Where is it?? When can we get a copy??
We're sure many of you are asking those questions or have been for some time so we would like to update you on the status of the 2008 IYS State Report.
Throughout the past 6-9 months, we have been working to complete the State Report with the hope it would be available this spring. It has been completed and sent to the State for review and approval. Once we hear that it has been approved for distribution, we will notify schools through our website and a posting will be placed on this blog.
Our hope is for it to be approved and available by mid-June but, unfortunately, we cannot control the date. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
2009 Online Schools - Results Availability
All online surveying is now closed so that we can access the results of all schools to complete community reports for SPF Project Coordinators. Because of this, schools will not have access to their results this week until 6/1/09. This is to be sure no new schools survey while the data is being pooled. Results will be available again next Monday. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
2009 SPF Community Reports
Looking for your 2009 SPF Community Report? We are currently working on creating community reports similar to those in 2008.
Some information to note: We do not release information regarding a single school or school district without the written consent of a school administrator. For example ... if your community has only 1 high school participating in the 2009 IYS, in order for us to send a community report including the high school's grade-levels, we would first need a release from that school. If your community has schools from only 1 school district within a grade level, we would require a release either from each school involved or from the district as a whole.
Some information to note: We do not release information regarding a single school or school district without the written consent of a school administrator. For example ... if your community has only 1 high school participating in the 2009 IYS, in order for us to send a community report including the high school's grade-levels, we would first need a release from that school. If your community has schools from only 1 school district within a grade level, we would require a release either from each school involved or from the district as a whole.
We will inform coordinators who fall into one of these categories so they can obtain and send us the required releases, so we can send out their community report as soon as possible.
2009 Initial Reports - Schools
Most schools have completed surveying and have received their results at this time. The designated contact person at each school received their school report via email attachment approximately 2-4 weeks after returning their completed surveys. If you have not received your school report or would like a printed copy, please email Jessica Thomas at jcthomas@chestnut.org.
In order to maintain school confidentiality, we do not release individual school results to anyone outside the school or its administration unless a written request is submitted. If you would like your schools' individual results to be shared with your community organizer, please fill out the "Release of School Results" form that was sent with your materials. We'll gladly send another copy to you at your request if it has been misplaced. Please be aware that only school administration is able to release their results outside the school.
Follow-up reports usually available in fall of the school year following the survey year will not be available for schools surveying in spring of 2009. These reports require statewide data to complete, which we don't have as this is an off-survey year for most of the state. Consequently, a state report will also not be available for 2009.
The next statewide survey will be given in the spring of 2010. Please be sure to register your school before the end of this school year to give us a more accurate number of how many surveys/pencils to order.
In order to maintain school confidentiality, we do not release individual school results to anyone outside the school or its administration unless a written request is submitted. If you would like your schools' individual results to be shared with your community organizer, please fill out the "Release of School Results" form that was sent with your materials. We'll gladly send another copy to you at your request if it has been misplaced. Please be aware that only school administration is able to release their results outside the school.
Follow-up reports usually available in fall of the school year following the survey year will not be available for schools surveying in spring of 2009. These reports require statewide data to complete, which we don't have as this is an off-survey year for most of the state. Consequently, a state report will also not be available for 2009.
The next statewide survey will be given in the spring of 2010. Please be sure to register your school before the end of this school year to give us a more accurate number of how many surveys/pencils to order.
Friday, May 15, 2009
2009 IYS - Ends today
Today marks the end of the extended survey window for all eligible SPF Community Schools to complete the 2009 IYS. If we have not yet received your materials, please be sure to have all materials packed and return service requested by next Friday, 5/22 at the latest. Upon receipt of your request, we will email your labels to the contact you provided. Then, all you have to do is print them, stick them on the package, and give the package to your driver.
If you do not have a regular pickup scheduled at your school, you can
Thank you all for your interest and participation in both the 2009 IYS and your community's prevention efforts.
If you do not have a regular pickup scheduled at your school, you can
- Call for a pickup (800-PICK-UPS)
- Hand the package to the driver when you receive a delivery, or
- Bring the package to your nearest UPS location
Thank you all for your interest and participation in both the 2009 IYS and your community's prevention efforts.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Changes for the 2010 IYS
We are excited to say we have made many positive changes to the 2010 survey process from the 2008 administration. The biggest change is that we have moved to an electronic recruitment/registration/confirmation process from the paper-based process used for many years. This will increase our contact with schools while still controlling costs. There will be no paper mailings for recruitment or confirmation (unless specifically requested) because we have placed all of the information previously included on our website: http://www.illinoisyouthsurvey.org/register/.
Our new registration process now asks schools to choose their method of delivery (paper/pencil or online) as well as their intended survey date. In 2008 we didn't request this information until the confirmation process, however, we believe that schools are more likely to complete surveying if they are able to put the survey on their school calendar as early as possible to avoid any conflicts. For your convenience, please visit the links below for 2010 state testing dates.
ISAT: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/isat.htm
PSAE: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/psae.htm
IAA: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/assessment/iaa.htm
ICEPT: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/assessment/icept.htm
ACT: http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html
For those schools completing the survey online, we are offering additional trainings this year to proctors (planning & initial computer set-up), administrators and other staff (report creation). These trainings will be conducted online at numerous dates throughout the year (more information to come).
We are changing our primary shipper from UPS to FedEx and we are no longer requesting "call tags" in which a driver brings the labels with them to pick up the package. We are now requesting a return service in which we create the label and email it to the school contact person, who prints and adheres the label to the package. Then, all you would have to do is either give the package to the driver on your regularly scheduled pick-up or you can even bring it to a drop location near you.
Of course, we are still working on more ideas to make the survey both easier to administer and results easier to understand and utilize. Please leave a comment with any other ideas or difficulties you may have. If we don't know, we can't fix it!
Our new registration process now asks schools to choose their method of delivery (paper/pencil or online) as well as their intended survey date. In 2008 we didn't request this information until the confirmation process, however, we believe that schools are more likely to complete surveying if they are able to put the survey on their school calendar as early as possible to avoid any conflicts. For your convenience, please visit the links below for 2010 state testing dates.
ISAT: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/isat.htm
PSAE: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/psae.htm
IAA: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/assessment/iaa.htm
ICEPT: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/assessment/icept.htm
ACT: http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html
For those schools completing the survey online, we are offering additional trainings this year to proctors (planning & initial computer set-up), administrators and other staff (report creation). These trainings will be conducted online at numerous dates throughout the year (more information to come).
We are changing our primary shipper from UPS to FedEx and we are no longer requesting "call tags" in which a driver brings the labels with them to pick up the package. We are now requesting a return service in which we create the label and email it to the school contact person, who prints and adheres the label to the package. Then, all you would have to do is either give the package to the driver on your regularly scheduled pick-up or you can even bring it to a drop location near you.
Of course, we are still working on more ideas to make the survey both easier to administer and results easier to understand and utilize. Please leave a comment with any other ideas or difficulties you may have. If we don't know, we can't fix it!
2010 IYS - Registration Period Has Begun
We have moved to an electronic recruitment/registration/confirmation process from the paper-based process used for many years. This will increase our contact with schools while still controlling costs. There will be no paper mailings for recruitment or confirmation (unless specifically requested) because we have placed all of the information previously included on our website: http://www.illinoisyouthsurvey.org/register/.
Our new registration process now asks schools to choose their method of delivery (paper/pencil or online) as well as their intended survey date. We believe that schools are more likely to complete surveying if they are able to put the survey on their school calendar as early as possible to avoid any conflicts.
We have sent out 3 rounds of emails to most eligible schools in the state (there are quite a few private schools that we do not have email addresses for yet but are still working on it) and have received an excellent response rate. The first email went out at the beginning of March 2009 and as of today we already have 472 schools registered!
This year we are also working with local prevention providers and state agencies to assist schools in registering to participate in the 2010 Illinois Youth Survey. Our goal is to double the number of schools who participated in 2008 (884) and we are well on our way. Of course, our ultimate goal is to have more accurate, complete data from a majority of schools and communities in the state to facilitate the changes necessary to support a safe and drug-free environment. As the number of schools participating each year continues to grow, it becomes more important that we are notified of any changes in the contact person at each school.
The preferred method of communication for the 2010 IYS is via email so please keep the IYS office updated with any change of your email address. Also, we ask that you add the following email addresses to your safe list so that none of our messages will be marked as spam: dprather@chestnut.org and jcthomas@chestnut.org.
To register your school to participate in the 2010 IYS, visit our website and complete the registration survey http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228JTJ98CKW.
2008 IYS - Follow-Up Reports Available
For schools that participated in 2008, you should have received your initial report before the end of the 2007-2008 school year. Included in this report was a feedback form with a request for a follow-up report when it became available. At this point, we have only received requests for the follow-up report from a small number of schools. School contacts were emailed on May 5, 2009 if their school had a follow-up report available but had not yet requested it.
The follow-up report puts your individual school data in perspective. It compares your use rates for the gateway substances (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and inhalants) plus binge drinking over the past two weeks with the aggregated use rates of similar schools, and also provides this data from your last survey results, if applicable, for comparison. The second report section rates your school on several key risk and protective factors that are known to be powerful contributors to community-wide substance use rates, are highly correlated with community-level substance use scores in Illinois, and can be addressed with prevention strategies and/or programs already proven to be effective.
If you have not aready responded requesting your follow-up report be sent or would like another copy of your initial report, please email Jessica Thomas at jcthomas@chestnut.org with your name, title, school name and address where the report should be sent. We will attempt to send them before the end of the 2008-2009 school year.
To see if your school participated in 2008: http://www.illinoisyouthsurvey.org/register/2008_IYS_participation_list_9-3-08.xls
The follow-up report puts your individual school data in perspective. It compares your use rates for the gateway substances (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and inhalants) plus binge drinking over the past two weeks with the aggregated use rates of similar schools, and also provides this data from your last survey results, if applicable, for comparison. The second report section rates your school on several key risk and protective factors that are known to be powerful contributors to community-wide substance use rates, are highly correlated with community-level substance use scores in Illinois, and can be addressed with prevention strategies and/or programs already proven to be effective.
If you have not aready responded requesting your follow-up report be sent or would like another copy of your initial report, please email Jessica Thomas at jcthomas@chestnut.org with your name, title, school name and address where the report should be sent. We will attempt to send them before the end of the 2008-2009 school year.
To see if your school participated in 2008: http://www.illinoisyouthsurvey.org/register/2008_IYS_participation_list_9-3-08.xls
SPF Schools 2009 IYS
This year we surveyed schools in select communities who received a grant for prevention planning (SPF Schools) along with some others who have not yet participated in the past or that needed yearly data for special circumstances. For more information on the SPF project, please see our website: http://www.illinoisyouthsurvey.org/SPF-SIG/ or contact your project coordinator.
The survey period has been extended to 5/15/09 for all eligible schools in a SPF community who have not yet participated. Please be sure to schedule and administer the survey to your students on or before 5/15 and request your completed materials to be returned before 5/22. This will allow us to receive the data back from scanning and send out reports before the end of the school year. At this point, we are still waiting to receive materials back from 24 schools and for 6 schools to complete surveying online. To see a listing of schools and their progress with the 2009 IYS, please visit our website. Schools are listed by community and updated weekly on Fridays.
This year we are sending reports to the school contact via email attachment as they are available. If you would like a print copy of your report, please contact Jessica Thomas at jcthomas@chestnut.org or 309-451-7849. To maintain confidentiality reports are only sent to the individual school unless a signed release from school administration is received. To release your individual school data to an outside agency, please fill out the Release of School Results form that came with your materials and fax to 309-451-7764.
All schools who have received their report are welcome to provide feedback on this year's administration: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB228YGKUK7PN
If you have received your report but have not yet supplied feedback, please do so. We review the feedback as well as all suggestions for improvement.
Thank you to all SPF Community Coordinators for your work with the schools this year in successfully obtaining more complete data from more schools!
The survey period has been extended to 5/15/09 for all eligible schools in a SPF community who have not yet participated. Please be sure to schedule and administer the survey to your students on or before 5/15 and request your completed materials to be returned before 5/22. This will allow us to receive the data back from scanning and send out reports before the end of the school year. At this point, we are still waiting to receive materials back from 24 schools and for 6 schools to complete surveying online. To see a listing of schools and their progress with the 2009 IYS, please visit our website. Schools are listed by community and updated weekly on Fridays.
This year we are sending reports to the school contact via email attachment as they are available. If you would like a print copy of your report, please contact Jessica Thomas at jcthomas@chestnut.org or 309-451-7849. To maintain confidentiality reports are only sent to the individual school unless a signed release from school administration is received. To release your individual school data to an outside agency, please fill out the Release of School Results form that came with your materials and fax to 309-451-7764.
All schools who have received their report are welcome to provide feedback on this year's administration: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB228YGKUK7PN
If you have received your report but have not yet supplied feedback, please do so. We review the feedback as well as all suggestions for improvement.
Thank you to all SPF Community Coordinators for your work with the schools this year in successfully obtaining more complete data from more schools!
Welcome Message
Hello and welcome to the new blog for the Illinois Youth Survey! We hope this information will be helpful to schools, providers, and parents to keep updated on what's going on with the survey at this time. We will attempt to update the blog at least once a week.
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