NORWALK, Conn. — Parents and guardians of Norwalk Public Schools students have through this Friday, March 28, to make their voices heard by completing the 2024-25 Panorama Family Survey.
“It is a school climate survey, and it is a requirement of the State of Connecticut that districts do a climate survey for families, students, and staff,” said Norwalk schools Director of Testing and Accountability Diane Filardo.
According to Filardo, the 24-question family survey takes about 20 minutes to complete.
“The purpose [of the survey] is to help districts understand and act on information about perceptions of the school environment,” she added. “The big question we try to answer is, does the social and educational environment create a positive setting in the school?”
Families can take the survey, which is unique to their child’s school, on their child’s school’s website, which may be accessed at norwalkps.org.
The survey, which is completed anonymously, can be accessed via a link on each school’s website on the ‘For Families’ page under ‘Quick Links.’
The family survey can be taken in “quite a few” different languages, according to Filardo.
“For us, obviously, English, Spanish and Haitian Creole are our dominant [languages],” she said.
The “vast majority” of the questions are multiple choice, said Filardo, with topics including school communications and climate.
“There is a section where we ask families to talk about school communications—how understandable they are in terms of both communication from the school, from the district,” she said.
“There is also a set of questions on school climate; for example, ‘To what extent do you think children enjoy going to your child’s school?’” said Filardo.
In 2024, 78 percent of 2,722 families surveyed responded favorably to that question, a four percent increase over 2023.
Another question asks, “How motivating are the classroom lessons at your child’s school?”
According to 2024 survey results, 69 percent of families responded favorably to that question, a five percent increase from 2023.
The multiple-choice options for that question included extremely motivating, quite motivating, somewhat motivating, slightly motivating, or not at all motivating.
Students and staff are also annually surveyed regarding their perceptions of school climate.
“Students take two surveys—one is the social-emotional learning survey, which takes about 10 minutes, and then the school survey, which takes about 30 minutes,” Filardo explained. “We survey every student in grades 3 through 12. Many of the questions are repeated, but some of them, the wording might change slightly, so there is a version of both surveys for students in grades 3-5 and then there is another version for students in grades 6-12.”
Filardo noted that the overall survey results—which will be reported publicly at a Board of Education meeting later this spring—are tied to the district’s strategic priorities.
“If you think about our strategic priorities—equity, excellence, engagement—really this survey helps with the equity because we hear a voice from all stakeholders regardless of dominant language,” said Filardo.
“And engagement is one of the areas where we actually have a set of perception questions for our students—so it’s very well tied to our strategic priorities,” she added.
In addition, “The school improvement plan always has a goal set around school climate, and the measures that we use are the measures from Panorama,” said Filardo.
Panorama Education, which provides survey technology, has a national reach, as it “support[s] over 15 million students in 25,000 schools, 2,000 districts, and 50 states,” according to its website.
“We have been using Panorama now since … the first time we gave it was right before the pandemic in 2020,” said Filardo, adding the district has had a positive experience with the platform.
When the deadline to fill out the survey comes and goes later this week, Norwalk school officials hope at least 40 percent of families complete one.
“There have been some years where we have gone over that, but the past two years, we have been around 30 percent,” said Filardo.
“What we are looking for from students is, we want 80 percent participation—that means in both surveys, the social-emotional learning survey and the school one,” she said. “The goal for students and staff is 80 percent participation at the minimum; we have gotten very, very close to that and sometimes over that.”
Filardo said the district has kept survey content consistent over the past four years “because this is the way we can pick up on trends very easily,” she explained.
“We have seen positive trends in growth mindset for our students, in sense of belonging for our students, in rigorous expectations for our students,” said Filardo. “And we are very proud of the increase in staff/leadership relations—we have seen a big spike there—so relationships are getting more positive. Also, school communications have improved.”
If parents have more than one student in more than one school, the district strongly encourages them to fill out a survey for both students/schools.
“If they have one student in elementary and one in high school, their answers may be different,” she observed.
Superintendent of Norwalk Public Schools, Dr. Alexandra Estrella, explained how invaluable the data gathered from surveying families, students, and staff is.
“Building strong partnerships with our families, students, and staff is essential to creating inclusive, supportive, and positive school cultures where everyone can succeed,” she said.
“The feedback gathered from the Panorama survey will allow us to better understand their experiences, identify strengths, and address areas for growth. Norwalk Public Schools is committed to continuously improving our schools to ensure student success, staff well-being, and a welcoming environment for all,” Estrella concluded.
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