Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1505501
Assessment of needs and assets Hoover sought answers from all stakeholders: What does success for students and the school look like? What are the barriers to achieving it? What strengths — including from parents and community — can we draw on to address the chal- lenges? Through surveys and focus groups, the top three needs, by group: • Students: Working bathrooms (last year there were only 2-3 working bathrooms per gender for 2,136 students; some were closed due to maintenance, vandalism, drug usage); health, including improved food; and attendance (not just chronic absenteeism, but security and being consistent with school rules). • Parents: Academic enrichment and tutoring, mental health, opportunities for students to connect socially. • Educators: Attendance (including tardiness), mental health supports, student engagement. Mental health services and supports were also among the top needs for students and parents. Data collection: • Students: "We reached 83% of the student body through surveys and focus groups," Fite says. "We audited the information to ID those students we have no data on — such as the chronically absent. Then we created a system to engage in home visits with those students and parents to ID a unique stakeholder group who have particular needs, assets and wants." • Educators: 92% of certificated staff completed surveys. Overall, an aggregated 74.5% of classified and certificated staff participated in focus groups. • Parents: "By June 2023 we will have reached 75% of parents," says Gijon. "We started multiple focus groups in January 2023, in Spanish and English, electronic and paper surveys in six different languages. Every day at drop-off we were ask- ing 'Have you done your survey? We want your feedback.' We were also hitting all our big events, and asking community partners who have parent meetings to pass along the survey." "Because of community schools, we were able to expand Hoover Market; it gave us the infrastructure to give everyone more access. What made it meaningful is that it's infused throughout campus, it's part of our curriculum. Our lessons this month are on the connection between mental health and food, and how eating nutritious food can change your mood and decrease depression. Students are part of the transformational knowledge about how food impacts people, their health and their communities." —ELIZABETH LONNACKER, English teacher who started Hoover Market 35 A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3 "If we improve the community at large, we're improving it for everybody, including ourselves. All the things that allow for us to be community schools is a product of union fights, union wins and continued union work." —CHASE FITE, Hoover High Community Schools Site Coach