About
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) supports 250,000 students, 31 LEAs, and nearly 1,500 employees across one of California’s largest and most diverse regions. With a new superintendent and a major organizational transition underway, SCCOE needed a way to authentically listen to thousands of staff, trustees, district partners, community organizations, and—eventually—students.
To support a months-long listening tour running from August through January, SCCOE adopted Parsec Real to gather fast, authentic qualitative feedback at scale and use it to shape their new vision and strategic direction.
Key Points
Capturing feedback from staff, trustees, partners, and divisions
Feedback synthesized instantly to adjust approach in real time
Weeks of Work Saved with themes and highlights
Problem
SCCOE needed a way to run a true countywide listening tour that could capture authentic qualitative feedback from thousands of people across different roles and divisions. Traditional surveys and meetings weren’t scalable, and qualitative analysis was too slow and too labor-intensive to keep up with a fast-moving transition.
Solution
Using Parsec Real, SCCOE launched multiple targeted Reals at once, each customized for a specific audience: all staff, district-based employees, board trustees, and individual divisions. Reals were quick to set up, often in 10 minutes, and the qualitative themes and highlights made analysis simple and bias-free.
Impact
Parsec Real allowed SCCOE to rapidly identify shared themes, validate areas of needed improvement (especially communication), guide immediate next steps, and share findings transparently across the entire organization. The listening tour is now shaping SCCOE’s vision, priorities, and follow-up questions in real time, instead of months later.
“The qualitative data is so powerful… and I’ve always struggled to synthesize it. So I was really excited about Parsec because it answers a question I’ve been struggling with.”
– Jennifer Gravem, Director of Public Affairs, Santa Clara COE
Their Real Experience
SCCOE set out to conduct a massive, months-long listening initiative—far larger than a traditional “100-day plan”—with the goal of authentically gathering input from thousands across the county. Parsec Real became the backbone of that strategy. With Reals customized for organizational staff, district partners, board trustees, division teams, and community groups, SCCOE was able to run multiple feedback cycles simultaneously without added complexity.
Leaders quickly discovered how valuable Real’s clarity and synthesis were: the ability to see dozens of similar responses rise to the surface helped SCCOE confidently identify themes, prioritize communication improvements, and validate internal reflections during a time of leadership transition. The platform’s simplicity made it easy to deploy Reals often and its immediacy allowed teams to refine follow-up questions, gather deeper insights, and adjust next steps continuously.
What They Learned
- Clear, aligned feedback made it easier for SCCOE to identify and prioritize its top needs.
- Communication clarity emerged as a top theme across groups
- Staff appreciated transparency and wanted clearer explanations of complex processes, such as budgets
- In-person introductions (including a video from the superintendent) dramatically increased participation
- Division-specific Reals helped teams surface issues unique to their work
- Real made qualitative analysis fast, bias-reduced, and actionable
How SCCOE Used the Results
- Shared top themes with all 1,400+ staff in organization-wide communications
- Combined real data with in-person input and surveys to uncover trends across datasets.
- Applied insights to refine the listening tour questions and create follow-up Reals
- Used feedback to launch new actions—like departmental budget study sessions to improve understanding of fiscal decisions
- Met with union groups to build trust by showing the back-end anonymity protections
- Incorporated Real’s highlights into leadership discussions and cabinet meetings
