Additional Survey Participant Information

Purpose

You are invited to participate in a survey of students, faculty, staff, and administrators regarding the environment for learning and working at Crown Family School. Climate refers to the current attitudes, behaviors, and standards of employees and students concerning the access for, inclusion of, and level of respect for, individual and group needs, abilities, and potential. Your responses will inform the School about the current climate at Crown Family School by providing specific information about how the environment for learning and working at Crown Family School can be improved.

Procedures

  • You will be asked to complete an online survey that will take between 20 and 30 minutes to complete.
  • The survey needs to be completed in one sitting. Because no identifying information is being recorded, if you close your browser, you will lose any responses you previously entered. If you use the “back” button to change previous answers, you may have to re-answer questions.
  • Your participation is confidential. You will not be asked to provide any personally identifying information – not your name, university identification number or any other identifier.
  • The survey results will be submitted directly to a secure off-campus server hosted by and accessible to only the external consultants (Rankin & Associates).
  • Any computer identification (e.g., IP address) that might identify participants is deleted from the submissions. Any comments that participants provide are also separated at submission so that comments are not attributed to any individual demographic subgroup. These comments will be analyzed using content analysis. Anonymous quotes from submitted comments will be used throughout the final report to give “voice” to the quantitative data.
  • Please answer the questions as openly and honestly as possible. You may skip questions that you would prefer not to answer. And, you can withdraw your participation by simply closing the survey before you submit it at the end.
  • Definitions for key terms are available throughout the survey by hovering over or clicking on underlined words.

Discomforts and Risks

No risks are anticipated by participating in this assessment beyond those experienced in everyday life. Some of the questions are personal and might cause discomfort. In the event that any questions asked cause you discomfort, you may skip those questions or stop responding to the survey at any time. If you experience any discomfort in responding to the survey and would like to speak with someone, please consider contacting one of the resources available here.

Benefits

The results of the survey will provide important information about our School’s climate and will help us in our efforts to ensure that the environment at Crown Family School is conducive to learning, living, and working.

Voluntary Participation

Participation in this assessment is voluntary. If you decide to participate, you do not have to answer any questions on the survey that you do not wish to answer. Individuals will not be identified and only group data will be reported (i.e., the analysis will include only aggregate data). Please note that you can choose to withdraw your responses at any time before you submit your answers. Refusal to take part in this assessment will involve no penalty or loss of student or employee benefits.

Statement of Confidentiality for Participation

In the event of any presentation resulting from the assessment, no personally identifiable information will be shared. Your confidentiality in participating will be kept to the degree permitted by the technology used (e.g., IP addresses, longitudinal/latitudinal data is never recorded by R&A systems). The survey is run on a firewalled web server with forced 256-bit SSL security. In addition, the external consultant (Rankin & Associates) will not report any group data for groups of fewer than five individuals, which may be small enough to compromise confidentiality. Instead, Rankin & Associates will combine the groups to eliminate any potential identifiable demographic information. Please also remember that you do not have to answer any question or questions about which you are uncomfortable. The survey was deemed “non regulated human subjects research” by the Crown Family School Institutional Review Board because the information will be used for internal strategic decision making.

Statement of Anonymity for Comments

Upon submission, all comments from participants will be de-identified to make those comments anonymous. Thus, participant comments will not be attributable to their author. However, depending on what you say, others who know you may be able to attribute certain comments to you. In instances where certain comments might be attributable to an individual, Rankin & Associates will make every effort to de-identify those comments or will remove the comments from the analyses. The anonymous comments will be analyzed using content analysis. In order to give “voice” to the quantitative data, some anonymous comments may be quoted in reports related to this survey.

Right to Ask Questions

You can ask questions about this assessment in confidence. Questions concerning this project should be directed to:

Daniel Merson, PhD
Director of Data Analytics & Executive Associate
Rankin & Associates Consulting, LLC
323.454.3232

Questions regarding the survey process may also be directed to:

Climate Study Working Group Co-Chairs:

S Simmons
Assistant Instructional Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
773.702.1420

Susan J. Lambert
Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
773.702.1143