By Ketki Chauhan ‘16

The results of the fall 2013 Gallup student and staff surveys were recently posted on the MCPS web page. Sherwood ranked highly among the student surveys for high schools, but dropped down the list on staff surveys.

The Gallup survey measures the hope, engagement and well-being of students based on a set of questions in which students select a rating from one to five depending on how they agree with the statement. The same procedure is done for the staff engagement survey.

Principal Bill Gregory noted that he is less interested in where Sherwood ranks among other county high schools, than whether or not Sherwood has improved from the previous year. “The focus is on Sherwood to Sherwood from year to year versus Sherwood to other schools,” said Gregory.

Gregory believes that, for the most part, students feel proud of being at Sherwood, although more needs to be done in recognition and celebration for both students and staff. One way to combat a lack of recognition, which Gregory feels is the root of some scores that Sherwood received, is through the implementation of an advisory period.

“If you know your homeroom teacher and you work with that homeroom teacher for four years, you develop a relationship,” said Gregory, who believes those types of connections are important for a school. “That connection draws us into our life, which is Sherwood.”

For most questions on the student survey, Sherwood ranked in the top ten among the 25 high schools in MCPS. However, when asked whether teachers made students feel like their schoolwork was important, Sherwood’s ranking dropped out of the top ten.

To explore this matter, Gregory suggested that the new student government or organizations like Newspaper and National Honor Society should conduct a survey or create a focus group in order to get students to talk about the issue. “I’d like to hear from students about why they feel that way, and what is it that isn’t happening but should happen,” he said.

The results of the survey also showed that Sherwood ranked considerably lower on the staff surveys compared to the student surveys. Social studies teacher Katie Jaffe, one of the two staff representatives on Sherwood’s Instructional Leadership Team, believes that Sherwood needs to first look at the staff engagement data.

“One thing that is great about the positives is the individual teachers when they deal one-on-one with their work in the classroom, their data was quite high,” said Jaffe. “The big negative is the lack of recognition.”

To Jaffe, the Gallup survey illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of Sherwood and is something to focus on. For example, she pointed to Sherwood’s need for recognition. “I think we need to realize we need to do better with that next year and put something into place that would allow that to happen.”

Gregory and other principals across the county are not evaluated based on surveys; instead, they are evaluated on the results of a plan put into place to solve whatever shortcomings about a school that may have been revealed by the survey. The Gallup survey is conducted at the beginning of each school year, and is used to collect data on students’ opinions about school, with the purpose of being able to improve the learning environment.