Roberts & Kay, Inc. -- Jessamine County Public Schools

Jessamine County Public Schools

Fall, 1998

For the Jessamine County School System and the Partnership for Kentucky Schools, we managed and guided 13 focus groups with Jessamine County students on the topic of school climate and school safety. We also worked directly with Jessamine County educators, students, and parents on developing the skills necessary for them to conduct future inquiry efforts in their schools.

The purpose of this research was twofold. First, we wanted to discover students' views on school climate and school safety in order to assist the Jessamine County School Board in its deliberations over instituting certain school safety measures. Second, we sought to use our work in Jessamine County as a pilot effort for the Partnership's new Expect More, Achieve More strategic plan. With this project, the Jessamine County school community became the first school system in Kentucky to engage its own students and educators in conducting professional quality research on school-related topics. RKI gathered the lessons learned from the Jessamine County effort into a Toolkit that assists other school communities in replicating this type of student inquiry effort.

RKI worked closely with Jessamine County Superintendent of Schools Linda France on the design and implementation of the student focus groups. Superintendent France and RKI involved a cross-section of the Jessamine County school community in planning and carrying out the research so that people in Jessamine County would have the knowledge and skills to conduct future research on their own. Superintendent France created a Design Team that included Jessamine County students, educators, parents, and members of school councils. Superintendent France served as Design Team leader. The Design Team met three times and provided guidance on research focus, research and interview questions, sample size and construction, and facilitator recruitment.

The Design Team focused the research on these four important questions regarding school climate and school safety:

What are Jessamine County School students' perceptions about school?
Do students think of themselves as valued members of the school community?
How safe do Jessamine County School students feel at school?
How would the presence of uniformed safety officers affect students' views of their school?

On the basis of the Design Team's recommendations, we included students from every public school in Jessamine County in the study. In each of the five elementary schools, one randomly-selected group composed of fourth and fifth graders (both male and female) took place. RKI trained school counselors to facilitate these groups, in the belief that elementary school students would be most comfortable talking with an adult whom they already knew and trusted. (This was our first work with elementary school students, and the smashing success of the groups has opened many exciting possibilities for the future!)

Two randomly-selected groups took place in each middle school – one group of males and one group of females. RKI trained high school students to facilitate these groups, for two reasons. First, the researchers and the Design Team intended to reduce the participants' natural inhibitions about expressing their views and create more freedom of expression than might have been possible if adults had conducted the groups. Second, the researchers and the research sponsors wanted high school students to develop facilitation skills so that they could design and lead future meaningful conversations in Jessamine County schools.

Two randomly-selected groups took place in each high school – one group of males and one group of females. RKI Research Analyst Kristin Houlé and a trained college student facilitated these groups.

RKI analyzed the results from the focus groups and prepared a summary report, which we presented to the Jessamine County School Board.

School Year 1999-2000

In 1999-2000, Jessamine County Schools conducted a second round of student focus group research in all schools on the topic of students' perceptions of the work they do for school. Superintendent Linda France again led this research effort, with school guidance counselors and administrators taking responsibility for carrying out the work in their individual schools. Using the Turn Up the Volume Toolkit as a guide, and relying on their experiences from the previous year, Jessamine County Schools managed their own effort from start to finish. The team designed the research and interview questions, recruited students, ran the groups, analyzed the results, and wrote reports (one for each school and one for the district as a whole). RKI provided the team with some assistance in identifying the research question at the beginning and then again as the analysis phase began.

Visit other descriptions of our work in the area of school improvement.

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