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The Tucson Jewish Community Center Early Childhood Education
Courtney Burns | [email protected]
Lawrence Jacquet | [email protected]
Hao Mu | [email protected]
Hannah Watts | [email protected]
Jeremeiah Whiteside | [email protected]
1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3
Introduction 3
Special Needs Services 3
Client Survey 3
Early Childhood Services 3
Parent Focus 3
Evaluation Focus 4
Jewish Life and Learning, Arts and Culture, and Philanthropy 4
Focus Groups 4
Written and Mobile Surveys 4
Camp, J Care, and Enrichment Classes 4
Spectrum of Community Engagement 4
Enrichment Class Retention Program 5
Social Cues for Feedback 5
Sports, Recreation and Aquatics 5
Data-Driven Innovation Guide 5
Membership and Fitness 5
Pricing, Millennial-Oriented Fitness, and Social Outreach 6
Conclusion 6
Situation 7
Challenge and Opportunity 7
Purpose 7
Project Scope 7
Early Childhood Education Evaluation Tool 7
Parental Alignment 7
Background 8
Primary Data 8
Initial Client Meeting 8
Tour 8
Manic Monday 8
ECE Director Outreach 9
Secondary Data and Analysis 9
Parent Expectations 9
Client Alignment 9
Surveys 10
Balanced Scorecard & SERVQUAL 11
Focus Groups and Informal Conversations 14
Key Findings/Analysis 14
Recommendations 15
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Improving Manic Monday 15
Post-Parent Tour Debriefing 16
Suggestion Box 18
Yearly Evaluation Surveys 18
Implementation 19
Conclusion 20
References 21
Appendix A: Parent Expectations Form 23
Appendix B: SERVQual Survey 24
Appendix C: Obtaining and Understanding the SERVQual score 27
3
Executive Summary Introduction
The purpose of this report is to communicate the research, analysis, and recommendations for the
Tucson Jewish Community Center (The J), to establish a system for evaluating the success of its
programs and to promote a culture of innovation throughout the organization. Each team
balanced the concepts of innovation and evaluation to encourage staff to break from the status
quo, while also planning for long-term program sustainability through evaluation. Program
success is dependent on three metrics: financial success, number of people served, and program
quality. The following teams focused on program evaluation: Special Needs Services; Early
Childhood Services; and Jewish Life and Learning/ Arts and Culture/ Philanthropy. The J desires
a framework to enable its employees to create and innovate. The teams focused on developing a
culture of innovation include: Camp/ J Care/ Enrichment Classes; Sports and Recreation/
Aquatics; and Membership/ Fitness. A summary of each team’s report can be found below.
Special Needs Services
During the initial meeting with the SNS Program’s stakeholders, we discovered that the program
is financially efficient, highly praised, and competitive, but needs a way to receive in-depth,
quantifiable data from the parents and program members. Our primary research consisted of
interviews with key stakeholders to learn about current evaluation methods and interactions with
members. We also conducted secondary research through databases to learn about evaluation
methods that are ideal for non-profit organizations. We concluded that client surveys are the best
option.
Client Survey
Once we decided to focus our efforts on client surveys, we began to fabricate a plan to create and
execute an effective survey. We discovered that client surveys need to actively avoid bias,
sample a high percentage of the target market, and contain questions that are relevant, ethical,
and unambiguous. Our plan recommends applying a client survey by identifying the target
audience, defining what needs to be asked, creating and administering the questionnaire, and
finally receiving and applying the feedback. Potential questions for this survey are included in
the appendix of our report.
Early Childhood Services
The recommendations we developed will allow The J to improve the Early Childhood Education
(ECE) program, parent alignment, and parent satisfaction through various evaluation metrics.
The J currently evaluates the community center as a whole, but not all programs are evaluated on
an individual basis. This creates a challenge when determining the strength of alignment between
The J and parents of the ECE programs. To resolve this challenge, we discovered two areas of
focus: parents and evaluation.
Parent Focus
We studied how to increase relationship strength between parents and staff. Our primary research
included meeting with a panel from The J, a mock tour, and an observation of Manic Monday,
giving us a deeper understanding of The J’s current alignment with parents. Our secondary
research consisted of exploring best practices for parent alignment. Based on our research and
the current parent alignment, we recommend improving Manic Monday and increasing both
parent involvement and feedback opportunities.
4
Evaluation Focus
In order to evaluate the alignment between parent expectations and the ECE services, we
researched other programs’ evaluation methods. Due to the limited research on how other ECE
programs evaluate parental satisfaction, we reached out to department heads of JCC’s around the
country. Additionally, we analyzed SERVQual, a tool used by businesses and higher institutions.
This tool captures qualitative information, such as benefits, satisfaction, and preferences to
assess overall service quality. We found that surveys are an effective means to gather
information, and businesses can achieve high response rates through incentives, anonymity, and
pre-notification. Based on these findings, we recommend administering SERVQual-inspired
surveys to parents, and using a variety of methods for increased response rates.
Jewish Life and Learning, Arts and Culture, and Philanthropy
In our report, we provide a research-based recommendation on evaluation methods to measure
the success of the Arts and Culture, Jewish Life, and Philanthropy departments within the
Tucson Jewish Community Center. Supported by extensive primary and secondary research on
best practices, our teams’ solution to the lack of formal evaluation methods consists of using a
combination of focus groups, written surveys and mobile surveys. The intended result of this
solution is to add value to The J’s programs.
Focus Groups
The first pillar of our recommendation is focus groups. We recommend consistent and topic-
driven focus groups, which will provide insights on beneficial program developments for the
Philanthropy and Jewish Life departments, in particular. To discover philanthropic and cultural
goals of J members and staff, we recommend an open dialogue for a focus group.
Written and Mobile Surveys
Secondly, we recommend is written surveys for all 3 departments. A short, simple survey should
be distributed during an Arts and Culture event, and collected at the end for the most effective
and easily adaptable results. For Philanthropy, mid- and end-project review surveys are
opportunities for individuals to share positives or negatives, and to suggest any improvements.
Jewish Life and Learning-focused surveys should be distributed with Likert scales to allow
members to measure how to enhance classes and enrichment programs. Finally, mobile surveys
offer countless options for The J. Successful incentive-based methods can be incorporated into
The J’s CRM, Daxko. A concise, relevant, and adaptable mobile survey can assess feedback
from any member who downloads the application.
Camp, J Care, and Enrichment Classes
We were tasked with providing recommendations for innovation and evaluation of the children’s
enrichment classes, day camps, and child care at The J. Through implementing our enrichment
class retention program, The J will offer an innovative certificate program that attracts members
to enroll in more classes and increases member retention. Our additional recommendations will
help The J understand feedback from both employees and members.
Spectrum of Community Engagement
To address employee innovation, The J should implement a Spectrum of Community
Engagement Initiative. This spectrum has delivered results to numerous other establishments
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through its focus on employee involvement and empowerment. The five-step program involves
taking employee comments into consideration during monthly meetings, and implementing new
initiatives based off the employees’ input.
Enrichment Class Retention Program
In order to differentiate The J’s enrichment classes from competitors and retain class attendance,
The J should create a children’s enrichment class retention program. This program entails
grouping certain enrichment classes together based on similar themes. Once a student has
completed 3-4 related classes, they will receive a certificate. This program will encourage
children to enroll in multiple, related classes. This would not only increase class attendance, but
also the child’s sense of achievement. This program will require the full involvement of The J
staff to support and encourage members to take full advantage of this opportunity for
achievement.
Social Cues for Feedback
We recommend the implementation a video recording system for data collection. Applications in
academic settings have revealed that feedback in non-text form encourages engagement and
delivers higher quality data in juxtaposition to Likert-type inquiries. Narrative data provides the
opportunity to capitalize upon member “traditions” and convert these moments into retention.
The process of capitalization mirrors marketing best practices.
Sports, Recreation and Aquatics
As a team, our goal was to establish a way to aid The J in creating innovative programming in
the Sports, Recreation, and Aquatics sector. This is especially important in our assigned sector
because the competitive landscape is constantly changing. After our initial stakeholder meeting,
we conducted extensive research on the following 4 types of data: descriptive, behavioral,
attitudinal, and interactive. Additionally, this includes research on demographics, “me time”,
trends, benchmarking data, and best practices for innovation and evaluation. All of this research
can be found in the final deliverable.
Data-Driven Innovation Guide
After conducting this research, we developed a “how to” guide for to help The J’s employees
effectively innovate. The “how to” guide entails a six-step process: find a need, research further,
develop solutions, present solutions, implement solutions, and evaluate. Our intention is for
employees to complete these six steps in four months. In order to accomplish this, we created a
four-month timeline for creation, implementation, and evaluation. Included with the guide and
timeline is 1) a glossary of terms, and 2) an example case study for employees to reference if
they need assistance or further explanations while working through a phase.
Membership and Fitness
Our report is intended to provide The J with recommendations for innovating the fitness and
membership programs while reinforcing a sense of community. Our extensive research and
survey of 49 gym members have shown that focusing on member engagement will help The J
retain members and evening fitness class volume. To increase retention and perceived value, we
recommend the implementation of a pricing plan, millennial-oriented fitness class innovation,
and social outreach events.
6
Pricing, Millennial-Oriented Fitness, and Social Outreach
The implementation of our recommendation will encourage staff to move away from the status
quo while building upon The J’s core values. Additionally, our solutions emphasize the
importance of community, and are crucial to the immediate and long-term retention of
millennials and their families. The short-term focus is creating additional membership value for
millennials by emphasizing millennial-oriented fitness class innovation, thus increasing evening
attendance as well. The long-term focus is on gradually improving communal harmony through
events and restructured pricing to better tailor to individual needs.
Conclusion
Each team balanced the two primary goals of promoting program evaluation and creating a
community of innovation at The J. While summaries are provided here, each team’s in-depth
research, analysis, and recommendations can be found in their respective reports. Based on in-
depth research and meetings with departmental stakeholders, each team developed
recommendations that will help the J break from the status quo while simultaneously evaluating
their programs for long-term sustainability and growth.
7
Situation This report is designed to aid you in understanding how we will help The J evaluate its Early
Childhood Education (ECE) programs and improve parent alignment. As stated below, The J
lacks a way to evaluate the effectiveness of its ECE services and faces the need to better align its
programs with parent expectations. We address these issues through several recommendations
that will provide The J with an evaluation tool, opportunities for feedback, and increased parental
alignment in order to effectively assist The ECE department in sustainably evaluating its service
quality and improving parent alignment. Below, we discuss our project scope, research, key
findings, recommendations, and implementation methods.
Challenge and Opportunity
The J currently lacks an evaluation system that measures the parent satisfaction of its ECE
program and the program’s impact on parent-specified objectives. This presents us with the
opportunity to create an evaluation tool for The J to assess parental perceptions of the program
quality and their overall satisfaction. The J also faces the challenge of articulating its program’s
offerings and defining its value to parents. This challenge has created the opportunity for us to
recommend strategies for better communication and alignment of parental values with ECE
services.
Purpose
The purpose of our project is to create an effective evaluation system and various methods that
allow The J to better align with parent desires. Based on research found, we developed an
evaluation tool that will accurately measure parent satisfaction and improve communication of
parent expectations. We have also created several strategies that will help The J garner more
parental feedback and better promote Manic Monday.
Project Scope
The J asked our team to develop a sustainable evaluation
process to assess its ECE program quality, as well as improve
parental alignment. We focus on measuring parent satisfaction,
while targeting strategies to create opportunities for parents
and staff to communicate common goals. We pinpoint the
problem by creating different channels for The J to garner
feedback, primarily through a “pre- and post-” evaluation on
parent expectations and by increasing parent involvement in
its ECE programs.
Early Childhood Education Evaluation Tool
● Assess parent expectations of ECE programs through a
“pre-” evaluation tool
● Create evaluation to assess service performance of
these expectations using a “post-” evaluation tool
● Utilize the SERVQual-based survey to evaluate the parent satisfaction and expectations
● Incentivize parents to provide feedback
Parental Alignment
● Assess current parental expectations regarding The J’s core values
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● Increase parent involvement
● Gather information from informal conversations to later convert into quantifiable data
● Improve communications between The J and parents
Background Primary Data
Initial Client Meeting
As a group, we had three opportunities to collect data regarding parent alignment: client meeting,
ECE department tour, and Manic Monday. At the initial client meeting, parents and staff
concurred that there was no formal process to provide feedback for the ECE programs. The J
would like to address parent concerns by facilitating informal meetings to provide feedback.
Todd Rockoff emphasized that he wants to ensure the ECE department articulates to parents
what they are getting from the ECE services, highlighting that The J promotes child growth,
creativity, and development through play-based curriculum.
The parents at the meeting highlighted the following areas as their top expectations of an early
childhood education program:
● Affordable cost
● Safe environment
● Nurturing teachers
● Disciplinary actions
● Integration with other programs within The J
Tour
By taking a tour of the ECE department, we discovered how The J aligns with parents early in
the process. Parent tours are currently the best method of collecting information about The J’s
ECE program offerings. Before the tour begins, Ms. Riddles gives parents a registration packet
that explains The J’s curriculum, inclusion policies, and pricing structure. She then gives parents
the opportunity to discuss any questions or concerns they may have before beginning the tour,
but noted that parents often do not know what questions to ask during the tour. Parents explore
the classrooms and facilities most appropriate for their current needs. Ms. Riddle concludes the
tour by directing parents toward member services to continue the registration process. Once we
completed the tour, we noticed it lacked a time for the parents to express their expectations and
desired outcomes of an early childhood education program.
Manic Monday
Once parents have enrolled their children in The J’s ECE programs, they have the opportunity to
provide feedback once a month during Manic Monday. The first Monday of each month has a
two-hour time slot dedicated to individualized feedback and questions regarding upcoming
programs from parents. Feedback from Manic Monday has given the ECE department ideas for
new programs. Manic Monday was designed as an informal focus group, however due to the
timing, parents seem to use it for quick one-on-one feedback with the department head. If The J
9
better advertises Manic Monday and creates an environment that encourages parent interaction,
the program has the opportunity to grow stronger as an informal focus group.
ECE Director Outreach
In order to find new ways to better align with parents and evaluate The J’s Early Childhood
Education programs, we decided to reach out to JCC’s ECE department directors across the
country. By doing this, we hoped to receive valuable insight on how other JCC’s align with
parents and evaluate their programs. We reached out to three different department heads: Lisa
Monette, Director of the Eric & Sheila Samson Family Early Childhood Learning Center of the
Orange County JCC, Tara Sutker Ohayon, Director of Early Childhood Education at the Aaron
Family Jewish Community Center of Dallas, and Mark Horowitz, Vice President and Director,
Sheva Center for Innovation in Early Childhood Jewish Education and Engagement. Due to
scheduling conflicts, we were unable to conduct an informational phone interview with the
directors.
Secondary Data and Analysis
Parent Expectations
After conducting secondary research on parent
expectations, we have identified their top priorities
when choosing an early childhood education
program. These include the following: nutrition,
health and wellness, child care cost, location, and
hours of operations. Many parents consider child to child interaction more important than child
to teacher ratio. Parents are also very concerned with facility cleanliness and ease of access in
case of emergencies. According to the Journal of Early Education and Development, parents are
becoming more cautious about the foods to which they expose their children, as they want to
ensure their children establish healthy eating habits. Parents expect child care programs to help
establish these habits. Understanding parent concerns and how they affect overall parent
satisfaction is important in developing an effective evaluation tool that is based around parent
expectations.
Client Alignment
In 2010, the Ohio Department of Education created a list of the six best practices to ensure
parental alignment within Early Childhood Education programs. These steps include:
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● Create a welcoming environment
● Provide parents with at-home resources to further
the child’s learning experience
● Strengthen families’ knowledge so they can assist
with children’s study skills.
● Create multiple suggestion boxes specific to ECE
programs
● Establish contact portals between parents, teachers
and staff
● Create roles for parents within the ECE programs to
increase involvement
With increased involvement, we can reasonably expect that parents will be able to better evaluate
the programs they oversee. This will allow parents to provide active and immediate feedback to
teachers and staff regarding the areas of the ECE programs in which they volunteer. This
research gave us a starting point for brainstorming ways The J can best align the ECE program
with their clients’ needs.
Surveys
According to Qualtrics, the leading research and experience software, there are ten effective tips
for writing a survey. The most relevant tips to The J’s challenges include the following:
● Ask questions using a funnel approach (broad questions asked first and specific questions
asked last)
● Avoid unclear questions
● Do not require questions (only ask respondents to answer the questions with which they
are comfortable)
● Provide options for answers to be written in if multiple choice answers don’t give every
possible option
● Avoid double-barreled questions (two questions in one)
● Use multiple choice questions sparingly.
Survey Monkey, another top website for survey and questionnaire creation, explains that there
are three key points to follow when creating an efficient and effective survey. These points
include making sure the language used in the survey aligns with the respondents’ language. They
also stress the importance of both question simplicity and the absence of biased or leading
questions. Writing questions that sway towards a specific answer skews the results of the survey,
creating incorrect results. We used this research when creating the survey questions found in
Appendix B.
We also researched the best practices for increasing survey response rates. According to an
article in the Journal of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, the pre-notification of surveys,
the assurance of anonymity, and the use of single follow-ups all significantly increase response
11
rates. With regards to incentives, prepaid monetary incentives and the promise of a charitable
donation also increase response rates. The study conducted by this journal concluded that a $25
payment resulted in significantly improved response rates for adequate, quality, and complete
questionnaires.
An Oracle Best Practice Guide
discusses the top seven best
practices for survey execution,
and we identified the five most
relevant to our project scope.
First, timing the survey well is
essential to increase the number
of respondents. They suggest
avoiding Monday and Fridays by
sending midweek e-mail invitations in the afternoon. Second, the audience will more likely
respond if surveys are personalized to the target audience and include a Thank You page. Next, it
is essential for businesses to take action in order to maintain response rates throughout the years.
Participants want to know that their feedback ignited action and that their voices were heard.
This goes hand-in-hand with the next best practice: showing customers that the company is
listening by improving their next experience based on the given feedback. Lastly, businesses
must limit survey frequency to avoid annoying clients, only surveying enough to obtain
necessary information. Oracle recommends basing survey frequency on the organization's
interactions with customers. We believe a combination of each of these techniques will be
beneficial in implementing a survey-based method of evaluation with high response rates and
quality data.
Balanced Scorecard & SERVQUAL
In order to evaluate the alignment between parent expectations and the ECE services, we
researched other programs’ evaluation methods. However, there is limited research on how other
ECE programs evaluate parental satisfaction. By broadening our research scope, we found a
study in the Journal of Interactive Marketing that uses the balanced scorecard to capture the
qualitative benefits, such as interactions, benefits, satisfaction, and preferences, of a customer
relations management (CRM) system.
The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a performance measurement framework that overcomes the
drawbacks of financially-oriented performance assessments. It uses both financial and non-
financial performance measures to give managers a more balanced view of program
performance. However, instead of using the traditional four perspectives of the BSC, such as
financial and business process, the study used more customer-centric qualities to better measure
how well services meet customers’ wants and needs.
12
These perspectives include customer knowledge, customer value, customer interaction, and
customer satisfaction. The figure on the next page describes how a company can use these
customer-centric perspectives to increase both value and profit, while also improving customer
loyalty and acquisition.
In order to turn these intangible perspectives
into quantifiable numbers, the study used a
research instrument called SERVQual.
According to a SERVQual framework guide,
this tool allows a business to capture how
customer expectations and perceptions align
with service quality. According to Qualtrics,
SERVQual is the most widely used measure of
service quality and its scores are highly
reliable. When applied over time, SERVQual
helps companies understand areas in need of
improvement by evaluating customer
perceptions of specific services.
SERVQual uses the following five dimensions
to measure service quality: reliability,
assurance, tangibles, empathy, and
responsiveness. Qualtrics states that these
dimensions are consistently ranked by customers to be a top priority for quality services. The
figure below defines each dimension.
13
The SERVQual model uses a questionnaire composed of 22 questions, each with two parts
(expectations and perceptions), divided amongst the five dimensions. The customer answer the
questions using a 7-point Likert scale. This enables the survey to close the gap between:
● Customers’ expectations versus management perceptions (Gap 1),
● The discrepancy between customers’ expectations and their perceptions of the service
delivered (Gap 5),
● The discrepancy between customer expectations and employee perceptions (Gap 6).
The figure below delineates each of the six gaps that SERVQual closes.
SERVQual Case Study
A study in the Journal of Business and Management discusses the use of SERVQual to evaluate
undergraduate and postgraduate management classes at the University of Cincinnati and HEC
Paris. Each university administered the complete SERVQual questionnaire to students during the
last two weeks of their quarter. They used an online survey tool and promised anonymity.
The universities analyzed the SERVQual and found several opportunities for improvement in
their classes. At HEC Paris, student expectations exceeded university performance on every
dimension. However, at the University of Cincinnati, classroom service exceeded student
expectations on the following three dimensions: responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The
study concluded with this remark: “The use of the SERVQual gap analysis in the classroom
would promote both effective and efficient service quality management.”
14
This research led our team to conclude that The J could benefit from SERVQual because it
closes the gap between customer expectations and management perceptions, as well as between
customer expectations and their perceptions of the service delivered. This will help The J better
align between department offerings and parent expectations.
Focus Groups and Informal Conversations
Initially, we were tasked with finding an informal means to collect
formal data, such as using a focus groups. Focus groups, according
to the Center for Assessment, Planning, and Accountability, are
most effective with 7-12 members. Discussion is encouraged
among participants to provide a deeper understanding of the topic at
hand. Focus groups do not have to follow a specific format, but the
acquired information is most effective if the moderator understands
the group dynamics and prevents the group from straying too far
from topics. According an article on focus groups in the British
Journal of Nursing, the moderator must create an open and
comfortable environment. Typically, focus groups are held for one or two hours in a comfortable
room with no disturbances. If held in an informal setting, a business should choose a neutral
location without distractions. The groups can also be held over informal sessions such as a meal.
According to Weinberger’s focus group article for allbusiness.com, focus groups held at the
business location can produce a bias, therefore rendering it useless. He also suggests using focus
groups to produce favorable experiences and encourage future interactions. Using this
information, focus groups are a positive way to gather feedback regarding parental expectations,
and one with which The J can benefit.
Key Findings/Analysis Based on our research, we identified several key factors that guided our recommendation
development. Below we discuss the main takeaways within our two research categories.
Parent Alignment Focused
Parent expectations change with trends; however, the research above indicates parents’ top
priorities include childcare cost, location, and both physical and environmental safety. Through
our research, we found that increased parental involvement within the ECE program allows for
the most efficient and effective feedback from parents. Also, the tour does not include a time for
parents to express their desired-outcomes and expectations of an ECE program, and Manic
Monday’s current one-on-one interactions do not promote optimal parent collaboration,
minimizing the feedback available.
Evaluation Focused
The SERVQual methodology assess service quality using the five dimensions consistently
ranked by customers as a top priority for high-quality services, including tangibles, reliability,
15
empathy, assurance, and responsiveness. This allows businesses and institutions to capture
qualitative information and place it on a rating scale to quantify customer satisfaction.
SERVQual closes the gap between customer expectations and their perceptions of the service
provided, allowing businesses to understand services in need of improvement. Also, we found
that surveys are an effective means to gather information, and businesses can achieve high
response rates through employing several strategies and providing incentives, anonymity, and
pre-notifications. These key findings aided us in developing possible methods for improving
parental alignment and creating an evaluation of parental satisfaction.
Recommendations Our recommendations are divided into two parts: solutions to improve parental alignment and
solutions to evaluate parental alignment and satisfaction. Our approach to improving parental
alignment includes improving Manic Monday, implementing a post-tour debriefing, and adding a
suggestion box. In addition to improving parental alignment, we created recommendations to
evaluate how successful The J is in maintaining relations with parents and creating client
satisfaction.
Improving Manic Monday
We recommend The J increase communication regarding feedback opportunities. Since Manic
Monday is a newer program, many parents are unaware of the potential opportunity to
communicate concerns and ideas to the ECE department staff. Therefore, we recommend The J
increase promotion of Manic Monday by sending out a reminder the day before Manic Monday.
There are two possible forms to implement this change. The J should send a reminder email to
parents with children in the ECE program on the
Sunday morning before Manic Monday. We
suggest this time because, according to Statista,
51% of people check their emails between 8am
and noon. Therefore, it will reach the greatest
number of parents if sent in the morning the day
before Manic Monday. A second option for
improving the awareness of Manic Monday is
sending a Facebook message the day before.
This will remind parents about the program
because they will see the post when using Facebook over the weekend.
We also recommend holding Manic Monday in the same location. Although researchers, such as
Doody, Slevin, and Taggart, suggest holding focus groups in a conference room, changing the
location of Manic Monday will not increase participation. A conference room is more conducive
to the collaborative environment; however, due to the current setup of Manic Monday, sitting in
a conference room would be inconvenient for parents on their way to work. Therefore, changing
the location of Manic Monday may cause a negative yield.
16
Benefits
Informing parents about Manic Monday ahead of time will allow them to leave earlier in the
morning and allot time for providing feedback versus rushing to work. During this time, parents
will provide constructive criticism and well-thought out ideas. Implementing these
recommendations will allow The J to collect useful information and ideas from a greater number
of parents. Also, by keeping the location of Manic Monday, The J will increase attendance.
Post-Parent Tour Debriefing
After noticing there is no time for parents to express their expectations of Early Childhood
Education during the Parent Tour, we recommend that The J conduct a “debriefing” at the
conclusion of the tour. This debriefing will include an informal conversation between the ECE
director and the parents, as well as a formal questionnaire.
The informal conversation will allow parents to discuss the following items:
● Their feedback of the services visited
● Their desires and expectations of the program
We recommend that staff emphasize The J’s belief in creating a partnership between parents and
teachers to help the children grow. We also recommend asking questions, such as:
● Do you have any questions about the play-based learning curriculum?
● Can we clarify any services we provide to the children, such as the enrichment or fitness
classes?
We suggest administering the questionnaire during the conversation to save time and keep the
tour flowing. The questionnaire will ask a series of questions catered to understanding exactly
what the parents want from the program and will act as a “pre” evaluation tool. The
questionnaire questions can be found in Appendix A. Later, we discuss our “post” survey
recommendation that accompanies this “pre” evaluation, which will evaluate the alignment
between these pre-specified parent expectations and the service delivered.
In order to implement this suggestion, we suggest ending the ECE tour by returning to Ms.
Riddle’s office to conduct the debriefing and administer the paperwork as opposed to concluding
the tour at membership services. This will present the parents with a table and space for
answering the survey questions in a comfortable setting centered around the debriefing
conversation.
Benefits
The debriefing conversation will allow the parents to clarify The J’s ECE offerings and ensure
parents understand the value of the program, to communicate with the director what the parents
want their children to achieve during the program, and to promote that The J’s ECE staff wants
to establish common goals with the parents.
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This formalized questionnaire document will allow the department to have a written record of the
parents’ desires and can use it to better gauge what services to provide for their children. The J
will also be able to take this information and gain new insights on parent expectations. This will
allow them to innovate within their programs to better service parents while maintaining their
identity as a play-based organization with core Jewish values.
Increase Parent Involvement
According to our research, creating opportunities for parental involvement within the Early
Childhood Education programs is one of the best ways to ensure parental alignment. We suggest
creating volunteer jobs for The J’s parents in their ECE department during school hours. The
following are volunteer examples that will greatly increase parental involvement at The J:
● Playground duty during play time
● Participating/teaching in fitness classes
● Joining meal times
● “Muffins with Moms” and/or “Donuts with Dads” before school breakfast
In order to implement this recommendation, The J should first advertise this new program to
motivate parents that are able to volunteer. Based on a Best Practices for Parent Involvement
Guide created by Michigan Department of Education, we suggest utilizing the following
approaches for successful implementation:
1. Create a welcoming environment with staff greetings and entrance signs to ensure parents
feel valued, and educate staff on
how to create such an environment.
2. Give parents who are unable to
volunteer on campus alternative
ways to stay actively involved at
home or in their place of
employment.
3. Create a process for contacting all
parents throughout the year.
4. Create a flexible volunteering
schedule, with short volunteering
durations, to address parents’ busy
schedules.
5. Reinforce appreciation of parents and emphasize that their contributions are meaningful.
Benefits
Creating these opportunities for daily involvement gives parents an inside look at staffs’ teaching
techniques, children learning styles and social skills, and the play-based learning environment.
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From this experience, parents can give feedback on these aspects of the ECE programs from
firsthand knowledge.
Suggestion Box
In case parents are unable to actively volunteer, we recommend creating an anonymous
suggestion or comment box for parents. Allowing parents the opportunity to anonymously share
their questions, concerns, and recommendations for the ECE program is an effective way to
receive immediate parent feedback. The ECE staff should place the suggestion box near the ECE
entrance or in the common area near the classrooms. This location is convenient for parents to
communicate quick feedback while dropping off and picking up their children. These places are
also optimal for the most foot traffic.
Benefits
Implementing a suggestion box would allow parents to communicate with The J consistently
without needing to schedule appointments or requiring parents to change their normal routine.
Suggestion cards can be taken and filled out anonymously, allowing for honest feedback and
comments without fear of judgement. This method combined with more formal methods
mentioned in the recommendation section will allow The J to gain information for service
improvements.
Yearly Evaluation Surveys
To evaluate The J’s ECE programs based on the alignment between parent expectations and the
services provided, we recommend administering a yearly survey. The survey is based on the
SERVQual model and will assess parents’ satisfaction of the program. We suggest using
SERVQual as the basis for this survey because, as stated above, SERVQual allows companies to
quantify the qualitative nature of customer satisfaction. The survey will act as the “post-”
evaluation part of our project plan because it assesses parental satisfaction upon the conclusion
of the ECE program each year and will help The J evaluate how well they delivered their service
to the children.
We believe it is best to administer the survey only once a year to avoid over surveying and
maintain high response rates by minimizing customer annoyance. We also recommend
administering the survey via email, or on paper when the parents pick up their children,
whichever way is more convenient for the parents. The survey questions are outlined in
Appendix B. Appendix C explains how to obtain and understand the overall SERVQual score
once receiving survey results.
Increasing response rates
In order to obtain high parent response rates with these surveys, we suggest The J’s ECE
department employ the following four strategies:
● Notify parents prior to survey administration, and then send it within 24 hours
● Assure anonymity
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● Provide a single reminder to non-respondents
● Incentivize with either the promise of a small charitable donation or a small value gift
card with each survey response
Based on our research, The J should also send the survey invitations midweek in the afternoon
and include a Thank You page with the survey to ensure high response rates. The J, most
importantly, must take action based on the survey results. This will show its clients that their
feedback is useful, appreciated, and important, motivating parents to fill out future surveys.
Benefits and Post-Survey Recommendations
As seen in Appendix B, the SERVQual survey allows parents to rate the extent to which they
agree with an expectation statement, such as “Staff should be kind and courteous to my child.”
Then parents rate the extent to which they agree with the perception statement, such as “Staff
was kind and courteous to my child,” to rate how well The J delivered their on their
preconceived expectation of its ECE program. This will allow The J to close the gap between
parent expectations and parent perceptions of the service delivered.
Also, The J can use the final SERVQual score to evaluate the overall parent satisfaction. The
SERVQual scores will also be beneficial in creating goals for increasing the SERVQual score
each year and assessing achievement of these goals. The J can chart the scores, recognize
growth, and analyze trends. The survey will also aid in understanding which areas of the ECE
programs need improvement. As further described in Appendix C, if the Gap Score is negative,
improvement is necessary because service performance is inferior to client expectations. Once
determining the areas that need to be improved, we recommend The J develop a plan of action
based on survey results and communicate to parents how their feedback is being acted on.
Implementation We suggest the following timeline for The J to begin implementing our previously-mentioned
recommendations. Although the table on the next page shows tentative start dates, feel free to
adjust as necessary. The changes should be implemented with the beginning of the new school
year. The SERVQual survey is given at the end of each school session.
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Recommendation Date
Begin conducting debriefings May 2017
Set up suggestion boxes July 2017
Add new parent involvement opportunities August 2017
Announce Manic Monday September 2017
Administer surveys based on the SERVQual
model
December 2017
Costs
Staff time and materials are the two most pertinent costs to consider before adopting our
recommendations. Employees will require training on post-tour debriefing methods and parental
involvement opportunities. Managers will spend time compiling and reading the suggestions
from the suggestion box, as well as sending out surveys, encouraging parental involvement, and
organizing Manic Monday. Implementing the evaluation system, explaining the new process to
parents, and instructing staff on how to utilize the evaluation system effectively will also
consume time. Monetary costs will be relatively low and will revolve around material costs. The
J will have to create or buy a suggestion box, print surveys for parents wanting to take the survey
in person, and create small advertising materials to promote parental volunteering.
Conclusion This final deliverable discussed our project scope, research, key findings, recommendations, and
implementation methods. After conducting extensive research, we created five recommendations
that will help The J evaluate its Early Childhood Education programs and improve parent
alignment. These recommendations include improving Manic Monday, adding a post-parent tour
debriefing, increasing parent involvement, creating a suggestion box, and administering yearly
evaluation surveys. These recommendations will allow The J to effectively evaluate parent
satisfaction with its ECE programs, create opportunities for feedback, and align with parent
expectations.
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Appendix A: Parent Expectations Form
During the tour, were there any moments that stood out to you?
How do you prefer to receive information about (i.e. weekly objectives, classroom/child
achievements, and school events)? Circle most preferred methods.
Email Text Facebook Instagram Shutterfly
As a parent, what are your expectations of early childhood educations programs? (I.e. safety,
discipline, structure, etc.)
What do you want your child’s classes to prioritize for your child? (I.e. ABC’s, motor skills like
cutting and drawing, colors and shapes, socializing.)
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Appendix B: SERVQual Survey
EXPECTATIONS & PERCEPTIONS This survey deals with your opinions of early childhood
education programs and facilities. Please show the extent to which you think early childhood
education programs and facilities should possess the following features. What we are interested
in here is a number that best shows your expectations about institutions offering early childhood
education services.
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Expectations
Tangibles
E1. Good educational facilities allow for open child to child interaction. ___
E2. Good educational facilities should have modern equipment. ___
E3. Staff members at education institutions should dress professionally. ___
E4. The best educational facilities provide learning material for children to take home. ___
Reliability
E5. When a parent expresses concern to a staff member, excellent educational services
will show a sincere interest in addressing it. ___
E6. Excellent education programs offer consistent faculty, allowing children to feel
stable and secure around familiar staff faces. ___
E7. Being open on time and every time the facility is scheduled to be open represents a
good early childhood education program. ___
E8. Excellent early childhood education programs insure children are being monitored
and kept safe. ___
Responsiveness
E9. Excellent early childhood education programs will insist on informing parents of
any abnormalities in child behavior or appearance immediately. ___
E10. Staff at excellent early childhood education facilities will always be
willing to help parents. ___
E11. Staff at excellent early childhood education facilities will respond to parent
inquiries in a timely manner. ___
E12. Staff at excellent early childhood facilities will deliver services and programs on
time and provide an accurate timeline for parents. ___
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Assurance (Child Encouragement)
E13. The behavior of staff should instill confidence in children. ___
E14. Children should feel safe in the environment provided by the facility. ___
E15. Staff should have the knowledge to address children questions. ___
E16. Staff should be consistently courteous and kind to children. ___
Empathy
E17. The Early Childhood Education program gives children and parents individual
attention. ___
E18. Operating hours convenient to all parents. ___
E19. The staff that gives the children individual attention. ___
E20. Excellent early childhood education programs will understand each individual
child’s needs. ___
Perceptions
Tangibles
E1. Educational facilities allow for open child to child interaction. ___
E2. Educational facilities have modern equipment. ___
E3. Staff members dress professionally. ___
E4. Learning material for children to take home is affective. ___
Reliability
E5. When a parent expresses concern to a staff member, a sincere interest is shown
in addressing the concern. ___
E6. Program offers a consistent faculty, allowing children to feel stable and secure
around familiar staff faces. ___
E7. The facility is always open on time and every time it is scheduled to be open. ___
E8. The Early Childhood Education program insures children are being monitored
and kept safe. ___
Responsiveness
E9. The early childhood education program informs parents of any abnormalities in
child behavior or appearance immediately. ___
E10. Staff is always willing to help parents. ___
E11. Staff responds to parent inquiries in a timely manner. ___
E12. Staff at excellent early childhood facilities will deliver services and programs on
time and provide an accurate timeline for parents. ___
Assurance (Child Encouragement)
E13. The behavior of staff instils confidence in children. ___
E14. Children feel safe in the environment provided by the facility. ___
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E15. Staff has the knowledge to address children questions. ___
E16. Staff is consistently courteous and kind to children. ___
Empathy
E17. The Early Childhood Education program gives children and parents individual
attention. ___
E18. The Early Childhood Education program has operating hours convenient
to all parents. ___
E19. Staff give the children individual attention. ___
E20. The Early Childhood Education program understands each individual child’s
needs. ___
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Appendix C: Obtaining and Understanding the SERVQual score
Once receiving the survey responses, obtain the SERVQual score using the following steps:
1. Obtain the score for each of the 22 expectation questions
2. Obtain a score for each of the perception questions
3. Calculate the Gap Score for each of the statements (Gap Score = Perception -
Expectation)
4. Obtain an average Gap Score for each dimension by adding all the Gap Scores and
dividing by the total number of questions in that section
5. Sum up the average Gap Score for each dimension and divide by five to obtain the
measure of service quality
If a dimension’s gap score is negative, the service provided was worse than expected. In other
words, a gap exists between expectations and perceptions, indicating quality improvement is
necessary.
Sources: Donlagic, 2015