When soliciting input on something about the structure of the school, certain groups will tend to have a disproportionately strong voice. Those who know the system best will tend to have more opinions and will want to express them, while those who don't feel comfortable interacting with the behemoths of American educational structures will shrink away from voicing their beliefs. We value all members of our school community, and want to ensure that all voices are heard.
In an effort to ensure all voices were heard in our revision process, we met with students to create a plan that they felt would allow us to hear from the widest spectrum of students. They suggested having in-person discussions that every student would attend. We decided against having these discussions during Crew, since they observed that some students fall into established roles and patterns in their Crews which could change the responses we would hear. Instead, we set aside a 40-minute Flex session on a Wednesday and assigned students to random groupings. In those discussions, a notetaker recorded student responses when they were asked the same questions that were also asked of the other groups in the form. Students also had the option to fill out the form later if they wanted to provide additional information or if they were absent for the discussions.
To get the best family feedback, the students suggested we employ a very old school technique: Send a sheet home with every student to get signed and brought back to school. The sheet described the project of the skill revision and asked parents to complete the online form or complete it by hand on the given page. Parents signed off that they completed it, and students brought it back to school. We did not attach any reward or punishment to the forms being returned, treating it as a symbolic move that incentivized families to provide their input.
Getting the full staff input was much easier, as we just hounded each staff member until they completed the online form.