SUN recently sent a Stapleton-wide survey out to residents to gauge their feel for several topics including satisfaction with Stapleton living, the co-op, and sports facilities needs. A large portion of the survey was dedicated to learning the preferences for types of elementary and junior high schools, as it is inevitable Stapleton will have to add one of each in the upcoming years. “One of our main things is helping communicate the interests and opinions of Stapletonians to Forest City and the City and County of Denver,” said SUN President Mike Victoria. “We know Stapleton can be an opinionated community, so we want to share those opinions, and understand issues where there is a strong consensus. Of course, the people we disseminate that information to don’t always listen to us.”
The school questions in the active survey ask respondents to rank in order their preference in type of school for each elementary and junior high. The responses included Montessori, Language Immersion, Core Knowledge, Expeditionary, Arts Focused, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, Traditional DPS, International Baccalaureate, Highly Gifted and Talented and Experiential Education. Of course, the main point of the study is to gather this information, process it, and pass it along to the necessary parties. However, SUN is also hoping to gather more data to understand respondents’ knowledge of the focus and scope of each style of school.
“We know people have these knee-jerk impressions of each of the types of schools we listed in the survey,” says Victoria. “But, how much do they really know? Our follow up test will be to see if people who had preferences even understand why they have that preference. It will be a simple test where there will be multiple choice questions about a teaching situation and what school best fits that, as well as matching descriptions with the appropriate school.” Victoria said the information will be used to validate or invalidate the previously acquired data. To take the recent SUN survey, please click here.]]>