KEYS & Continuous School Improvement

For several years, the National Education Association has been supporting a national initiative to foster school improvement called Keys to Excellence for Your School (KEYS).  KEYS uses an extensive self-administered survey of school staff and parents to identify the conditions in their school that research has shown importantly influence teaching and learning.  The KEYS survey, which has been validated in studies of student achievement, has been used in nearly fifteen hundred schools throughout the United States. 

While KEYS (version 2.0) identifies conditions in schools that may need improvement, it is not itself a change process.  Moreover, since KEYS was developed, schools have made increasing use of student performance data to give direction to school improvement.  Thus, the NEA recognizes the need to assist schools and districts use the KEYS data in the context of continuous school improvement.

For a detailed description of the KEYS-CSI connection, see the KEYS-CSI Model.