The School Perceptions Podcast

Rob DeMeuse is back for a deep dive into five years of survey data from staff, students, parents, and community members across the districts we work with! No special focus -- just two research nerds talking about what our data has been telling us lately and what it might mean. For more background on the things we're talking about, see our recent blog posts: Five Things We Learned , obviously M...

By popular demand (as measured by frequently-asked questions), I invited Rob DeMeuse and Scott Girard to stop by the old podcast studio to talk a little bit about the survey methodology we use, and why we use it rather than other approaches. In a lot of ways, this conversation expands on a blog post we wrote a couple years ago , where you can find even more depth on the topic.

Jeremy Singer , professor at University of Michigan-Flint, talks to us about his exhaustive study of how principals are stemming the tide of absenteeism -- what's proving effective, and what isn't? (It's a big deal! The Hechinger Report wrote it up too !) A related piece , coming out of the same research project, is going to be the subject of an Annenberg EdWorkingPapers webinar on Jun...

With a host of new school board members taking their seats after April elections, Mike Barry and Danielle Bosanec of WASBO stopped by to talk about what makes school finance difficult to understand, what sorts of questions board members should be asking, and what degree of budgetary flexibility district leaders actually have. See links below for more WASBO resources! WASBO professional learning ca...

Jack Schneider joins us from UMass-Amherst to talk about what community members have to offer local schools beyond tax dollars, and what schools have to offer community members beyond test scores (to coin a phrase). You can email him with follow-ups, as he offers in the episode. We talked about an article ( "In Praise of Ordinary Measures" ) on the show, so here is that resource, and her...

Cara Jackson , recent President of the Association of Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), joins us to talk about her presidential essay and what she's learned over two decades of work in the "evidence-informed education ecosystem" about what it takes for policymakers, school leaders, and classroom teachers to their very best for their students. Additional links to things we talked a...

Professor Jay Plasman, of Ohio State, joins us to talk about a recent report he published with the Fordham Institute , entitled "College or Career Readiness: Postsecondary and Labor Market Outcomes for Ohio High School Students Earning Industry-Recognized Credentials." The full report is available for download, as well. It turns out that industry-recognized credentials pay off in some in...

Superintendent Kyle Luedtke, of Frederic, joins the podcast today to talk through his well-honed approach to improving staff engagement, and using that positivity to drive educational growth.

Our VP of research stops by the podcast to talk about what happened in Wisconsin referendums in the Spring of 2026. How did this April compare to previous Aprils? What trends are we seeing? What does it all mean? I promised to link to Rob's dissertation , in case anyone wanted the deepest deep dive into Wisconsin referendum trends up to 2020.

Bob Soldner sits down with Derek to talk about the processes, actors, and decisions involved when Wisconsin school districts need to fold or join their neighbors in order to provide a quality education. What role do finances play? Will taxpayers in those districts save money? What things ought district leaders and community to think about?

Veteran guests Ross Herdina and Dennis Pauli are back with us in this episode to talk us through The strategic challenges school districts are facing How facilitated planning processes can help How facilitation works in practice And how high-level plans are connected to ground-level practice. For more information on our School Perceptions Strategic Planning offer, please contact us .

Today we dive back into strategic planning, with Janell Bullard from Paynesville Area Schools (Minnesota) and Zack Fugate of Unity School District (Wisconsin). You’ll hear how strategic planning can help districts: • Gather meaningful community feedback before making major decisions • Engage staff, parents, students, and community members in planning conversations • Turn survey results into action...

VP of Research Dr. Rob DeMeuse joins Derek to talk about trends in the staff, student, and parent survey data we collected during the first semester of this school year. Spoiler: lots of items are trending in the right direction!

Grand Meadow (MN) District Administrators Paul Besel and Phil Strong sit down with SP's Daren Sievers and Agile Ideas Leadership's Shannon Helgeson and Ross Herdina to talk about their experience using rich data and external facilitators to guide continuous improvement. See this handout for more on the Grand Meadow story. You can find Shannon and Ross at Agile Ideas Leadership .

In this episode, Kit Dailey from EUA , Erika Freeman from Findorff, and Megan Prestebak from Miron discuss the facilities challenges that Wisconsin school districts are facing, the solutions that communities are considering, and the processes of communicating, planning, and executing school building projects.

We brought our recording equipment to our booth, and we asked board members, superintendents, other vendors, and parents to sit down with us and share what's going on in their districts. Lots of exciting stuff happening around the state -- take a listen!

Next week, school leaders will flock to the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee to share what's working for them and learn from one another. We've put together a preview of nine sessions we're particularly looking forward to. The whole program is available here . In this episode: 1:57-8:30 --Emily DeBaker and Debbie Brewster on School Finance Storytelling 8:55-16:10 --Andrea Gribble on Building Tru...

Alyssa Burrage and Luke Pinion join Derek to talk about their districts' experiences with designing and rolling out personal communications devices policies over the last several years. What gave rise to the need, how did it all go, what have been the effects so far, and what advice might they have for others?

In this episode, Derek reviews the research literature on the effects of implementing a personal-devices policy in schools; and then Rob joins the conversation to talk the things that staff, students, and parents want a phone ban to achieve -- and they're not the same! If you're interested in surveying your stakeholders, reach out ! Below is a brief bibliography of the studies references i...

Tammy Champa sits down with Derek to talk about her experience with transforming school climate in Hastings, Minnesota.

Here we revisit the impact of Wisconsin's landmark Act 10 legislation, which gave Wisconsin district leaders unprecedented flexibility to experiment with teacher compensation. Dr. Steve Kimball, from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, talks about WCER's recent follow-up study , tracking what districts have done with that flexibility. And our own Daren Sievers recounts his process...

Superintendent Liz Freeman joins us from the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District to talk about using survey data to build trust, engage the community, and drive improvement. Visit our website to see the various survey tools available for you to use!

Dr. Stephen Plum, superintendent of the Kettle Moraine School District, joins us to talk about the task of triangulating staff, student, and parent survey information -- and putting it all together with attendance and achievement data -- in order to improve parent engagement, staff compensation, and student experiences. For more information about our staff, student, and parent surveys, visit our w...

Roy de la Garza, veteran school leader with experience in the Houston Independent School District and Carlsbad Municipal Schools, joins us to share what he's learned about how to improve student behavior, staff buy-in, and school climate all at once. For our suite of tools to help district and school leaders do their work well, visit our website !

Steve Schroeder , of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and Kelly Thompson , of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, join Derek to talk about what makes for great board/superintendent relationships and how those can go awry. Use our leadership tools to help get or to help keep your administration and your school board aligned!