By Skye H. McFarlane
P.S. 89 Parent Teacher Association co-president Dennis Gault was not surprised to see that his daughter’s school had scored above city averages in the Dept. of Education’s first-ever parent and teacher surveys. He also wasn’t shocked to learn that the P.S. 89 parents overwhelmingly listed class size as their number one concern.
He was, however, surprised to read that despite the emails, Web sites, meetings and cell phones available to them, P.S. 89 parents still preferred to get their school info from notes sent home in their children’s backpacks.
“As a leader in the P.T.A. it’s always a challenge to contact 700 parents,” said Gault, who prefers to get his own information via email blasts, since emails are easier to save and more eco-friendly than sheets of paper. “The survey indicates that they would rather get paper notification, but we’re also trying to be green and not kill trees.”
The survey results:
Category P.S. 234 P.S. 89 P.S. 150 I.S. 89 Millennium H.S.
Safety 8.5 8.4 8.7 7.3 8.0
Academics 7.7 7.9 7.9 7.4 7.8
Engagement 7.4 7.2 7.1 6.5 6.6
Communication 7.4 7.2 7.2 6.3 6.5
All scores are graded out of 10.0.
In the 2006-07 Dept. of Education surveys, teachers answered eight questions specifically about their principals. We took the 10-point scores from each of those queries and added on two questions about “school leaders”* to create a 100-point score for each administrator.
Here’s how the educators stacked up:
School/principal Score I.S. 89’s Ellen Foote 84.5
P.S. 89’s Ronnie Najjar 81.4
Millennium H.S.’s Robert Rhodes 75.8
P.S. 234’s Lisa Ripperger 70.9
P.S. 150’s Maggie Siena 48.7
*The two “school leader” questions used were 5a, “School leaders communicate a clear vision for this school” and 10g, “School leaders give me regular and helpful feedback about my teaching.”
The survey results, released on the D.O.E.’s Web site (nycenet.edu) on Sept. 6, held a similar mix of reinforcement and surprise for all of Downtown’s local schools. Across the board, P.S. 89, P.S. 234, P.S. 150, I.S. 89 and Millennium High School had higher scores and better participation rates than the citywide averages in nearly every category.
One surprise was at P.S. 150 in Tribeca. While parents responded at the greatest rate (68 percent) and gave the highest scores of any local parent body, the P.S. 150 teachers told a different story.
The small school had a full-time staff of just 12 teachers last year, so it should be noted that each individual voice carried significantly more weight than at other neighborhood schools. While the P.S. 150 teachers still gave the school high marks in most categories, their responses to questions involving “school leaders” or “the principal” offered some scathing criticism.
Of the seven teachers who filled out the survey, six of them disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “I trust the principal at his or her word.” Only two of them agreed with the statement “School leaders encourage open and honest communication on important school issues.”
By contrast, I.S. 89 received the lowest overall scores in every category, but Principal Ellen Foote got both 100 percent participation and rave reviews from her staff. Every teacher at I.S. 89 checked either “agree” or “strongly agree” on the question about trusting the principal. Neither Foote nor P.S. 150 Principal Maggie Siena returned calls for comment.
The lower overall scores for I.S. 89 mirrored lower averages for middle schools citywide, as compared to their elementary counterparts. Increased disciplinary issues and wider communication gaps at the middle school level appear to have contributed to the downward trend.
The inclusion of survey scores from the middle school students — a largely disgruntled group across the five boroughs — also sank I.S. 89’s scores.
Millennium High students were also less satisfied than the school’s parents and teachers, but 79 percent of the students took the time to fill the survey out — a full 19 percentage points better than the citywide average for high schoolers. Although only 22 percent of the Millennium teachers filled out the surveys, their answers gave Principal Robert Rhodes scores of 7.0 or higher out of 10 in all but one “principal” category (Rhodes scored a 5.4 when teachers were asked whether he did classroom observations). P.S. 234 Principal Lisa Ripperger also averaged over a 7.0 and P.S. 89 administrator Ronnie Najjar ranked just behind Foote in satisfying her staff.
Because higher participation rates lead to a clearer final picture, Gault said that the P.S. 89 P.T.A. would work hard to get the word out about the next round of surveys this spring. Fifty-one percent of P.S. 89 parents filled out the survey last spring, compared to the 35 percent average for elementary schools citywide.
“The more participation there is, the more accurate the results,” Gault said. “Fifty-one percent is good, but we can do better.”
The voluntary surveys will count for five percent of each school’s score in the D.O.E.’s new letter-graded school report cards. The surveys gave parents, teachers, and middle- and high-school students the opportunity to assess their schools anonymously in dozens of different areas. The D.O.E. then converted the responses into numeric scores, with 10 being the best. The department grouped the scored questions into four major categories and, in turn, calculated an overall 1.0 to 10 score for each school in each category.
Citywide, schools scored better in the Safety and Academic categories than in the rankings for Communication and Engagement (activities offered and overall appeal of the school). Downtown schools were no different, with Safety and Academics getting the top marks. Aside from I.S. 89, each school rated an 8.0 or better in the Safety category. Even at I.S. 89, the school’s 7.3 mark was higher than the citywide average of 6.6 for middle schools. Bullying was the top safety problem at most local schools, with gangs and drugs listed as virtually non-existent.
Although the local schools all scored better than citywide averages in the Communication and Engagement categories, those questions generally offered slightly less-glowing reviews.
Part of the communication problem, at least on the parents’ end, may stem from their surprising affinity for paper. In a “select all that apply” question, parents were asked to choose from 12 different methods of staying informed about their schools. “Paper sent home with your child” was the No. 1 choice at both P.S. 89 and P.S. 234. With 85 percent of parents’ selecting it, paper was a close second to email (90 percent) at P.S. 150. Even at I.S. 89 and Millennium, where email was also the first choice, paper was still selected by 51 and 41 percent of the parents, respectively.
By contrast, P.T.A. meetings, Community Education Councils and school Web sites consistently garnered some of the lowest percentages. Both Gault and Liat Silberman, the P.T.A. president at P.S. 234, said they were taking the survey’s communication results to heart, since the P.T.A.s play a large role in informing parents about school activities.
“I think something we’re really fighting to be conscious of is assumed knowledge,” Silberman said. “We have to remind ourselves that every year there’s a new wave of [kindergarten] parents who don’t necessarily understand what everything means.”
Gault and Silberman said that their P.T.A.s would continue to send information out in both email and paper form. In addition, they plan to take other steps to make school communication better. At P.S. 234, one mother who speaks both English and Chinese fluently has volunteered to do some translating for the school’s Chinatown parents. At P.S. 89, the P.T.A. has instituted a new one-hour time limit for its meetings, so that busy parents will be more inclined to attend.
In general, both Silberman and Gault were pleased by the high scores and high participation rates of their parent populations. Asked about any particular points of pride, Silberman cited the fact that 96 percent of P.S. 234 respondents said they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I feel welcome in my child’s school.” Gault said he was happy to see that parents were largely satisfied with the P.S. 89 teaching staff and that teachers felt respected by their students.
In addition to supporting the good reputations of local schools, the surveys also reinforced the fact that class size remains a big concern with neighborhood parents. Many citywide education advocates had criticized the surveys for lumping both class size and standardized testing into one general question: “Which of the following improvements would you most like your school to make?” The question offered 10 choices and unlike the query about communication methods, parents were only allowed to select one answer.
Even so, “smaller class size” was the top choice at every local school, with either “more challenging courses” or “more or better enrichment programs” coming in second.
“I think you take quality teaching and a reasonable class size, and you’ve got a formula for success,” Gault said. “And the parents said that loud and clear.”
Gault, who filled out the survey as both a parent and a public school teacher (at P.S. 19), said he thought that the surveys were a great way to look beyond test scores in evaluating the city’s schools. In the future, he hopes that the surveys will clarify some terms, such as “school leaders;” account for the safety and atmosphere impacts that occur when multiple schools share a single building; and ask about transportation issues like school bus eligibility for middle schoolers.
One thing that should not change, Gault said, is the fact that the surveys are anonymous, allowing parents and teachers to voice their opinions freely.
“By and large…this is a step in the right direction,” Gault said of the surveys, later adding, “I know they’re going to fine tune it and more parents will respond. It will be interesting to see it evolve over the years.”
