In a newly released survey, New Haven teachers recommended some schools, but not others. The district won’t yet say which schools are which.
That news emerged Tuesday, as the district released some results of a new school survey at a press conference at the John C. Daniels School in the Hill. The anonymous surveys, taken by parents, teachers and students in grades 5 to 12, gave feedback on the “climate” inside each of the city’s 47 public schools. Click here for a sample of the parent survey.
The surveys were part of a new emphasis on accountability ushered in by the city’s school reform drive. Top bosses in the district’s office were the first to receive feedback; click here to read about that.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Superintendent Reggie Mayo.
The “school climate” surveys gave public school parents the chance to report back on how they’re treated at their school buildings. Kids said whether they feel safe in school. And teachers answered a range of questions, including whether they feel supported by their bosses, and whether they’d recommend their schools.
Teachers diverged widely on the latter question.
In 10 elementary/middle and five high schools, at least 75 percent of teachers said they would “recommend my school to a friend or colleague.”
In one school, over 95 percent of teachers recommended their school.
On the other side of the spectrum, there were 11 elementary/middle schools where at least 65 percent of teachers said they would not make that recommendation.
Which schools were which?
Principals were scheduled to learn that information Tuesday night, when they were to receive the results of the surveys for their particular schools.
However, those school-by-school results will not be made public until July 19, said schools spokeswoman Michelle Wade.
Wade said the district is delaying releasing that information in order to give principals a chance “to see it and review it first.”
“It’s a courtesy,” she said.
In lieu of the specific information, officials shared overall return rates and aggregate responses for the district.
Click here to read the district-wide results.
Dirk Hightower (pictured), executive director of the Children’s Institute, shared the results. The district paid his Rochester, N.Y.-based group for $71,000 to execute the survey. Hightower said he has worked at the institute for 28 years, and has run surveys for “hundreds” of U.S. school districts. He framed the results in the context of his professional experience.
Hightower gave the public schools high marks for participation in the survey. The New Haven Federation of Teachers pitched in $5,000 to promote the surveys through ads on city buses, in the newspaper, and postcards in the mail. The city also hired CT Parent Power, a parent advocacy group run by former city traffic chief Paul Wessell, to train PTOs on how to boost participation in the survey.
The result was an impressive outreach effort, Hightower concluded. He gave the city an “A” for teacher and student participation: 82 percent of teachers and 88 percent of students filled out the surveys.
Hightower gave the district a “C+” for parent participation. Results varied widely by school, from 3 percent to 72 percent. District-wide, 23 percent of parents responded, according to the district’s calculations.
Click here for a school-by-school breakdown of how many parents responded.
Principal Gina Wells (pictured) came out on top, with 72 percent of her parents responding. She ran down her strategy.
When the district sent out the surveys, Wells knew a lot would come back undeliverable. Usually, when she sends mail home, she gets “buckets” of letters back, she said. The district sent out 15,000 surveys, and 1,000 came back undeliverable, school officials said.
So Wells ran a backup plan. It involved phone calls, a special note home to parents — and an ice cream bribe. For six weeks, her secretary called every parent two to three times. For the parents who hadn’t updated their addresses with the school, she devised a special supplemental survey: She sent a note home with students, in Spanish and English, asking parents if they got the school climate survey, if they filled it out, and if their address had changed. If 100 percent of kids in a classroom brought home that mini-survey, they all got ice cream sandwiches.
“Ice cream sandwiches are healthy — don’t worry,” Wells told the crowd of school officials gathered in folding chairs in her hallway Tuesday. The bribe did the trick, she said; all the kids got a sweet treat, and parents poured in with their feedback.
Reaping in so much feedback may prove a “double-edged sword,” she noted: Now, if parents have a problem with the school, their complaints will be made public — when the results are released on July 19.
Overall, the parents who responded to the surveys said they are generally satisfied with their kid’s teacher and the education they’ve received.
Students gave the district high marks: 76 percent said they feel “at least one adult in their school knows them well” — a key, officials said, to keeping kids from dropping out. About 90 percent of kids said their teachers “encourage me to be successful in school” and “believe I am capable of learning.”
“Parents Can Do Better”
Melissa Bailey Photo
Teachers union President Dave Cicarella said teachers heard an affirmation that they’re doing good work.
“Students feel safe in school, they feel challenged — we feel good about that,” he said.
Parental involvement in schools was one big weakness highlighted by the surveys. Most parents — 78 percent — said they are satisfied with “your opportunities to be involved in your child’s education.”
But a whopping 47 percent of parents said they visit their child’s school “never” or only “once or twice” per year. A total 76 percent never or seldom volunteer at the school. And 80 percent never or seldom call parents to inform them about school events.
That finding, combined with the low number of parents who responded to the survey, sent a signal to top school officials that more needs to be done to engage parents.
“We’re not satisfied with the parent results,” said school reform czar Garth Harries. “This is a big priority in reform. It’s a cultural change. Clearly, this is an area where we have significant room to grow.”
The surveys will be used next year when the district grades all 47 schools. Next year, the school district plans to give parents more time to fill out the survey, and will use parent report card night to boost parent response, said schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo.
“I think parents can do better,” Mayo said. “I think parents need to step up to the plate.”
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