If your school does not have a report, it is because not enough students, parents/guardians, or teachers completed the survey. At least 25% of students and teachers and 10% of parents/guardians must have completed the survey in order for their data to appear in a report. If none of these minimum rates were reached, a school will not have a report.

The response rate thresholds are applied to each year’s data. A missing dot on a line graph means that the minimum number of respondents did not respond to that topic in that year.

When response rate thresholds are not met or a specific subtopic or question is not relevant for a particular school, you may see “i.s.” (insufficient sample) or “insufficient data” in the report. Common reasons why some subtopics and questions are not relevant for some schools include that:

• The student survey is for grades 3-12 only.
• Some student survey questions (e.g. those related to Bullying or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) are only for grades 6-12 students.
• Charter schools do not participate in the support staff survey.
• Some Charter and alternative schools do not participate in the teacher and/or parent/guardian surveys.
• Some questions (e.g. Professional Capacity questions related to District-led professional development) are not shown to Charter and alternative schools.

The minimum response rate for students and teachers is 25% and for parents/guardians, it is 10%. For topics that include more than one respondent group, at least two of those groups must meet their threshold in order for schools to get an overall score for that topic. For example, the Family Engagement topic score includes both parent/guardian and teacher responses, so both groups must meet the minimum response rate in order for a school to get that topic score.

For teachers, we calculate response rates based on the number of active teachers at each school as of May 1. Sometimes teachers who are on extended leave complete the survey if they still have access to their employee portal, and some teachers respond earlier in the survey window and then leave the school. Both these situations could result in a response rate over 100%.

For students, we calculate response rates based on the number of enrolled students in grades 3-12 at each school as of May 1. If a student completes the survey while enrolled at your school and then moves to a different school, their response will still count for your school. In some situations, it is possible for a school to have more responses than students enrolled on May 1.

For parents/guardians, survey response rates are estimated by taking the total number of valid surveys received for the school (or Network, sector, etc.) and dividing by the total number of households with K-12 students in the school (or Network, sector, etc.). While families were encouraged to submit just one survey per household, some do submit more than one; for this reason, it is possible for some schools to have a response rate greater than 100%.

Each response option for each question is given a numeric value, with the most positive response option getting the highest and the least positive response option the lowest. Next, the numeric responses for all the questions in a subtopic or topic are averaged. Then, the averages are converted to a 1-10 scale. A subtopic or topic score of 10 means that all respondents selected the most positive response options for all the questions in the subtopic or topic.

Not all respondent groups are asked questions that align to each of the five topics. If this is the case, “N/A” (not applicable) or “-” appears in place of a topic score or subtopic score.

The response rate thresholds are applied to each topic. A missing dot on the radar plot means that the minimum number of respondents did not respond to that topic in that year.

Email us at schoolsurveys@philasd.org. We’re happy to help!