Welcome to Beyond the Bell podcast, where you will get an inside look into school life. We cover school-related topics that support your child's education and well-being. As you listen along, we hope you'll gain insights for navigating school with your child and leave with a deeper sense of connection between school and home. Here's your host, Chantelle Quesnelle.

Chantelle: Hello, Simcoe Muskoka Catholic families and listeners. We have another great episode here for you today. Today we have Tanya Bedard, who is our research information and privacy officer here at Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board.

She has been a researcher for over 15 years with various portfolios including supporting our psychology department, school board research, health information management, project management, privacy, and community engagement, just to name a few. She has been with Simcoe Muskoka Catholic since 2018. Tanya has a Bachelor's Degree in psychology, a diploma in Health Information Management, and postgraduate certificates in the areas of research and analysis, privacy program management, project management, and more. Tanya is a huge Star Trek fan and a self-proclaimed Trekkie. Deep Space Nine is her favorite. And with that, let's jump into this episode, which takes you beyond the bell and gives you an inside scoop on understanding how research happens in our school board. Welcome, Tanya. 

Tanya: Thanks, Chantelle. It's great to be with you today. 

Chantelle: It's great to have you. So, we'll get started with a pretty big question, but what does school board… why do school boards have research departments and how can we understand or think about research and why it happens in schools? 

Tanya: Right. So, um, research is really a very broad term. And really at its most basic structure and function, it allows us to ask questions, um, and find meaningful answers to those questions. Um, and really in education what we're looking for is how do we come, become better?

How do we become better for our students, um, our teachers, teaching our students, and that sort of thing. 

Chantelle: Yeah, and I know in the conversations that, that we've had over the years, Tanya, it's also about um like how do we know if what we're doing has an impact or what impact is it having? It just sort of depends on what question we're thinking about asking, but, um, really it's about, about learning about those things at a system level. 

Tanya: Absolutely, absolutely. And once we start asking those questions, it kind of leads us to start digging into, um various areas. So for example, we have like our data from the ministry and the board. And so that includes things like student attendance, and we've got copious amounts of student achievement data, and there's also things like our standardized um test scores, and that's what people are most familiar with would be like EQAO. 

Chantelle: Mhm. I always find it interesting, you know, when we think about research, we're not necessarily thinking about the data we get from attendance, for example, or EQAO data, um, but that is a form of, of research. It's data that we have that we can use to better understand certain questions or curiosities we have. Um, but we've talked a lot about how research needs multiple points of information and so for example, the attendance data is just numbers without a story behind it and so that's really what your department, um, what you what you, what, what you look at is, is how do we understand the information that we have and, and what else do we need to know to understand the story behind the data?

Tanya: Absolutely. And one of the ways that we can dig a little bit further into um those types of data. Um, and, and many other questions that we really may have is with surveys. For our board, um, one of the largest surveys or research projects that we have is our climate survey. Um, for this, it's, um, so it is ministry mandated. It is, it, it is, um, outlined in our Education Act, and, and we do it every 2 years. Uh, for this particular, uh, research project though, we wanted to make it more than something legislated in the Education Act, something that's not necessarily checkbox-like

Chantelle: Something meaningful.

Absolutely we want everything that we do within our research department to be meaningful. Otherwise, why do it? 

Chantelle: Right.

Tanya: Um, with our climate survey, you know, um, we decided on a foundation, uh, based in positive psychology. And the importance of this, it's not about um some people hear the word positive and it's like, well, we're only looking for uh confirmations or those positive little pieces, but this is actually about assets or protective factors that allow human beings to thrive and be successful, whatever successful means to that person. Um, so in that regard, it's also very, uh, holistic and humanistic.

We're looking at the whole of, of the being. And really the more assets or the more protective factors that someone has, um, the more successful that they're going to be, the more likely they are to thrive in life. And that's absolutely what we want to see for our students, for our staff, for everyone, right? 

Chantelle: There's something really neat about the, the climate survey um that we do in, in our families or parents who are listening might recall that they've received a link to the survey themselves or um their students have came home and talked about doing the, the climate survey, but that the climate survey has these different prongs and that students have a climate survey, parents and caregivers have that climate survey, and then staff also have the climate survey and, and some of the questions are obviously different for, for each of the groups, but that um that gives us a lot of data to think about what our priorities might be or how we might support um schools or communities or our staff team once we kind of know that information about how they're thinking and feeling and doing in in their school or in their job. 

Tanya: Absolutely. I mean, Uh, we get, for instance, students, there's typically over 11,000 students that participate, over 1200 staff, over 2000 parents. This is an incredible amount of voice, and I see myself very much as, um an advocate. So I take in all these voices. People have entrusted all of these voices to me. Um, and so then I become an advocate around these pieces. So I do things like, for instance, uh, workshops to dig into the information that, um people have provided us. 

Chantelle: Well, I think, you know, in, in research, we talk about response rate and, and I know you and I talk a lot about the different surveys that go out, um, whether they're internal or, or whether we're, we're sharing them with different um groups of people. But, um, our climate data really does have a good response rate, something that we're quite proud of, which gives us some good information to also think about every two years in terms of how the data might be different and, and why. Why it might be different. It's kind of that unpacking or exploring the information or the bigger story behind the number. 

Tanya: Yeah, over time we get to ask questions like, um, you know, what's currently happening, but also looking at the trends and what is, what is different, what has stayed um the same, what has become different, um, where are our strengths because if we've got a strength, we wanna keep that.

Um, but where are there opportunities? Where are there challenges that perhaps we might want to focus our efforts in a little bit more around, um, our resources, our resources being our people, but also, uh, funds. So, um, it, it presents a really fantastic opportunity, particularly with this being such, um, uh, garnering such huge response rates, really. 

Chantelle: Yeah, and I know I personally, you know, with the mental health leadership team here at the school board, use the school's climate data as one data point to help build out our mental health action plan each year, um, to think about, um, if, if some of the data that we've collected might inform what our priorities are or what to keep doing because it's working.

Um, and I also know that at a school level and at a board level, we use that data to inform like strategic planning or school improvement plans, for example, um, and so, you know, just to plug to the, the parents who are listening, the completing that data really, the surveys really does matter. It goes somewhere and, and people look at it. And so thank you for all of those people who take the time to complete the survey um at home. 

Tanya: Absolutely. 

Chantelle: So, we've um we've moved to something new this year and, and I wonder if this is a good opportunity to, to chat a little bit more about our engagement uh platform, um, that, that you've kind of invested in and, and that we have a lot of different opportunities for um uh,  voice, whether that's from staff or from parents in the community or students, and so, can you tell us about the, this engagement platform and why we went with it and, and, you know, how people might want to log in and participate? 

Tanya: Yeah, absolutely. So we have this um new platform, we call it Engage with SMCDSB um because that, that really summarizes what we're trying to get, um, folks uh into is just a little bit more engagement. Um, it's really an opportunity to be more aware of things that are taking place at the board, project-wise. Um, it's also, again, that opportunity to be engaged to be able to um voice your different perspectives and ultimately be heard, um, which is really the main goal, right? We just want to have more opportunity for our parents, for our community partners, staff, students to be heard. Um, and then there's also a piece around, um, a really important area that has to do with like our transparency and accountability. So really what that means is that you know, we're gonna provide information about this project. We're going to engage with our community members. Um, but then, you know, as what usually happens with surveys, um, going out, people don't necessarily know what happens. 

Chantelle: No.

Tanya: We utilize that survey information absolutely, but do our community members know. Um, and, uh, they typically don't get that follow up. So one of the reasons why we have this engagement platform is that it does offer us a really streamlined way to be able to follow up. So with that, we have the ability to then communicate our results along with how their voice made an impact to either some actions, next steps, that sort of thing. And so that's another really key part of why we have that engagement platform. 

Chantelle: And we know with research, communication is so important and so, um, having a platform like this where you can see those timelines and know where that information goes really does increase the research integrity. 

Tanya: Absolutely. So it does have like um, it does have a sign up which is really, uh, I mean, we only take in the information necessary to um, to basically sign up and, and be on this platform. So it's your name, um, you use, uh, an email and obviously a password, um, to be on there and, uh, the type of community member you are, so you would just check off, hey, I'm a, I'm a parent, I'm a staff member, that sort of thing, and what, uh, school zone um or community that you are a part of. Um, the reason why we have that is we're really wanting to maintain the integrity of the platform. And so if we put out a project that is for parents, we want to ensure that parents are the ones participating in that project. Likewise, if we put something out that's specific to our students, then we want to ensure that it's our secondary students that are participating in that project. Um, so that's part of the reason why we have that sign up. It's an integrity piece. And so if, if people sign up, like if our parent community listening, um, hasn't signed up already, but if, if and when they do, when they log into the platform, they'll see a bunch of different things that they can participate in. And, and those things might, you know, be different or vary across the school year, but it really is kind of like that landing page for, you know, participation and engagement in a lot of different aspects of, of school life here. 

Tanya: Some recent projects that we've had, for instance, is uh a survey for the student mental health action plan 

Chantelle: Yes!

Tanya: …uh that just that just closed in terms of being able to provide feedback but now, um we're going to look at the feedback, consider the feedback and consider um how that's going to be used and we'll be looking at how we're going to communicate what we're doing with that feedback back out to the community so that everyone knows how their voice um is going to make a difference.

Chantelle: Exactly.

Tanya:  Um so I think that's, that's so amazing. Uh other projects we've recently had, um was the ability to provide feedback around our new, uh, bullying prevention and intervention, uh, policy and procedure. So there, there is a wide range of topics that end up there, and we do, um, we do send out periodically, invitations to be able to sign up for those things.

And also, once people sign up, um, I then now have the ability to say to send them something directly from the platform to say, hey, you might be interested in this topic. 

Chantelle: So really important to kind of take that opportunity for like voice and engagement um, whether you are a parent or a staff member or a community member, that there is um a pathway for, for you to have your voice heard on, on various topics throughout the school year through this new engagement platform. Uh, the last thing we were gonna talk about in terms of understanding, you know, this quick inside scoop about research at school boards, was our Research Advisor Committee and understanding that while we do do a lot of in-house research, we also have community partners um looking to do research in schools. And so Tanya, can you tell us a little bit about um the Research Advisory Committee and who these community partners might be who want to do research uh in school boards? 

Tanya: It would absolutely be impossible for a research department in a school board to be able to conduct research in all the potential topics that actually exist. And that's where we get into partnerships with folks such as universities. So universities, um, scholars typically trying, there are people who are trying to obtain, for instance, their masters or their PhDs, um, and then there are academics who work within universities who have their own line of research that they're, um, constantly, uh, working on. So those folks will be coming, they will be submitting a research application to let us know what their research is all about, um, for us then to review other partners. include, for instance, our health unit. There's really fantastic work that comes out of our uh our health unit, um, or um, our Canadian Mental Health Associations, that sort of, those sorts of community partners. And so with that, we see things like, for instance, the student drug use and health survey. Um, that's actually a fairly substantial one, um and it allows us again to look at information within our region, and then we can have comparisons to provincial data and other regions that, for instance, may have um similar demographics that we have, similar board size that we have, um, and what are they experiencing. And I know that in-house, we use the information from the student drug um use and health survey. 

Chantelle: Yeah, if I can just jump in on that, like a very applied example is if and, and if, if, you know, our school board and and our coterminous boards um participate in, in a wide-ranging survey like this and if we're able to compare it to provincial data um, or other regional data, then we can look at that information and think about, OK, in Simcoe County or in in Simcoe, um, and the Muskoka region, are we seeing higher incidence of, of youth vaping, for example? And if we are, then we can incorporate that into our action plan in terms of education around vaping, parent information around vaping, um, making sure educators and administrators have information around, um, kind of local resources to um promote awareness around vaping and strategies to, um kind of prevent vaping use. And so that is an example of how we can use data that um might have that uh wide scale provincial information, we can take our local information and even though locally we can't look at schools specifically or Even our school board versus the, the public school board, but we do have local information that can really inform action planning and that can just be so helpful both for us and for the wider province as they're looking at those differences and trends.

Tanya: Yeah, absolutely. So we get these um applications that come in and our job as a research advisory committee is really to um, go through those and ensure that they're being conducted ethically. Our job, um, within the research advisory committee is essentially a protective, um, type of role. Um, we want to make sure that um we're protecting our students and, um, even if they're wanting to uh, as part of the research study includes staff, uh, and parents. So we look at the ethics, um, around how those groups are being treated as well. Um, and we also consider things like “is the research going to have or offer direct benefits for our students and schools?”, again, there's a lot of research that takes place and we love to be very supportive of our external, our community partners. Um, however, uh, we can only have so much going on in our system at one time because really the focus in school boards is the education of our students. So there's a bit of a balance that needs to take place there as well. 

Chantelle: Yeah, absolutely, and it's nice to, to think about that there, you know, is a committee sitting together, um, reviewing these applications and making these really careful considerations around um the impact that the research process has and the impact that the outcome might have in terms of informing um uh our, our school board or our, our school staff um. And importantly just because you know, listeners, parents and caregivers might be curious as we talk about external research, um that we come back to that theme of communication and the informed consent process and so whenever students are participating or are invited or have that opportunity to participate in research, there's always a communication and a consent process that happens and so that is part of what the Research Advisory Committee ensures and so parents and and listeners know that if your student is participating in research that um information is, is kind of communicated to you ahead of time and, and you have the ability to consent uh to their participation or not.

Tanya: Absolutely we even do that internally as well. Um, we don't want parents to be shocked or surprised or any of that sort of thing. Um, and, and, you know, it's important to be transparent with parents, um, and just to let them know what is taking place, um, with their, with their kids and, um, so we do, for instance, a perfect example is our school climate survey. Parents will receive a message, um, several weeks in advance of when we actually provide the survey to students. Parents are always given the opportunity to be able to call the school and say, I don't want my um kid to participate in this. Um, so, you know, there's, there's always that consent process that takes place with internal research as well. We don't have some kind of um special kind of consideration where we get to do whatever we want. Um, so that's an important piece as well. So parents will get a notification around that school climate survey, um, this, uh, upcoming school year, uh, for 2025-2026 is another data collection year. Parents will receive notification, um, and they will also receive an invitation to participate in that, in their version of the survey themselves.

Chantelle: Yeah, so, so important. I know we spent quite a bit of time in, in this episode talking about surveys, and that's probably one of the most common school board research tool, but um it's just one of many. So I wonder, Tanya, can you talk a little bit about um what those methods typically are within school boards and anything else you want to share about how data is collected? 

Tanya: So, um, yeah. Obviously, surveys are kind of, uh, almost a modus operandi within, within research. But it is also important to note that um there is the possibility of having, um, for instance, interviews, uh, focus groups, that sort of thing, um. They may not necessarily refer to things as interviews or focus groups. Um, it may be couched in terms around community engagement, um, an opportunity to provide your voice around that sort of thing. On our new engagement platform, there are, um, potential opportunities that we'll be digging into around uh, almost like a blog-style communication. So having a very kind of open-ended question and then parents can provide their comments. They can also add to um other parent comments, um, and kind of add their own perspective or further a perspective. So, um, Yeah, we have that kind of qualitative, open-ended, uh, voice. 

Chantelle: Sure. And sometimes even action-based research, which is looking at uh addressing a problem impacting um the, the lives or the experience of whoever is participating and looking to create kind of meaningful change and kind of working together um on that potentially. So research into action is, is also very important in education as well. 

Tanya: Absolutely and I mean, you have done fantastic work in the area around student action research. 

Chantelle: Oh well, thank you for that. I appreciate that. Um, you know, I'm not sure if all of our listeners and parents in in in, the community really understand um, kind of the complexities of a research department within a school board and it might be wondering, do all school boards have a research department? And I know Tanya, you do some broader work with within the, the province and so maybe you could tell us a little bit about um that, answering that question. Do all school boards have a research department? 

Tanya: So the answer is no. 

Chantelle: Oh, I didn't even know that! OK. 

Tanya: Yeah, so, uh, I mean, really, it's dependent on the size of the board. 

Chantelle: Right.

Tanya: Um, I know that there are boards that are, for instance, smaller, smaller than ours. Um, they may not necessarily have the resources to be able to invest in having a researcher. There's a lot of clear benefits to be able to have a researcher, um, but there um some of the smaller boards were, will, for instance, outsource, um. And the research is, is really focused around things that are ministry-mandated. 

Chantelle: Right.

Tanya: So, again, um, if we go back to the example of the climate survey, Um, you know, again, it's mandated, it's legislated. There are third-party companies that um will do those, uh, for you know, school boards. So yeah, the smaller ones typically don't have uh, a research department. When you get to kind of mid-size, then you might find one. 

Chantelle: Like you! 

Tanya: Yeah, like me! Uh, and then as boards increase in size, um, then there's multiple. Um, Toronto District School Board has many. Over a dozen, likely. 

Chantelle: Yeah, so neat things are happening in school board research, both internal processes, ministry mandated processes and kind of partnerships with anywhere from post-secondary education to um health units and um community partners alike and Um, all of that, you know, is, is kind of guided by research departments and schools with the ultimate aim of um improving student well-being and improving academic achievement and really informing best practices within the various staffing groups and, um, uh, you know, practices within school boards. And so, something that I know you're very passionate about and that I certainly um benefit from and, and really rely on in order to um have data informed decision making. 

Tanya: Absolutely. I'm very passionate about research, um, you know, a lot of people might think about in their lifetime where they would like to help, where they see themselves, uh having a positive impact on the lives of others, and this is, this is mine. This is how I like to make um or have a positive impact on other people.

Chantelle: Well, we certainly benefit from that passion, um, and all of the data parties that you have, Tanya, where we're again looking beyond the, the numbers and the statistics and really telling the story or exploring the possibilities of the story behind the data, which is just as important. So thank you so much, Tanya, for your time today and we hope that all of our listeners got um an inside look uh beyond the bell and into the world of research departments and school boards, but most specifically Tanya's role as the Research Officer um here at Simcoe Muskoka Catholic. So thank you so much, Tanya. 

Tanya: Thanks for having me, Chantelle. 

Thanks for listening to Beyond The Bell podcast. We hope you found today's episode helpful. 

Beyond the Bell is brought to you by the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board and our Catholic Parent Involvement Committee. It's hosted by Chantelle Quesnelle. Pauline Stevenson is our executive producer. Episodes are produced and edited by Portage Creative. You can find our show notes and previous episodes on our podcast website, beyondthebell.ca. 

If you like today's episode, leave us a review. If you have any suggestions for future episodes or any questions or comments about Beyond the Bell podcast, you can send an email to info@smcdsb.on.ca. Thanks again for joining us. We'll see you next time.