Surveys and Findings

When Principal Brian Pendleton asked the faculty to start the accreditation process, the author volunteered to undertake the collection of information about the strengths and weaknesses of Sequim High School.   The author believed that such gathering of observations and the seeking of explanations was essentially science and so the author's expertise as a scientist might be of value for accreditation.

It was the consensus of the committee that graduates and employers are the two groups that should benefit from the school mission and so could best provide feedback concerning that achievement.   In addition, there was a strong sense that the State sponsored Running Start program for advanced students to start gaining college education before high school graduation was impacting the high school's ability to achieve its mission.   So the author volunteered to attempt to create surveys that gathered information from the graduates, employers, and Running Start participants.

Surveys were developed by the author for each group and extensively edited with committee assistance.   Copies are provided here as pdf files because they may have value for other schools initiating accreditation.   (If you use part of them, please give credit.   A short e-mail to the author (via link provided at the bottom of this page) would help determine if this information should be maintained or the storage erased and used for other purposes!)   The surveys have been slightly edited and a more common font substituted for web convince.

Parents who remained in the district were contacted to attempt to locate and survey all graduates from 1990 (presumably well established in a career), 1995 (who mostly completed advanced education and are now employed), and 1998 (recent graduates who currently were in the middle of advanced training or recently became employed).   Surveys were mailed to all Running Start participants and to 100 local businesses selected from a telephone book.   Additional employer surveys were distributed at a Chamber of Commerce Meeting.

Feel free to contact the author if you have questions, or you believe the author could provide you further assistance.   Much data was collected and is available upon request.