End of Year Evaluations (Parent Survey)

I had my parents fill out and "End of the Year Survey" on their views of the Flipped Classroom.   

Notes: I received 123 responses out of my 178 parents.  Almost all of the missing surveys were from my Algebra 1 classes (about 10-15 per class missing out of 34-37 students).  

Issues or problems I saw with this survey:

• It was sent via a Google Form via Edmodo, so I do have a small inkling that some students filled it out instead of their parents.  
• Some parents surprisingly had no idea that their students were doing something different this year, so their answers very much aligned with their students attitudes from the year.  All of the parents with negative attitudes came from students who have had negative attitudes.
• I probably should have had this survey translated into Spanish because many of my parents don't read or speak English...some of their responses very clearly show they didn't know what the question was asking.

The following questions ask parents about their involvement in the Flipped Classroom. 

I am actually pretty happy with these results considering I started this in the middle of the year and don't feel I did that great of a job communicating the changes besides the letter I sent home... since I didn't know exactly what it was going to look like it was somewhat hard to communicate all the changes that were going on.  I am surprised (especially with technology these days) that some parents felt they were not informed at all...and these are the same parents who answered the question below about communicating with me any questions they have "never".  To a certain extent, I feel like I just need to do my best communicating the changes - next year I am planning on a letter, a short video, and then talking about it at Back To School Night.  For the parents who won't take the time to read the letter, watch the video, or come to Back To School Night... well, there's not much I can do!

 

Pretty good results. Out of the 13 rarely/never, only 3 were from Algebra 1. 

Out of the 12 frequently/always, only 2 were from Math Analysis.  I'm actually pleasantly surprised there were some parents who did watch them with the students.  This question alerted me to the fact that these survey results may not be 100% accurate - I had a parent say she 'NEVER' saw her student watching a video, but she 'FREQUENTLY' sat down and watched them with her student.  Maybe I should have had this survey translated into Spanish...

This refers to what I started doing the last month of school where students had to call home at the beginning of class during the WSQ chats if they didn't have their WSQs complete.  I had one parent comment that I should start that from the beginning of the school year.

 

I think this will improve next year once I show parents what they can do to help support their students at the beginning of the year (through a video showing it, not just a letter where they must read it).  This is such an easy way for parents to get involved in their students' education and stay on top of their work.  Every year I am more surprised when parents are not aware of what is going on in their child's classes when all of our grades are online and they can communicate with teachers online...they don't have to try to get ahold of the teacher on the phone at the right time to communicate with them.

The following questions ask parents about the affect they feel the Flipped Classroom had on their child.

75% of my parents think that the Flipped Classroom had a positive effect on student achievement... I'm liking that for the first year!  I think next year when I have my head wrapped around it a little more I will see even better results.  With all the changes I implemented this year, I think I did make it a little hard on the kids because they crave consistency.  So, even though the Flipped Classroom will be a huge change for them, it will be a consistent change (meaning they won't have to keep getting used to new things!).  On a side note, like I mentioned above, the 8 "very negative/negative" comments all came from students who never really came around for a variety of reasons (mostly not liking to take responsibility for their learning and wanting to be spoon fed).  Oddly enough, the parent one student who failed Algebra 1 last year and was actually passing this year with a C said the FC had a "negative" impact on her achievement... another reason why I am questioning the full validity of these responses :)

I'm happy with these results as well, for the most part.  Like the question above, the VN/N responses all came from parents whose children didn't like the FC and never came around.  So, of course they didn't enjoy class!  For well over half (61%) of the parents to say the FC had a Postive/Very Positive effect on their child's enjoyment of math tells me that it does make a difference - and not just in the numbers!

More results I'm happy to see :).  While I can see the numbers and do all my data analysis, having students feel more confident in math because of the FC is HUGE!

And, more results I'm happy to see.  I have to remind myself that the FC is not going to reach every kid, but it sure reaches more than my traditional class!  It's easy to get caught up in the 10-15 kids (10%) who just have bad attitudes and don't come around... but why not focus on the 90% that it is doing amazing things for?!!??!

The following are comments from parents about the Flipped Classroom in general:

• It is great for the students to see and students can learn at their own pace.
• I think the concept of the flipped class is a good one. My son is constantly watching these videos, although at first I did not realize he was doing his homework!  
• My suggestion for next year it to keep the online WSQ since it really forces students to watch the videos and pay attention to what is being watched.