Identify your research topic.

Your very first step in conducting focus group research is to identify what you want to find out. (We presume you've already decided where you want to concentrate your effort – in an individual school, in a cluster of schools, or in an entire district.) Suggestions for your focus group topic can come from the school board or site-based council, the superintendent, your consolidated plan, school administrators, teachers, students, or parents. In Jessamine County, for example, Superintendent Linda France wanted to find out how students felt and thought about their schools' learning climate and about the possibility of having a uniformed safety officer in every school building. Superintendent France wanted this information as one source for helping the school board decide how to respond to a recommendation from a school-community task force regarding school safety measures. The task force had recommended that the school board place a uniformed safety officer in each school. Before implementing such a measure, Superintendent France wanted to learn the views of those who would be most directly affected – the students.

When considering a topic, bear in mind how you might use the results. In Jessamine County, Superintendent France intended to use the focus group results to provide additional information to school board members as they considered ways to improve school safety. (See Appendix C for a list of all focus group topics addressed by students in Kentucky.)

Next: Form a work team.