How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all
More on the results of the parent survey and the question left out in Schoolbook and the NY Daily News.
When the results of the DOE's Learning Environment Survey were released yesterday, the administration took credit for high rates of parent satisfaction, though reporters pointed out the satisfaction rates were the same for the last three years and this year, only about half of all parents bothered to respond to the survey.
Yet what was most striking was the question that was left out. This question had been asked of parents since the survey was first given: Which of the following improvements would you MOST like your school to make? Every year since 2007, which was the first year the survey was given, smaller classes has been the top priority of parents by far, among ten choices.
The question was included in the survey because of the insistence of parent members of the focus groups organized by Jim Liebman, then head of the Accountability office, to give feedback on the survey's design back in 2006. This year, the DOE revised the survey without holding any focus groups at all.
If you look at the 2014 data, smaller classes were even more clearly a top priority of parents; and either their #1 or #2 priority in all but two districts out of 32:
In 2007, parents actually wanted separate questions on each of these issues, especially as regards class size and testing, but instead DOE decided to group them together in this way. In any event, the results have been an important source of data that could have been used if the Chancellor or the Mayor actually wanted to be responsive to parent concerns. Unfortunately, since 2007 class sizes have increased instead.
In 2007, Bloomberg tried to obscure the responses to this question during his press conference by grouping together many other options in a new category, called "more or better programs." I and others, including Patrick Sullivan, called him out on this naked attempt to obscure that NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all:
When the results of the DOE's Learning Environment Survey were released yesterday, the administration took credit for high rates of parent satisfaction, though reporters pointed out the satisfaction rates were the same for the last three years and this year, only about half of all parents bothered to respond to the survey.
Yet what was most striking was the question that was left out. This question had been asked of parents since the survey was first given: Which of the following improvements would you MOST like your school to make? Every year since 2007, which was the first year the survey was given, smaller classes has been the top priority of parents by far, among ten choices.
If you look at the 2014 data, smaller classes were even more clearly a top priority of parents; and either their #1 or #2 priority in all but two districts out of 32:
In 2007, Bloomberg tried to obscure the responses to this question during his press conference by grouping together many other options in a new category, called "more or better programs." I and others, including Patrick Sullivan, called him out on this naked attempt to obscure that NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all:
