RIDE Reaches Milestone of Over 100,000 SurveyWorks Responses

Published on Friday, March 25, 2022

State sees massive gains in family, student and educator engagement through annual survey; window closes March 31st 

PROVIDENCE, RI – Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green today announced that the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) in mid-March reached a milestone of more than 100,000 responses to its annual SurveyWorks initiative that provides insight into the public school experience. More than 28,000 families, 66,000 students and 10,000 educators have shared their feedback about the state of education in our state since SurveyWorks 2022 began in January. The survey window closes March 31. In 2021, the survey garnered nearly 110,000 responses and RIDE hopes to receive even more this year. SurveyWorks covers everything from school climate and safety to educator professional learning and family engagement.  

"The tremendous response to SurveyWorks so far shows our students, families and educators are actively engaged and want their voices heard,” Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said. “We want to ride the momentum and encourage everyone to participate. SurveyWorks is an incredibly valuable resource for policymakers, communities, schools and families and will help us improve our state education system.” 

Commissioner Infante-Green praised school leaders for their creative efforts to increase participation.  

“Community engagement is at the core of our work to turnaround Providence Public Schools, and we are proud that last year PPSD received the most SurveyWorks responses from parents and guardians in our district’s history,” said Acting Superintendent Javier Montañez. “Knowing the importance of hearing directly from community members to improve the experience in our schools, we made it a priority to go out into the community. We disseminated survey information on Spanish language radio stations, at supermarkets, community centers, and other places frequented by the families we serve, and we are working to replicate these efforts to ensure another successful year.” 

In East Providence, Silver Spring Elementary students chose prizes for when they reached certain response rates. 

“We’re fortunate enough that over the past couple of years, we’ve made significant gains in our RICAS scores, and I attribute it to using the data that we get from SurveyWorks from our families, from our parents, from our kids, to be able to take it to our teachers, to our school improvement team and make changes in instruction, in the way our building runs daily,” said Brian Gilmore, principal of Birchwood Middle School in North Providence. “It’s not an arduous task. It’s something, if you use it the right way, that will be extremely beneficial to your community.”  

 

“We talk about it with our parents during parent engagement nights,” said Cranston West Assistant Principal Christopher Coleman. “When they come in, we give them that data. We want to make sure their voices aren’t just being calculated to do the survey, but they’re really listened to. We plan around that. The feedback that we get is extremely important.” 

2021 SurveyWorks results revealed a consistent theme of respect and sense of belonging amongst all stakeholder groups, while also detailing areas where the education community can focus, including on diversity and cultural awareness. As a result, Rhode Island’s Strategic Plan for PK-12 Education 2022-2027 includes commitments and measurable goals in these areas. 

 

To take the survey or to view your school's or district's full results, visit surveyworks.ride.ri.gov. Join the conversation and encourage your school community to participate using the hashtag #SurveyWorks.