A Week of Survey Preperation

Since I've been a little MIA here for the past couple weeks that's usually a good sign that something up (and yes there is). Tomorrow at Middletown High School and throughout the week at Woodrow Wilson Middle School student will be engaging in the Search Institute's Profiles of Student Life which tracks the attitudes and behaviors of a community's teenagers. This is the first time we've resurveyed since 2006 and I can't tell you how excited I am to see what we've accomplished over the last five years. Since this survey is once again the largest survey ever conducted of Middletown kids both in size (160 questions) and scope (all public school kids in Grades 7-12) a lot of work has gone into making sure everything is prepared correctly and that students.

Last week we presented the Developmental Assets framework to the general community at the Middletown Schools Association monthly meeting as well as special presentation to Mayor Drew and members of the Common Council and Board of Education.

 Leah Maille spent time in the WWMS cafeteria asking students to make pledges to take the survey seriously and answer questions honestly. A copy of the pledge is below.

Leah and I then teamed up with Dragons In Action member Leon Chandler to make our first PSA ever. Check it out below.

And between that all we prepared packets so that over 2,000 students have the opportunity to have their voices heard and let us know how we're doing as a community to ensure that all kids will grow up to be healthy and successful. Many thanks to Youth Services Bureau Advisory Board member Vinnie Senatore for volunteering with all us last week and intern Miles Nasta (who broke away from the Youth Yellow Pages project) to help make sure we got the survey items out on time.