This site is designed to provide guidance and answer questions on how to best use the survey. You will be able to view questions and answers that were already asked, submit your own questions, and respond to others’ questions.
This year’s survey includes changes to the process, survey, and reports, as we continue to work with Measuring Success. These changes will ultimately result in an improved survey experience, but please bear with us as we move through the change
process. Please pay careful attention to this year’s deadlines, as they have changed.
Please make sure to heed these deadlines; there will be no extensions this year.
This page provides general information on how to best use the survey, including login, logout, number formatting, and common errors you may encounter.
You will receive two emails with your unique survey link and login credentials, one for the General Survey and one for the Salary Survey. When you click the link, you will be directed to a login page. Your login email and password are case-sensitive,
so please enter your email address and password using the exact capitalization as is provided to you in the emails you receive.
Check your spam folders. If you still did not receive the survey, please email either Martha Ambros at calisboa@measuring-success.com(California schools only) or Aggie Malter, Tom Devine and Ron Hill at paisboa@measuring-success.com (Pennsylvania
schools only).
our login email and password are both case sensitive. Make sure that you use the same email that your link was sent to, and use the exact same capitalization in both the email and password as was sent to you in your email.
You may share your school’s log-in credentials with another person (or persons) at your school, but please be aware that they will have access to all entered data, including salary information from both this year and last year. To do so, simply
send them your login link, email address, and password.
No. Your unique link tracks where you are in the survey. If two people access the survey at the same time, even if they are in different parts of the survey, it confuses the tracking systems. However, one person can fill out the General Survey
while another fills out the Salary Survey, since these are separate surveys.
No. The survey can be completed in multiple sittings. It will save your information for the next time you log in.
Information is only saved by pressing the “Save and Continue” button.
To return to a previous page, do not use your browser’s back button, and instead click the red button on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. You may also navigate back to the section by clicking on the section on the Table of Contents.
Yes. On the “Identification and Contact” panel, you have the ability to print the full survey. Please note that when you print the survey, all questions appear even if they have logic programmed in that you should not receive them. For example,
PA schools will see both PA and CA questions in the printed version of their survey, but not the online version of their survey, and vice versa.
You may navigate to different sections of the survey by clicking on the panel you would like to access on the Table of Contents. If you wish to collapse the Table of Contents, click on the three red bars at the top of the Table of Contents field.
To reopen the Table of Contents, simply click on the three red bars again.
There is no logout button. To exit the survey, simply click the “Save and Continue” button in the bottom right hand of your browser, and close your browser tab.
On the final panel of survey questions, press the “Save and Continue” button to save your responses. You will be redirected back to the Table of Contents. From the Table of Contents, press “Save and Continue” which will direct you to a review
page. Please review all responses very carefully, as once you submit your responses, you will not be able to log in again. If you are ready to submit your responses, press “Save and Continue” again.
Yes. After you finish filling in the survey, you will be directed to a review page that allows you to view all responses you entered, and to download a PDF of your completed survey. Please review all responses before you submit your survey. If
you would like to change any responses, scroll all the way to the bottom of the site and click the “Back” button. This will return you to the Table of Contents, where you may navigate through the survey panels to make corrections. Make sure
to hit “Save and Continue” at the bottom of every page where you make a change, or your responses will not be saved. Once you are satisfied with your survey responses, return to the review page and click “Save and Continue” at the bottom of
the page. Once you submit your survey, you will no longer be able to change your answers or download and print them for review. However, your confirmation of survey submission email will contain your responses as well. Please check your spam
folder if you have not received your email.
There are a few reasons this may have happened. As a reminder, information is only saved by clicking “Save and Continue.” If you click the browser’s back button, or the survey’s “Back” button, your information will not save. Your information does
not auto-save either, so if you accidentally close your browser tab, or your computer crashes, the information from that page will not be saved. Information also does not save if you move to a new section by clicking in the Table of Contents.
When entering numeric values, enter as whole numbers without any symbols. For example, enter $10,000 as 10000, using no dollar sign or commas. For percentages, please do not include decimal points or the % symbol. Enter percentages as whole numbers,
i.e. do not enter 80% or 0.8, simply enter 80.
Most numeric fields have validation programmed in that will only allow you to enter a value within a specified range of numbers. If you enter a value above or below that range, the survey will reject your answer and force you to go back to the
error. This is to prevent data entry errors. The range of values is programmed based on historic data. If you are entering an answer that is correct, but the survey will not accept your response, please contact your either Martha Ambros at
calisboa@measuring-success.com (California schools only) or Aggie Malter, Tom Devine and Ron Hill at paisboa@measuring-success.com (Pennsylvania schools only).
For your convenience, your school’s answers from the previous year have been provided where available. If no answer follows “Response Previous Year,” your school did not answer the question the previous year.
If “Response Previous Year” does not appear after a question, the question is new this year.
Please let Martha Ambros (CALISBOA) or Aggie Malter (PAISBOA) know if your data is incorrect.
Because we combined the CA and PA surveys, some questions are only meant for schools in one state, but not the other. If you see a gap in numbers, it does not mean that you are missing a section, but rather that those questions only apply to schools
from the other state.
The success of this survey depends on high participation and completion rates from member schools. You must substantially complete the survey in order to participate; if we determine that you did not submit a sufficient number of responses, you
will not receive a data report or any data from other schools.While there is no exact minimum number of questions to fill out, you should fill out as many of the questions as apply to your school.
This page includes the full confidentiality policy, as well as examples regarding various data sharing scenarios.
This survey is conducted by Measuring Success on behalf of the California and Philadelphia Area Independent School Business Officers Associations (Cal-ISBOA and PAISBOA) to provide perspective on the operations of its member schools. It is distributed
to survey participants.
The purpose of this policy is to assure survey participants that their school’s data will be used with respect and understanding within a limited group of decision-makers at other schools. Schools are more likely to share information with such
an understanding, and with the trust upon which it rests.
A fundamental principle is that a school’s data belongs to the individual school. Each school should control the circumstances and context upon which its data is used and disseminated.Each participating school uses this survey with the following
understanding:
Please refer to the following examples for additional information:
You receive a request from the head of school for a copy of the survey. Before sharing the survey in electronic form, the business manager (you) should impress upon the head the confidentiality guidelines of the survey. You should be assured of
the head’s understanding and active assent before forwarding the Excel file. In some cases it may be safer to have a meeting to review the survey results using a computer projection screen. Be careful about distributing the electronic file!
It can take on a life of its own once it is out of your control.
You receive a request from the chair of the finance committee for a copy of the survey. You may share any part or all of the survey with a trustee. Be careful. See the answer to Example A.
After your presentation to the chair of the finance committee, she asks you to share the survey with the whole finance committee. A presentation on computer projection screen to the finance committee is fine. Explain the confidentiality agreement.
Do not send the electronic file to the committee members – it is too large a group. If at the meeting you use a handout using the specific data of other schools by name, collect the copies at the end of the meeting. The committee will understand.
You wish to make a presentation to a committee of administrators at your school. This is fine. Do not send the electronic file to the group. Collect handouts after your presentation.
After your presentation to the administrative group, the director of advancement asks if it is okay to publish an article in the alumni bulletin using some of the survey data of five peer schools. This will help to stimulate the annual fund and
capital campaign. You explain this use of the information is not permitted. However, if you wish to assist the advancement office, you may call the business managers at these five other schools and ask their permission to use specific data
for a specified purpose. These calls are rare because they take a lot of work and have a good chance of rejection.
The school’s outside auditor asks for a copy of the survey – as part of its effort to ascertain that management is using best practices to run the school. Fire up the survey on your computer or a projection screen to show the auditor that you
have good comparable information on the industry – and you are a good steward of the school’s resources. Do not share the individual data of other schools with your auditor.
A consultant engaged to assist your school in the formulation of its long-range strategic plan asks you for a copy of the survey. Again, you decline this request. The survey may not be shared with outside consultants. You ask your ISBOA group
if it is willing to allow you to share the survey with a key consultant for a mission-critical purpose. This kind of request is rare, but there may be a time and place for it. You should explain to ALL of the members of the ISBOA that the
consultant will sign a confidentiality agreement which specifically limits the use of the data to the planning work for your school, and the consultant agrees to return and delete the information upon completion of the work at your school.
Can you get all survey participants to agree to this request? Maybe not. It may be better to pare down the survey results to 10 peer schools – and to make this request to these 10 schools. You may share with the consultant only the data of
schools which specifically agree to the stated use of the information.
The faculty compensation committee asks you for salary information from the survey. You may present summary data such as averages, medians, and percentiles. You may not share the specific information of other schools without each school’s express
consent. It is advisable to limit your presentation to a computer projection screen or information on paper. Collect the handouts at the end of the meeting.
This page is designed to answer specific questions regarding the general survey.
When the schools from PA and CA compared their questions to the questions from the other state’s survey, both states saw questions they wanted to add to their own survey. Additionally, to standardize data collection and reporting, language from similar questions may have been adjusted, but the content remained the same.
This page is designed to answer specific questions regarding the salary survey.
Please enter information in the rows that come closest to matching the job duties of persons at your school.
Many schools do not have employees in some of these roles. Do not fill out lines which don’t apply. DO NOT ENTER “N/A” – instead leave the field blank.
If more than one person has a position which is listed only once, enter the average of the multiple persons.
If a person has multiple positions, enter that person on as many of the survey lines as apply. For example, if a person works 60% as a school nurse and 40% as a bus driver, enter 60% FTE and 60% of the salary on the school nurse line, and 40% FTE and 40% of the salary on the bus driver line.If more than one person has a position which is listed only once below, enter the average of the multiple persons.
If a position is outsourced, do not include it on this page.
Confidential information, such as an individual’s salary, will NOT show the specific data of individual schools. Instead, data will be aggregated in the results.
You have the option to report either a salary or hourly rate. Please enter one or the other. Do not enter both.
Do you have any recommendations for next year? We are constantly trying to improve the survey process and survey questions, and are eager to hear your advice on how to make it better for next year.