Savvy Decision Making

An Administrator's Guide to Using Focus Groups in Schools

"Because of its comprehensive scope, this guidebook can be a single tool for designing and implementing focus groups in schools."
Patricia A. All, Assistant Superintendent
Olathe District Schools
Olathe, KS

"This work provides an extremely detailed overview and a most thorough examination of focus groups. The depth and clarity of content is truly astounding. I found myself, time and again, thinking, 'Goodness, they have thought of everything!' This is truly an amazing resource for anyone using—or thinking of using—focus groups for any sort of decision making in educational organizations."
Rick Keaster, Chair
Department of Educational Leadership & Research
University of Southern Mississippi

Focus groups of parents, students, community members, or teachers can be an effective means of gaining support for school decisions, modifying programs, gathering constituent feedback, and conducting research. Savvy Decision Making contains the practical, easy-to-implement steps you need to design and run an effective focus group, as well as solid advice on how to analyze and report the information that emerges. Researchers and lecturers, Madhavi Jayanthi and Janet S. Nelson, cover all the basics, including:

• Using focus groups in the decision-making process
• Selecting a moderator
• Determining what types of participants you need
• Scheduling focus groups
• Recruiting participants
• Developing a focus group guide
• Moderating the group
• Analyzing and reporting the findings

Educational examples, guidelines, and a simple, step-by-step process provide administrators with everything they need to use focus groups—a powerful qualitative research tool.