Author: simon
Council Misleads Islanders Over School Questionnaires
Wednesday, 12th March, 2008 at 5:51 pm, Isle of Wight
Incomplete School Questionnaires Used In Analysis
As we brought up before, it seemed to us that there wasn’t something quite right about the report on the school survey. The thing that initially jumped out was an inconsistency about the number of surveys issued, which we now understand have been corrected.
That led us to look a little deeper into the numbers, where we noticed that each of the questions were showing different numbers of responses. A bit strange we thought.
We were told, as were the rest of the Island, that if questionnaires were not COMPLETELY filled out, they would be discarded. Indeed the paper version of the “Which Way Forward for Island Education?” states
Please complete the questionnaire fully answering all questions. Incomplete, illegible or defaced questionnaires will not be considered (our bolding).
We checked this with the Council press office who informed us that the difference in base figures was due to the fact that some questionnaires which had not been fully completed were used in the survey results.
For example, 2% of the questionnaires that were received back did NOT answer question 7. We were then told “where a large part of the survey was completed, they would be accepted.” Clearly a direct contradiction of the rules.
Sadly, on this vital school reforms consultation, we have to ask again – Which one is it?
Is it, we must have completely filled in the questionnaire, or is it that we didn’t need to answer all questions in order for our views to become part of the survey?
Mislead By The Council
We think it’s highly likely that if the public had know in advance that they could send through incomplete questionnaires, they would have done – and with a greater number of responses, it would have been more representative of the Islands view.
By stating that incomplete questionnaires would not be considered, and then actually counting them, we believe that the council has misled the public.
Many are becoming concerned over the validity of this whole process. Pretty worrying when decisions on this subject could effect the closure of schools and the future of the education of the Island’s children.
Specifics for each sections
Taken directly from the first copy of the report.
5.1 Demographics – Base: 3,043
5.2 Importance of Education – Base: Varies between 3,039-3,055
5.3 Priorities for Improving Education – Base: Varies between 3,021-3,037 (Other – 1,102)
Figure 4: Ranking of Factors/Actions for Improving Education – Base: Varies between 2,955-2,977 (Other – 2,260)
5.4 Concerns with Proposed Changes – Base: Varies between 63,020-3,045 (Other – 1,000) We understand that the 63,020 has been corrected too
Figure 6: Rankings of Concerns with Proposed Changes – Base: Varies between 2,973-2,993 (Other – 2,218)
5.5 Collaboration – Base: Varies between 3,039-3,053
5.6 Preferred Option – Base: 2,995
5.7 Further Comments – Base: 2,411
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Misled? By this Council? Surely not?
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Little wonder our Council Tax costs us so much!!!
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Surely to ignore well considered responses just because one element or question of a large questionnaire was not completed would not give the fairest overall answer. Did they not employ a professional survey company to collate the answers?
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@Brian – Using incomplete questionnaires may be fine (I’m no expert of statistics so couldn’t comment on that side), if that’s the terms that everyone knew they were operating under when they submitted them.
Is the problem that one thing was said emphatically and then another was done?
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It appears the inmates are actually running the asylum.
I’d take the report with a pinch of salt. The method of collating the results just shows the report is very much open to interpretation. Let’s hope they didn’t pick and choose the answers for their own gain.
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Eduwight Press Release:
“Out of the total returned, 72 were discounted for being incomplete.”
How incomplete then did these need to be if other incomplete ones were accepted, did these ones answer the ‘option’ question?
Of the ones that were incomplete but still included in the research, what is the breakdown of the options chosen for these?
Was the ‘option’ question mandatory on the online form, i.e. did it have to be completed to submit the form? Paper versions would not have had these restrictions and so it would be expected that the incomplete ones were the paper forms.
The ‘option’ question was answered by fewer people than the questions about priorities and concerns.
How many of the priority and concerns question results were discussed in the Press Release?
In any survey, option questions will always be completed far more than free text comment fields. However, in this survey a massive amount of respondants did write comments. The breakdown of these comments clearly shows the vast amount of concern about the proposals.
How much of this question is detailed in the Press Release?
It seems that the ‘outlier’ question based on the results is the actual question about the ‘options’; it does not correlate with the questions around priorities, concerns or ‘further comments’.
How much of the ‘option’ question was detailed in the Press Release?
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[...] They will need to choose one of the three options laid out in the consultation questionnaire. [...]
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