SAMPLE FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS School: Date:

Category SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Classroom Instruction: Intellectual Engagement Students:
─ Cognitive engagement  Do you feel challenged in your classes? Do you feel engaged in your classes?
─ Cultural relevance and differentiation  In what ways are you challenged in your classes? How could teachers challenge you even more?
─ Standards-based projects, activities and  When do you feel connected to the activities in your classroom?
assignments
─ Opportunity to respond Administrators:
 In what ways do teachers in your school ensure that all students are engaged and challenged in the learning process?
 When you visit classrooms, in what ways are lessons aligned to the standards?
 How often do you visit classrooms where the lessons are not aligned to the standards?
Unwavering focus on academic achievement

Parents:
 Is your child challenged in class? If yes, in what ways? If no, how do you think it could be improved?
 In what ways is your child connected in his or her classes? In what other ways might teachers connect the classroom to your
child?

Classroom Instruction: Learning Environment Teachers:

─ Classroom safety  Describe your classroom learning environment.
─ Physical environment o How do students interact with you and each other?
─ Classroom climate  How does the physical layout support learning goals? When does the physical layout interfere with learning goals?
─ Teacher knowledge of individuals  What are your expectations for behavior in your classroom? How do you share these expectations and ensure that they are
─ Expectations for behavior adopted?
─ Management of Routines, Procedures and
Transitions Students:
 When do you feel respected in your classes? When do you feel disrespected in your classes?
 How safe do you feel sharing ideas in your classes?
 How well do your teachers know you? How do you know?
 How do your teachers share their expectations for behavior with the class?

Parents:
 How well do your child’s teachers know your child? How do you know?
 Describe the expectations for behavior in your child’s classes.
 How does the teacher communicate expectations for behavior?
 What happens when these expectations are not met?

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 Classroom Instruction: Classroom Talk Students:
─ Discussion Techniques & Student  When you are in class, how much does your teacher talk?
Participation  How often do your teachers create activities where you speak to other students about what you are learning?
─ Quality and Purpose of Questions  Describe some of the speaking or presenting activities you do in your classes.
─ Use of Academic Language
Parents:
 How often does your child “bring home” the language of the classroom in the form of new vocabulary, concepts, or
questions?
 How well does your child speak about what they learn at school or answer your questions about what happens at school?

Teachers:
 How do you engage students with questions, for examples inquiry-based learning, Bloom’s levels of questions, Socratic
method?
 What opportunities exist in class and out of class for students to use academic language?
Unwavering focus on academic achievement

Administrators
 Describe the types of classroom talk you most often see during classroom visits?
 Based on class visits, how do teachers foster academic talk in the classroom?
 How well do students engage in the use of academic language and content-specific vocabulary?
 What opportunities exist for students to use academic language in a larger setting outside the classroom?

Classroom Instruction: Assessment Teachers:

─ Assessment Criteria  Please describe methods you use to determine if a student understands the material set forth in the classroom.
─ Monitoring of Student Learning  In what ways do you monitor student learning, and how frequently?
─ Feedback to students  In what ways do you offer students feedback about their learning or assignments? How often do you offer feedback?

Students:
 Please describe the kind of feedback that teachers give you on your work, or during class. Do you know how well you are
doing in class? How do you know?
 How does your teacher know if you, or the class, understand something?
 How does your teacher support you when you do not understand?
 When you have an activity or an assignment, do you know how you will be graded? How do you know?
 When you have an activity or an assignment, do you know why you are doing it? How do you know?

Administrators:
 When you visit a classroom, what methods do you observe teachers using to monitor learning and progress?
 How do teachers monitor student learning?
 How do teachers provide feedback to students about their learning?
 How are students assessed?

Parents:
 How does your child know if they are learning?
 How does the school communicate to you when your student is/is not learning?
 How is your student assessed? What are the standards for good work or proficiency?

School Review Doc #12 | Sample Focus Group Questions

 Professional Development Teachers/Administrators
─ Collaborative meeting and planning  Does your school have school-wide instructional strategies? If so, are they implemented? How do you know?
─ Focus on content and pedagogy  What structures, such as policies or trainings, are in place to facilitate this process?
─ School-wide instructional strategies  Do you meet, plan, reflect, and/or work together with other teachers and/or administrators? If yes, please describe what you
─ Evidence of PD in classrooms do together, what typically happens, and how much time a week you meet. If no why not.
 How does professional development impact your classroom? Please provide examples.
 What improvements could be made to ensure that PD focuses on content, pedagogy, and reflection?
 What types of meetings do teachers attend? How are these meetings aligned with content, pedagogy, collaboration, and
reflection?
Unwavering focus on academic achievement

 How often do teachers in your school meet, plan, reflect, and work together?
 What is the content or structure of these types of collaboration sessions? How effective are collaboration sessions?
 What barriers exist to prevent teachers from meeting, planning, reflecting, and working together?
 What professional development is offered to teachers at your school?
 How does the professional development address the instructional needs of the teachers and students?
 Does your school have a cohesive positive behavior support strategy? How consistently is it implemented?

Students:
 Do teachers at your school work together? How do you know?
 How are students rewarded for good behavior?

Professional Teaching Culture Teachers:

─ Staff self-expectations  Describe your role(s) in the school. What are your expectations for yourself and others in these roles?
─ Distributed leadership  In what ways is leadership distributed at your school? Who participates as a leader and why?
─ Support from experts  What leadership opportunities does the administration offer to non-administrators?
 In what ways are you supported and coached? Are you satisfied with your opportunities to develop as a professional?
 Please describe the staff morale. What factors most affect staff morale?

Administrators:
 What expectations does your staff have for their own work? Please explain.
 In what ways do you distribute leadership at the school? Is it effective? In what ways?
 How are students and parents involved in leadership?
 How is the school supported by experts?

School Review Doc #12 | Sample Focus Group Questions

 Data Use to Guide and Personalize Instruction: Teachers:
School Practices  How does your school use data to develop lesson plans and work with students? Who participates?
─ Collaborative data review  How do you use data to drive instruction and improve student learning?
─ Ongoing problem-solving cycles o To what extent has using data to drive instruction made a difference in your teaching?
─ Responsive instruction o In what other ways might you use data to drive instruction?
 Describe the data review process at your school.
 Are you on a problem-solving team at your school? If yes, how does this team collect and use data?
Unwavering focus on academic achievement

o In what ways is it useful?

o How often is data collected and/or used?
 In what ways have you changed instruction to respond to student needs?
 In what ways does data affect school practices?

Administrators:
 To what extent do teachers on your campus use data to drive instruction?
 Describe the data review process teachers use. Is it consistent? Are you involved? If so, in what ways?
 How have using data to drive instruction made a difference in the way teachers perform and students learn?
 What barriers exist to using data to drive instruction and influence student learning?
 How does the school use data to influence school-wide practices?
Data Use to Guide and Personalize Instruction: Teachers/Administrators
Leadership  Please describe how decisions are made at your school (i.e. Are stakeholders involved? Is data reviewed? Are issues revisited
─ Principal & leadership use data-driven as needed?)
decision making  Does your school have benchmarks toward achievement goals? How often are these benchmarks reviewed?
─ Monitor progress  How are stakeholders involved in key decisions?
─ Ongoing feedback & teacher capacity-  How do decisions at school align with school-wide goals? How does the school use data to guide leadership or build capacity?
building  How does the school build capacity?
 How often do administrators visit classrooms? How is feedback provided after a visit?
 In what ways is feedback provided to teachers?

Safe, Clean, Welcoming Environment Teachers and/or Administrators:

─ Physical Safety (Campus)  Describe interactions between students, teachers and others at your school.
─ Cleanliness  Describe the school-wide approach to discipline? How do you think this approach affects interactions between teachers,
School culture, climate, & operations

─ Welcoming environment students and others?

─ Orderly i.e. respect, discipline strategy  Describe attendance patterns for students and staff. What barriers prevent students from attending every day? What
─ Attendance motivates students to attend every day?
Students:
 How clean is your school campus? Please explain
 How safe is your school campus? Please explain.
 Describe what you see and hear when you enter the campus in the morning.
 Describe behavior in the hallways and at lunch and nutrition breaks.
 Where do you feel safe or unsafe on your school campus?
 What motivates you to come to school every day? What prevents you from attending every day?
Parents:
 How safe is the school campus? What concerns do you have about safety?
 When do you feel welcome on campus? When do you feel unwelcome on campus?
 Describe what you see or hear when you enter campus, in terms of campus environment.

School Review Doc #12 | Sample Focus Group Questions

 Environment that Maximizes Time Teachers:
on Learning  What interrupts your teaching? How often is your teaching interrupted? What systems exist to minimize interruptions?
School culture, climate, & operations that support academic achievement

─ Student access to Core Content  What systems are in place in your classroom to help students access Core Content?
─ Uninterrupted instructional time  What systems are in place school-wide to help students access Core Content?
 What barriers impede students from accessing Core Content?
Parents:
 What choices do you and your child have about the classes your child is taking? Do you feel that your child is in the
appropriate classes?
 What barriers impede your child from accessing Core Content?

Personalized Respectful, Teachers and/or Administrators:

Responsive, Environment for All  How does your school address the socio-economic needs of students?
Students & Staff  How are your professional interests and goals incorporated into the environment?
─ Personalization of students and adults  In what ways is the school environment respectful and responsive to you as an individual?
experience  In what ways do you personalize the environment for students?
─ Student access to structures that connect  In what ways do students have access to adult support or mentoring opportunities?
them to adult support
─ Support to address socio-economic needs of Students:
students  What adult/s on your school campus know you well?
 If you had a problem on campus and needed advice or assistance, (like bullying or having trouble understanding how to study
for a test) to whom would you go to for assistance? Would you seek out an adult? Why or why not?
 What programs or activities are you involved in at school?
Parents
 How does the school address the socioeconomic needs of your child, for example health care, free/reduced lunch,
connections to community resources?
 What programs or activities is your child involved in at school?
 What adult at school knows your child well and cares about their well-being?

School Review Doc #12 | Sample Focus Group Questions

 Collaborative Family & Community Involvement Teachers and Administrators:
─ Opportunities for high-quality family and  How are families and/or community involved in your school?
community involvement o To what extent are their opinions and suggestions respected?
─ Regular communication between school and o How does the school communicate with parents or community members? How often?
home o How are parents or community members engaged in meaningful ways?
─ Families have access to updated student o What barriers impede more parents or community members from engaging?
information Students:
 Do you and/or your parents monitor your academic progress? If yes, how? If no, why not?
 When and in what ways does the school communicate with your parents?
 How is the community involved in your school?
 When do your parents come to your school? For what reasons?
Parents:
 Do you know how your child is doing in school? How do you know?
 If you have concerns about your child, do you feel you can partner with the school to address these concerns?
 Do you feel adequately informed about events, policies, and your child’s progress? Please explain.
 When do you come to campus? For what reasons?
 How is the community involved in the school?
 When does the school contact you? For what reasons?
Leadership Focused on instructional Teachers and/or Administrators:

School culture, climate, & operations

improvement Does your school have shared learning goals and targets?
─ Engaging stakeholders to set student o If so, what are they, and how were the goals developed?
learning goals/targets o How are these goals communicated? And to whom are they communicated?
─ Clear communication of goals and o Do you feel you have the support necessary to achieve these goals?
OppOperations

expectations o How are other stakeholders engaged with these goals?

─ Shared direction, coherent policies, o What policies or practices support these goals?
practices, procedures o What policies or practices prevent attaining these goals?
─ Core Curriculum and Intervention program  Think about your schedule. Who has input into your schedule? Why is your schedule the way it is?
selection.
Parents:
 What are the goals at the school? Are these the same goals you have for your child?
 Who set these goals? If you wanted to discuss these goals, with whom would you speak?

School Review Doc #12 | Sample Focus Group Questions

 Mission and Data-Driven Resource Alignment Teachers/Administration
and Management  Do you feel that your schools’ resources are allocated effectively? Please explain.
─ Aligns Resources to School-wide Goals  Who manages various resources at your school?
─ Manages Resources (i.e financial, political,  How are available resources used to support school-wide goals?
technological, and human resources)  How might resources be managed differently?
─ Creates teacher leadership and learning  How are resources used to provide leadership and learning opportunities?
opportunities  How are resources used to foster a culture of respect and trust?
Expectations for school culture of respect 
Leadership Focused on Instructional Improvement

─
Who looks for new funding-sources?
and trust  What barriers exist to building a culture of respect and trust?
─ Creates and monitors a staff retention  Are staff members retained year to year?
strategy o What influences staff to stay or go?
o What strategies are in place to retain highly effective teachers?
o What strategies are in place to develop teachers with high potential?
o What leadership opportunities exist for teachers?

Shared Leadership with Staff, Family and Teachers/Administration

Community with Clear Goals of Supporting  To what extent does the administration ensure that teachers and staff have the support (e.g., resources, directions, training,
Academic Achievement regular performance feedback) to do their work?
─ Reciprocal accountability  Do you partner with the community? How does this support student learning?
─ Distributed leadership  Who is responsible for student success?
─ Partnership with other schools  What opportunities exist for vertical articulation with other schools in your feeder pattern?
─ Partnership with community  How often do teachers and leadership meet with other schools to observe practice and/or provide feedback?
─ Partnership with parents  How do community, family, and staff hold each other accountable?
 What accountability systems are in place?

Parents
 How often are parents or community members involved in activities that mutually benefit participants and the school?

School Review Doc #12 | Sample Focus Group Questions