnett, John McCormick, Robert Conners. School of Education, University of New South Wales, in A Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Sydney, 4 December - 7 December 2000; references excluded]
If you have any suggestions for how we can improve this survey, please contact us.
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