David Douglas School District Hires Mystery Shoppers

'Shoppers' have been issuing evaluations of schools' customer service since September

A TEENAGE UNITED NATIONS: Flags representing the birth countries of David Douglas High School students hang in the cafeteria. The school started with 46 flags eight years ago, and the number continues to grow.

The David Douglas School District in Southeast Portland embarked this school year on an unusual project for getting feedback about their schools and facilities.


The 11,000-student district hired "mystery shoppers" from Advanced Feedback, a San Diego-based company, to gather information on employees' customer service, buildings' appearance and the general atmosphere inside their facilities. Mystery shoppers—who have to undergo criminal background checks to qualify—won't be going inside classrooms.

Dan McCue, the district's spokesman, says the mystery shoppers have been at work since September and have already generated helpful feedback about how they're treated and how easy it is to find the information they want. Advanced Feedback sends monthly reports to the district. "It's really been a benefit," McCue says. 

Under the approximately $9,000 contract, mystery shoppers, recruited on Craigslist and elsewhere, pose as parents or volunteers seeking information about schools or the school district. It's not all cloak and dagger: School-district employees know that mystery shoppers will be descending on their workplaces regularly until the end of the school year. The information they gather won't be used against them, McCue says.

"We are not using this as part of any formal staff evaluation process," he says. "It is strictly a learning tool."

The idea for the mystery shoppers came from Superintendent Don Grotting, who says he wants to make sure everyone who enters a David Douglas office or calls is treated as well as he is.

WWeek 2015

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