In our last post, we explained the rigorous process undertaken by the Newberg School Board and Dr. Joe Morelock, ahead of the 2018-2021 strategic plan. Following a tiered process described by the Oregon Department of Education, the school board held multiple listening sessions that were well publicized and open to the public.
Those listening sessions also removed barriers that might have prevented stakeholders from attending, providing childcare, translators, and accessible documents to assure the participation of almost anyone. The resulting strategic plan was publicized, and has helped direct decisions about how to improve student outcomes, and how to use the district’s resources.
At the February 14, 2023, Newberg School District meeting, Dr. Stephen Phillips said he plans to expand empathy in the next few months. According to an article from the district, Phillips said “The first step for us will be to establish industry-standard, two-way communication systems for schools.”
Phillips met with “over 30” parents, students, staff, and faculty for these interviews, and felt like the “data we received was more valuable than any mean tweet in helping guide our strategy for the future.” Qualitative data like that gathered by empathy interviews is important; it’s good that the school board is not letting social media drive its decision making.
And still, empathy interviews offer great anecdotal evidence, but they are not meant to be used as data for creating a strategic plan. More robust and more inclusive data-gathering, using qualitative and quantitative methodology, is necessary for a strategic plan to appropriately guide decisions in the district.
This resource from Learning Forward helps explain the benefits and the challenges of empathy interviews. Such interviews should
- be completed with full awareness of power differentials between the interviewer and subject;
- should be inclusive, drawing in people who might normally be “marginalized and excluded from traditional data research methods”; and
- should include an awareness of the interviews’ biases, and how those biases might influence what is shared.
It could well be that Dr. Phillips is aware of the complexities associated with doing empathy interviews. However, there is a lack of transparency about who was invited to participate, how they were selected, and what specifically was asked.
Significantly, too, there is scant information about how this qualitative data will be used, and what additional measures will be taken to produce data that can shape the district and inform its goals.
Newberg Neighbors for a Better Community 