School Calendar Study

Prepared for Montgomery County Public Schools

Jul y 2018 PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

Introduction ……………………………………… 3 Methodology ………………………….………… 5 Sample ……………………………………………… 10 Results ……………………………………………… 13-16 State-Mandated Closures ……………… 13 District Policy Awareness ……………… 14 Attendance if Closed ……………………… 15 Importance of Closure …………………… 16 Questions …………………………………………. 17

2 HANOVER RESEARCH Who We Are

Hanover’s Partnership Approach . Hanover provides K-12 clients with access to customized research that districts can use to inform their decisions. . Our analysis can include data analytics, survey design, administration, and analysis, peer benchmarking, and best-practices research. . Hanover offers this access to district leaders for a fixed, annual fee. This provides budget visibility and creates a lower-stress environment where Hanover can serve as a one-stop shop for all research-related issues.

K-12 Expertise: Spotlight on Surveys

. Hanover currently serves 347 K-12 clients across the United States . On behalf of these clients, Hanover designs, administers, and analyzes more than 100 surveys per year related to school climate, instruction, operations, and specific programs and initiatives in K-12 environments. . Since 2013, Hanover has conducted roughly 70 climate surveys that have been administrated to 270,000 parents, students and teachers. . Since 2013, Hanover has conducted nearly 100 Parent Surveys and has surveyed an estimated 83,000 parents.

3 INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND & GOALS The 2019-20 School Calendar Study

In November 2017, the MCPS School Board voted unanimously to “…request that the school system conduct a comprehensive calendar survey of staff parents, and the community regarding their desired operational closures for use in developing the 2019-2020 calendar” (Resolution 463-17).

MCPS and Hanover collaborated to design an appropriate survey to with the goals of understanding stakeholders’: . Knowledge of state-mandated school closures and MCPS attendance policies; and . The likelihood of attendance on potential school closure days.

4 METHODOLOGY Survey Design

The survey comprises three main sections: Expected Awareness of Attendance for Knowledge of State-Mandated Closures & District Policies Closures Closure Importance

. Asks about the survey . Asks about the . Asks about the survey respondent’s awareness respondent’s likelihood respondent’s awareness of the school closures that they (or their child) of district policies that are mandated by will attend school on related to attendance the state of Maryland. other frequently on days of religious requested (i.e., non- observance. mandated) closure dates, as well as the importance of selected closure dates, including traditional closures such as . 5 METHODOLOGY Survey Design

Expected Awareness of Attendance for Knowledge of State-Mandated Closures & District Policies Closures Closure Importance

State-mandated closures include the following: . Eve through Jan. 1 . . Election Day – Primary & General . Monday Before . Friday Before Easter . President’s Day . Martin Luther King, Jr. Day . Thanksgiving and the Day After

6 METHODOLOGY Survey Design

Expected Awareness of Attendance for Knowledge of State-Mandated Closures & District Policies Closures Closure Importance

Frequently requested closures presented in the survey include: . . Orthodox Easter . . . Eid al-Adha . . Eid al-Fitr . Rosh Hashanah (Second Day) . . Veteran’s Day . Orthodox Christmas .

7 METHODOLOGY Survey Design

Expected Awareness of Attendance for Knowledge of State-Mandated Closures & District Policies Closures Closure Importance

Relevant district policies include (summarized):

. Students are lawfully excused for . MCPS attempts to avoid scheduling religious observances schoolwide events on days of religious observance . Students shall have the opportunity . Students remain eligible for awards to make up assignments when for perfect attendance excused for religious observances

8 METHODOLOGY Administration

The survey was launched on May 1, 2018 in seven languages (Amharic, Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese). Hanover used the following outreach methods to ensure maximum participation:

. 190,000 invitation emails – Parents/Guardians and Staff

. 19,000 postcard mailers – Parents/Guardians without available email contacts

. Paper copies made available at school sites

. Online version made available for community members on the district website

Reminder emails were sent to parents on May 4, 11, 18, and 21; reminders were sent to staff on May 2, 7, and 21.

9 METHODOLOGY Data Cleaning and Sample

The survey was closed May 22nd, 2018 with 42,566 recorded responses. Hanover then performed our standard data cleaning processes to remove low-quality and duplicative responses.

Which of the following best describes your affiliation with Montgomery County Public Schools? (n=37,400)

Parent of a current MCPS . The final sample includes a 73% student [parents] total of 37,400 responses, including: MCPS staff member [staff] 22% . Parents: 27,177 . Staff: 8,155 . Students: 1,225 Current student [students] 3% . Community: 843

Community member 2% [community]

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

10 RESPONDENT CLUSTER AND LANGUAGE

Sample by School Level Parents (n=27,177) Staff (n=8,155)

63% . Overall, the survey sample was Elementary School* 48% generally representative of

school-level and clusters within 37% Middle School 21% MCPS. 52% . Both parents (62%) and staff 35% (48%) were most likely to High School 24% report an affiliation with 47% elementary schools. 1% Special School 3% . Respondents were also 1%

roughly representative of I do not work with a MCPS’s 19 clusters. specific school, I work 10% across schools or with…

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

. The majority of survey responses were provided to the English-language version (97%). . The most common other languages include: . Spanish (n= 478) . Mandarin (n = 449) . Korean (n= 98) 11 METHODOLOGY Analysis

In analyzing the survey, Hanover segmented the data into four main stakeholder groups:

Parents Staff Students Community Members

When presenting tables and charts, please note: . Sample sizes vary across questions as some questions only pertain to a subset of respondents. . Statistically significant difference (99% confidence level) between groups are noted with an asterisk (*). . “Don’t Know or Not Applicable” responses, and equivalent, are typically excluded from the figures

12 STATE-MANDATED CLOSURE AWARENESS

Awareness of State-MandatedParents Closures (n=27,177) Staff & (n=8,155) DistrictStudents Policies (n=1,225) Community (n=843)

96% Memorial Day 98% 92% . Staff members are more 95% 94% aware of state-mandated Thanksgiving and the day 94% after 91% closures compared to other 94%

stakeholder groups, 92% Martin Luther King Jr. Day 96% especially for Election Day 89% and Easter-related closures. 93% 89% through 88% January 1 92% . Overall, more than 80 percent 90% of all stakeholder groups are 88% Presidents’ Day 93% aware that state-mandated 85% closures include: Memorial 88% Day; Thanksgiving closures; 88% Election Day – Primary and 97% Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; General Elections 83% 84% Christmas closures; and 59% President’s Day. Friday before Easter 79% 64% 58%

58% Monday after Easter 78% 67% 56%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 13 DISTRICT POLICY AWARENESS

Parents (n=26,536) Staff (n=7,779) Students (n=1,165) Community (n=803)

69% Students missing school . Compared to other stakeholder for a religious observance 97% groups, parents are less aware of is a lawfully excused 73% absence. MCPS’ attendance and absence 80%

policies related to excused Students who have been absences, make up assignments, excused from school for 67% religious observances or 95% and perfect attendance policies. other lawful absences shall have the 76% opportunity to make up 76% . Staff members are significantly assignments. more aware of these policies 59% whereas students and community MCPS attempts to avoid members are significantly less scheduling schoolwide 89% events on days of 58% aware than staff, but more aware religious observance. 62% than parents. If a school chooses to issue awards for perfect 37% attendance, it may not 72% withhold such awards from students whose 44% only absences have been 48% excused for reasons of…

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 14 ATTENDANCE & REQUESTED CLOSURES . Student and staff attendance may be lower for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and if MCPS remains open on these days. Parents Staff (n=26,949) (n=8,044) Would Not Attend Not Sure Would Not Attend Not Sure

Rosh Hashanah 15% 5% Rosh Hashanah 17% 5%

Yom Kippur 15% 5% Yom Kippur 17% 5%

Veterans Day 14% 10% Veterans Day 15% 9%

Passover 12% 8% Passover 14% 7%

Columbus Day 10% 9% Orthodox Christmas 10% 6%

Lunar New Year 9% 5% Orthodox Easter 10% 6%

Orthodox Christmas 9% 6% Columbus Day 9% 8%

Orthodox Easter 7% 6% Second day of Rosh Hashanah 7% 6%

Second day of Rosh Hashanah 6% 7% Lunar New Year 3% 4%

Eid al-Fitr 5% 4% Eid al-Fitr 3% 4%

Eid al-Adha 4% 4% Eid al-Adha 3% 4%

Diwali 4% 5% Diwali 2% 4%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 15 SPECIFIC CLOSURE IMPORTANCE

. Stakeholders indicate that Thanksgiving and the day after, Winter Break, Spring Break, and Memorial Day are the most important closures.

Parents and Staff

Thanksgiving and the day 92% 98% Spring Break Second day of Rosh 18% after* 99% 96% Hashanah 32%

Christmas Eve through 96% Staff Professional 67% 19% January 1* 99% Lunar New Year Development Days 91% 17%

Memorial Day* 91% 95% 48% 19% Veterans Day Orthodox Christmas 54% 26% Martin Luther King Jr. 74% Day* 84% 29% 16% Rosh Hashanah Orthodox Easter 47% 25% Election Day – Primary 53% and General Elections* 83% 27% 11% Yom Kippur Eid al-Fitr 45% 17% Friday before Easter* 61% 87% 28% 12% Passover Diwali Presidents’ Day* 57% 40% 20% 75%

30% 10% Monday after Easter* 53% Columbus Day Eid al-Adha 85% 34% 17%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

16 QUESTIONS