As you will remember, in late Nov. 2018, Iowa’s AEAs invited educators across the state to provide feedback on the services provided by Iowa’s AEAs. Hanover Research, a global research firm, administered the survey and has now provided the results to our AEAs. According to Hanover, the survey has less than a 2% margin of error, indicating they expect the results to be within 1 to 2% of what they would be had we surveyed the entire target population.
The Details
Statewide, over 8,000 responses were received from general education teachers, special education teachers, superintendents, principals and other professional staff working in more than 300 public school districts and 100 accredited, non-public schools. Over 95% of the respondents work in public schools across the state. In the Heartland AEA service area, 1,116 stakeholders from our 53 public school districts and 30 accredited, non-public schools completed the survey.
The Results
Key findings from the data revealed that our customers are pleased with AEA services overall. Some services received well over 90% customer satisfaction rates, including audiology/hearing, due-process mediation, licensure, audio/video production and graphic design. Two areas of growth indicated by the survey both statewide and locally were behavioral services and mental health services, which we know are growing concerns in schools statewide.
I encourage you to read the Iowa's AEAs Hanover Survey Executive Summary, as it is an easily digestible summary of the rationale for the survey, a breakdown of the respondents and the statewide findings. Our intent at the statewide AEA level was to see how familiar educators are with the services we provide and to see how well those services met the expectations of those who use them. We were able to look at how both familiarity and satisfaction data differed by district size and as well as by respondent demographics.
You will have an opportunity to look at highlights from the statewide and Heartland AEA data sets at upcoming regional and Central Support meetings, but I want to summarize them quickly from my perspective.
We Have a Lot to Celebrate
First and foremost, Heartland AEA and Iowa’s AEA system as a whole have a lot to celebrate in these findings. The 1,116 Heartland AEA area respondents are largely familiar with and satisfied with the services we make available to districts. In general, respondents in smaller districts have greater familiarity with more services than do those of larger districts, though the margin is small. Heartland AEA’s survey data is very consistent with that of the statewide data when it comes to both familiarity and satisfaction. Those positive results are a credit to the many excellent, hardworking people we have here at Heartland AEA.
The second quick takeaway I have is that our state AEA system is on track with the new priorities we’ve established. The two areas where respondents were more likely to rate services below meeting expectation are mental health supports and behavior supports. It’s important to note here, though, that even in these service areas, we see 75 to 80% of respondents stating that our services meet or exceed expectations. Given the overall condition of children’s mental health in Iowa, I would consider that data to be a very encouraging starting place, and that’s a credit to the AEA staff who have worked and will continue to work to help schools and families dealing with the growing issues related to mental health and challenging behavior.
So stay tuned for an opportunity during our spring meetings to dive a little deeper into the survey results. Let’s hope the sun is shining a little brighter by then!
Thanks for all you do,
Jon
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