“Response Fear” is a sometimes irrational skepticism of survey respondents who fear their loss of confidentiality. We can all imagine a scenario in which a feared school administrator (or a related school leadership position) uses survey data to explore the hearts and minds of his or her team.

Chapel Hill 7th and 8th Grade Center is a middle school on the west side of Indianapolis that was in need of a new school administrator. MSD of Wayne Township Superintendent Dr. Terry Thompson has overseen an impressive series of building initiatives which, most recently, included rebuilding the school into a state-of-the-art facility.

I took my children to the first day of school yesterday morning. It was a new school for all of us and our proud and excited kindergartner’s first day of school ever. Despite having already met with the school administrator, I have to admit that I felt nervous as did my wife and second grader (the kindergartner was too excited to be nervous). We had moved to a new school and knew very little about what to expect. How did drop off occur? How did the little ones get, physically, to the classroom? Where we allowed to go with them? Where did the newly purchased supplies go?