Cate Reed, current Senior Vice President of Teach For America and Possip Reporter with experience in school administration, introduces how the new Possip Speed Read was designed to give busy leaders the information they most need.
At Possip, our motto is: “Build Stronger Schools Through Feedback”. We view constructive feedback as a gift. It allows us to improve and, in the case of Possip, serve our partners even better. We believe deeply in the power of listening. To that end, we routinely step back and ask our partners how we can more effectively serve them. So, they in turn can best serve their families and communities.
We are thrilled to announce that we are rolling out a new feature in our reports for schools, the “Speed Read”.
Introducing: The Speed Read
Now found at the top of every school report, the Speed Read serves as an executive summary. It will quickly orient you to the most important information that Possip reporters gleaned from your school’s recent Pulse Check.
The new Speed Read includes:
- # of families heard from
- 2-5 points of praise trends so you can see what is working for families right now
- 2-5 points of feedback trends for you to best understand what is most top of mind as families are experiencing your school
- 2-5 resources that are aligned to those feedback trends
- If applicable, a bonus question analysis that restates the question for your convenience and then summarizes the responses submitted
What won’t change?
- You will have access to all of your data – the rest of the report continues after the new Speed Read section.
- We will continue to elevate feedback that needs immediate attention or follow-up, so you will not miss it.
- Our team will ensure that what you read feels actionable and realistic given all we know about the volume of things you need to manage on a given day, week, and month.
Here is a sample of what you will see:
What inspired the Speed Read?
After talking to partners over the past few months, we heard a few common themes, regardless of the size of the school or how often they send Pulse Checks to their community:
- Time is of the essence. Administrators have limited time to read long and extensive reports, especially when they might receive hundreds of families’ responses in a given week.
- Headlines matter. Sometimes there is a specific family response that needs immediate follow-up. It is equally as important to know the headlines that are on the minds of the greatest number of families so schools can react accordingly.
- Aligned resources are critical. Presenting ideas and tools that align with the headlines of our reports gives school leaders a quick and effective way to take action if they choose–and can serve as a springboard to planning their teams’ next step.
As our #PossipPartners know, every time they send a Pulse Check to their community, we collect the responses and prepare a report summarizing the data, highlighting key topics, and bringing to the forefront “hot” issues or comments that need to be addressed immediately. Our reports include the actual comments themselves and can be relatively lengthy based on the amount of responses collected.
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With our new format, we are reducing the time school leaders need to spend to get to the main idea of their report, without sacrificing the breadth and depth of the feedback stakeholders shared.
Cate Reed, Possip Reporter and Writer shared,
“As a current reporter, I can say that the Speed Read lets me get into the meat of what I am reviewing within a school’s Pulse Check responses. I can focus my time on what I am seeing on a deeper level, as I analyze the parent’s comments and sentiments without getting bogged down in the details. In addition, I appreciate that I am still able to elevate places where families need immediate attention. I know that is incredibly important to school leaders.”
Fellow reporter, Lauren Rayburn shared her mutual enthusiasm,
“I LOVE the new direction! I think it’s “Work Smarter, Not Harder” (for everyone! School leaders AND Possip Reporters!)…. I just wanted to say GREAT WORK! It got my efficient and effective communicator heart pumping with excitement!”
One of our partner district administrators in Colorado commented,
Summary: She found the Speed Read helpful to get a quick pulse on the 12 schools in her district and how to support her teams. She found the Speed Read helpful in her meetings with vice principals that week and even asked if we would consider adding the feature to our district level reports!
We hope you enjoy the new Speed Read feature, and, as always, we welcome your feedback on our new approach!
