Case Study: Carroll Independent School District achieves nearly 4x public participation and deeper community insights with ThoughtExchange

Engaging record numbers to deeply understand the district climate

Carroll Independent School District (CISD), a K–12 district in the Dallas–Fort Worth area serving 7,500 students across 11 schools, needed a better way to engage its community and gather input on upcoming attendance rezoning and facility build-outs. Traditional surveys and town halls reached only about 10% of their email list, so district leaders sought a solution that would create open dialogue and bring broader, more representative feedback.

CISD partnered with Thoughtexchange to run an interactive, confidential exchange where families could share open-ended thoughts and rate others’ responses. Using Thoughtexchange’s analysis and visualization tools, the district uncovered trends and actionable insights. The effort yielded record participation—35% of their list (nearly 4,000 people), 9,210 thoughts and 256,000 stars—about four times the turnout of previous methods and clear priorities to guide rezoning and future plans.

Carroll Independent School District

David Faltys

Superintendent