Introducing the Des Moines Schools Community Discussion Project

The Des Moines Schools Community Discussion Project was a project geared toward taking a deep dive into how Des Moines voters and residents thought about the city's school board elections in September 2017. Des Moines school board elections are held every two years, and four of the board's seven seats were up for election in 2017.

Ballotpedia, USATalk, and the Interactivity Foundation facilitated online discussions of Des Moines voters and residents to discuss their ideas for Des Moines Public Schools. The results of these discussions were used to create surveys for school board candidates in order to help them state their thoughtful and heartfelt positions on important issues in the district. The survey is embedded below:

Questions and answers

What were the requirements to participate?

Participants had to be legal adults who lived within the geographic boundaries of Des Moines Public Schools. The online discussion required a reliable internet connection and webcam. The ideal type of person to participate in these discussions was someone comfortable exploring a range of ideas who could share their own insights and ideas and help draw out those of the other participants as well.

How long did it take to participate?

Participants were invited to join a one-hour online discussion in June or July 2017. No preparation or follow-up was required.

How many discussion groups took place?

In order to gather a very broad range of input from Des Moines residents, Ballotpedia, USATalk, and the Interactivity Foundation put together five groups, which each consisted of four to seven participants.

How did this work, exactly?

Participants were sent an invitation to a Google Hangout. This is a free online video conference service. When it was time for the meeting to begin, the participant clicked on a link in that invitation to be taken to the Google Hangout. A facilitator led each discussion.

What was the privacy policy?

The identity of discussion participants will be kept anonymous by Ballotpedia, USATalk, and the Interactivity Foundation, and participants’ contact information will not be sold or transferred. Neither the session’s recording nor any individual statements made by participants will be published. This information was compiled into a report for internal use only in the process of developing survey questions for the school board candidates. Participants made a verbal agreement in the session to keep one another’s identities and statements confidential following the discussion.

Tell me more about Ballotpedia.

Ballotpedia was founded in 2007, and its mission is to preserve and expand knowledge by building the Encyclopedia of American Politics. Ballotpedia began providing free, nonpartisan coverage of public school districts and school board elections in 2013.

Tell me more about USATalk.

USATalk was founded in 2017, and its mission is to moderate public debate of policy and politics through nonpartisan online platforms.

Tell me more about the Interactivity Foundation.

The Interactivity Foundation was founded in 1965, and its mission is to enhance the process and expand the scope of our public discussions, thereby improving the health of our democracy and its development of public policy. The foundation began to facilitate citizen discussions of policy issues in 2007, and it began to conduct online discussions in 2012.