ALE Application: Setting Up the Parent Class Interest Survey

In the ALE Application, parents can be given the opportunity to complete a survey, indicating their interest in class offerings for the upcoming term or school year.  These results can be used by programs to make plans for which classes to offer and in larger programs, how many sections are needed.  

There are several steps involved in utilizing the survey tool:  

1. Choose which classes will be included on the survey for parents to “vote” for
2. Assign parents how many “votes” per student they will receive
3. Make survey available to the parents
4. Download survey results
5. Purge results (if needed)

Choose Which Classes to Include

Classes from the “All Classes” list in the system will be available for you to include on the survey.  The data points that will be made available to parents when taking the survey include:  

• Class Name
• Certificated Teacher
• Support Staff
• Grade Levels
• Subject Area
• Description

Classes that are not currently offered, that you wish to include on the survey can be entered with only those data points above included.  You may consider adding a naming convention that would allow you to quickly filter to those classes created for this purpose for easy deletion if they are not utilized after the survey.  

This task is completed on the Data Admin Role via the Administrative Tasks Page.  Scroll down to “Available Classes for Enrollment Survey” and click “Add Record.”  

Next, a form will open up where you will select the classes to include.  Click on “Select” to view the list of available classes.

Use the filters to sort and find all of the classes you would like to include on the survey for parents.  Use the check marks or to choose individual classes or the check mark at the top to choose all from your list.  You can view which you have chosen by clicking on “View Selected” in the bottom right corner and a tally of how many classes you have chosen displays the count on the bottom left corner.  

Once you are done, click “Add Classes” in the top right.  You will see a list of all the classes you are about to add to the survey:

In this view you can remove classes that need to be removed by clicking the “x” next to the class name.  You can also add additional classes by clicking the add button again, where your selections will be retained.  Once you are done, click “Add” at the top right. You will see a table displaying a list of all the classes you have selected to add.

From this view, you can select one or more classes with the check marks at the left and remove them from the list via the selected rows action.  Another option is to use the row action gear for removing single records.  To add records to the selected list, click on “Add Record” again.  You can repeat this process as needed until you have your list finalized for the survey.  

Assigning Votes to Parents

Next, you will need to determine how many “votes” parents will be allowed per student.  Each vote represents one class.  Currently, there is a utility where you can mass apply the same number of votes to all students.  Any individualization can then be done on a per student basis if needed.  

This task is also completed in the Data Admin Role via the Administrative Tasks Page.  Scroll down to “Mass Apply Maximum Count of Parent Interested Classes to All SLPs”

Enter the number of “votes” you would like to assign to every student and click “Execute Mass Apply of Parent Interested Classes.”

On an individual SLP you can see where this number has been captured by scrolling down to the very bottom of the Details tab to “Max Count of Parent Interested Classes.”

If individual changes need to be made for some students (who perhaps get less “votes”) that can be done here and saved as needed.  

Making the Survey Available to Parents

 Now that you have determined which classes are going to be included in the survey and assigned each student a number of “votes” you need to activate the survey link for parents.  This task is completed in the Program Manager role under the “Settings” menu.  

Using the row action gear, choose “Edit” and set to true or false as needed.  

When true, the link for the ALE Class Survey will be visible in the left nav for parents in your program.  When set to false, parents will not see the link.

How Parents Complete the Survey

Once the link is activated, parents will see a table with one line for each one of their students in the program with an active SLP for the current or upcoming school year.  Using the row action gear, they can choose “select classes” which will open up a form selector.

They will click “select” to see a list of classes available.  

In the resulting table, filters are available to allow parents to search by class name, teacher, support staff, grade level, subject  and hovering over the description will allow them to view the full text.

Using the check marks, parents can select the classes they wish to “vote” for and click “Add Ale Classes” at the top right.

If they attempt to exceed the number of “votes” extended to them for this student, they will receive an error message reminding them of how many classes they may choose.  

Once chosen, the classes will display in a list in the table on the Ale Class Survey Page.

Download Parent Interest Survey Results

Once parents complete the Parent Interest Survey, you can download all of the survey results into a single spreadsheet. The download can be found via the Data Admin role, in Summary on the left hand navigation menu. Then use the page action gear to find the report “All ALE Parent Interest Survey Results.”

This report will indicate which students were assigned votes, who actually completed the survey, and provide a summary of total votes per class.

Purge Survey Choices and “Reset” Survey

Once parents complete the Parent Interest Survey, programs can purge or remove all of the survey results, clearing the tables so the survey can be utilized again.

On the Data Admin role, select Administrative Tasks from the left navigation menu.

Scroll down to the button "Remove all Current Parent Interest Survey Selections."Clicking this button will display a pop up warning reminding users that "This process is irreversible and should only be completed once you have downloaded your survey results and verified their validity. Would you like to proceed?" When you are ready to verify this action, click “Yes, Continue.”