Cobalt Community Research School Programs

All Cobalt programs help school districts, charter schools and private schools to engage parents and the broader community to support decisions on outreach, facility funding, program development, student safety, and a range of other topics.  Cobalt’s practical programs are flexible and customizable, and they allow school leaders to explore parent and public opinion by comparing school building, grade and demographic group responses side by side.  The findings improve engagement, program marketing, program delivery, and communication effectiveness.  Below are examples of some of Cobalt’s more popular programs.
Ballot Proposal Research
Test which aspects of a bond/millage package have public support, the strongest arguments for and against, different option and cost configurations, and demographic detail to help you or your action committee educate the community.  

Supports these activities:
  • Identifying key package elements
  • Testing support for package elements
  • Focusing messages to demographics that are for, against and undecided

​Population on the Move 
This yearly subscription profiles the residents who have moved into your community and who have moved out of your community in the past year.  The data includes demographics such as age and income, as well as an updated snapshot of your community’s persona segmentation/psychographic profile. Number and age of children are also available.
 
Supports these efforts:
  • Understanding of what attracts and disappoints migrating residents
  • Determining the needs and attitudes of your largest demographic clusters
  • Improving student head count projections

Parental Pulse
Twice per year around parent/teacher conferences, this subscription sends a short, customized, 10-question survey to your email list of parents to track key performance and awareness questions.  Results can be used to improve conversations with parents and ask for specific improvements for specific areas.
 
Supports these efforts:
  • Tracking the effectiveness of your outreach and education efforts
  • Determining if your improvement efforts are being noticed by parents
  • Providing immediate feedback for quick improvements during the school year
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Budget360
Use parent feedback on your programs and services to optimize your budget. Graphs and spreadsheets show program/service importance, satisfaction and strategies to reduce costs (or raise revenue).

Supports these activities:
  • Setting budget priorities
  • Measuring performance
  • Exploring support for program/service change options
  • Cutting expenses/raising taxes and fees
Parent Engagement and Priority Assessment
Reduce costs, preserve enrollment, and improve areas with impact on outcomes such as keeping children in the school and recommending it to others.  Benchmark areas such as safety, curriculum, teachers, communication, and ancillary services.  Compare your scores to indices of similar districts.

Supports these activities:
  • Differentiating your school
  • Strategic planning/master planning
  • Setting budget and program priorities
  • Measuring and tracking performance
  • Advancing student achievement
  • Engaging parents and the community

Focus Groups
Leverage a Cobalt moderator to guide 6-12 parents or community members through a discussion. It is a powerful and persuasive experience that can significantly enhance communication and engagement. Such groups yield unexpected insights, credibility and a human touch to policy and school branding decisions.

Supports these activities:
  • Helping parents communicate concerns or thoughts on difficult issues
  • Allowing parents to participate in the early development of policies or programs
  • Building insight and support outside of large formal meetings

​Facilitated Meetings/Audience Response
Utilizes an easy-to-use response system that integrates with a conventional PowerPoint presentation. Cobalt’s meeting facilitator asks multiple-choice questions, and your audience uses wireless keypads to answer. Results appear instantly on the slide.

Supports these activities:
  • Instantly gathering audience feedback during conferences, planning sessions and large meetings
  • Instantly testing understanding
  • Establishing if you have consensus – or if there are concerns that have not been spoken
  • Enhancing attention and engagement through significant audience participation

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Other resources to consider: