District Evaluates and Improves Summer School Programming (2024)

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• Case Study
• Lake Washington School District

The Challange

Lake Washington School District (LWSD) partnered with Hanover Research in 2012 to expand its internal research and program development capacity. They used Hanover’s survey capabilities to gather qualitative feedback from district stakeholders and identify best practices in curriculum implementation. LWSD used Hanover’s research insights to evaluate and update its summer school programming.

Administrators at LWSD strive to apply best practices from the K-12 landscape within their district and see Hanover as a resource to achieve this goal. Hanover’s research in K-12 education is shared with LWSD’s school board, administrators, teachers, and parents to lend credibility to the district’s strategic work.

“We capitalize on the research arm of Hanover to analyze our programs, which enables our team to devote their expertise, time, and resources into making the research-driven changes that will help our students.”

Matt Manobianco
Associate Superintendent for Student & Professional Learning Services

The Solution: Summer School Program Evaluation

As a specific research goal, LWSD administrators sought to make concrete and data-driven adjustments to their upcoming year’s summer school programming. Matt Manobianco, Associate Superintendent for Student & Professional Learning Services, looked to Hanover to design, administer, and analyze a survey of students, teachers, and parents who participated in the district’s 2013 Summer School Program. Matt and his team had assumptions that communication about summer school and service delivery could be enhanced. Hanover’s report validated these assumptions and provided recommendations for program improvement. By performing a pre-and post-test to gather feedback about the Summer School Program year-over-year, the district can see the degree of impact these changes are having on summer school student success.

Summer: Design

Hanover analysts developed a survey to uncover strategies to improve LWSD’s summer school service.

Summer: Administer

LWSD fielded the survey to summer school students, teachers, and parents directly following the session.

Fall: Analyze

Hanover analyzed survey responses and developed a report outlining key data trends and areas for future improvement.

Winter: Evaluate

LWSD updated its communications and parent outreach schedule following stakeholder requests from the survey results.

Summer: Impact

Hanover conducted an impact survey to students, parents, and teachers to determine the effects of these changes on the summer school experience.

The Outcome

“We saw value in having Hanover as a quick turnaround research partner, allowing us to get immediate feedback, analyze the results, and immediately incorporate these findings into the next school year.”

Matt Manobianco
Associate Superintendent for Student & Professional Learning Services

The district’s Summer School Program generated a different student, parent, and teacher experience by implementing changes directed by the previous year’s feedback.

By partnering with Hanover Research, Lake Washington School District:

• Increased the timeliness of parent communications regarding the Summer School Program;

• Ensured that summer school teachers had the current district-adopted instructional materials and resources they needed to maximize student success; and

• Plans to review attendance policies that may harm summer school student success rates.

Further, Lake Washington School District will continue its research partnership with Hanover Research to focus on developing new curriculum frameworks and enhancing the district’s pathways for STEM education.

“Lake Washington’s partnership with Hanover Research has strengthened the credibility of our district’s strategic work.”

Matt Manobianco
Associate Superintendent for Student & Professional Learning Services