Surveying Profits

School Administrator, Nov, 1995

When school leaders and policy makers in the Wolverine State want to know what the public thinks about the state of education or the latest reform idea, they often turn for insights to the entrepreneurial Survey Research Center, operated by the St. Clair County Intermediate School District.

During the past year, the research center conducted 55 studies for school bodies across the state, as well as districts in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The most substantial was a statewide survey of 1,300 people across Michigan commissioned by the state board of education. Work is performed at no charge to school districts in St. Clair County and at 10 percent above cost for those outside.

"We don't promote this because we have enough business serving our own districts," says Cynthia Banach, an assistant superintendent who oversees the center's three staff members.