The District Equity Committee first established a subcommittee to work on the development of the survey. This subcommittee worked in collaboration with Adam Magerman, Gestalt, Inc. The survey provided information about community experiences and perspectives as they relate to the concept of equity. The survey was administered via a web platform (783 responses) and by phone interviews (50 interviews). Themes were developed from the interviews conducted and these were used to inform the survey data. 

Survey Respondent Demographics:

783 Total Respondents (+50 community interviews)

Gender / Gender Identity
• 70% Female
• 27% Male
• 3% Prefer to self-identify

Race / Ethnicity
• 83% White or Caucasian
• 1% Black or African-American
• 3% Latin-X, Hispanic or Mexican
• 7% Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander
• 3% Mixed-Race
• 3% Other

Political Affiliation
• 56% Liberal
• 18% Moderate
• 26% Conservative
79% currently live within the NHS school district

Household Income
• 3% Less than 30K
• 4.5% 30K to less than 50K
• 4.5% 50K to less than 75K
• 8% 75K to less than 100K
• 13% 100K to less than 150K
• 43% 150K or more
• 22% Prefer not to answer

Relationship to Community
• Current student- 131
• Parent of current student - 302
• Teacher / staff - 81
• Alumni- 104
• Parent of former student - 122
• Community Member - 248
• Local business owner – 22

Religious Background
• Christian- 45%
• Jewish- 10%
• Muslim- 0% (0 respondents)
• Sikh- 0% (1 respondent)
• Hindu- 1%
• Buddhist- 1%
• Atheist- 10%
• Agnostic- 9%
• Nothing in particular- 12%
• Don’t Know/Other- 12%

Survey Findings:

Overall, respondents reported very few personal experiences of prejudice or inequities in the community.

• 9% self-reported personal experiences of prejudice
• However, 100% of Black respondents and 28% of Asian respondents reported experiencing
  prejudice or inequities in the community

Majority of respondents said NHS is not diverse

• 70% of respondents felt NHS was not a diverse learning environment
• Interviews cited lack of diversity as a central problem both in how DEI issues have been handled in the past and in how the school/community is preparing students to leave NHS. i.e. cultural competence
• In order to overcome the lack of diversity, interviewees frequently mentioned the need for NHSSD to create opportunities for students to engage with other communities outside of the district, in authentic ways.

Mixed results when asked about how students are treated

• 78% felt NHS is safe and welcoming to all students
• 50% felt that all students are treated equally
• 36% of respondents have reported either experiencing prejudice or their children experiencing prejudice at school
• This number is high and is supported by many of the interviews with students.
• In addition to explicit experiences of prejudice, interviews of students also revealed their experience of “invisibility”

Attitudes toward Equity Education 

There is overwhelming support for creating a more inclusive and equitable curriculum

• 88% felt that curriculum should reflect the increasingly diverse US population
• 12% agree that focusing on creating anti-racist puts NHS at risk of losing its highly ranked
  status.
• 77% of respondents felt multicultural education should start in Elementary School

Bi-partisan support for anti-racist education.

• 89% support teaching student’s anti-racism policy and beliefs.
• 85% support the funding of bias and anti-racism trainings for teachers

Many expressed the need for public benchmarking.

• Many interview and survey comments asked how we are going to benchmark and measure
  progress.
• Many also wanted transparency with benchmarking and accountability.

For the full executive summary of the survey process, please click here.