Survey Says Parents Pleased with Schools; Changes Afoot in Elementary Program

And the survey says ... the parents appear to be extremely pleased with their child's program and school, according to an elementary program review survey sent by the Ferndale Public Schools.

The survey was sent to K-6 parents throughout the district. The schools emailed 825 of them and received 435 responses. That's 53 percent if you're keeping track at home.

The survey asked questions about how welcomed they felt at the schools, if they thought the schools had high expectations of academic standards and performance, were there opportunities to get involved, and satisfied with their child's education, among many other things. There were 22 questions in all and of the 435 responses, the Ferndale Public Schools came out favorably among the parents.

The other takeaway might be that only 19 percent of the respondents of the survey favored the Ferndale Public Schools lottery system.

Ferndale Superintendent Gary Meier visited (K-6) last Wednesday night to discuss this survey. Nearly 20 parents were in the audience. (Meier also discussed school improvements with the group. You can read that story .)

"I'm not here to react to the survey," he said, kicking off this portion of the evening. "I'm here for you to react to the survey."

The lottery question

Amy Butters, a JFK parent, said one of the first things that jumped out at her was the fact that only 19 percent of the responders favored a lottery system for the Ferndale elementary programs.

Ferndale has three types of programs: Two magnet programs called open classroom and multi-age and a traditional K-6 program.

Open classroom is at (K-3), JFK, and this year just entered (4-6) as Roosevelt's third grade open classroom graduated to the new building; multi-age is also located at JFK and traditional K-6 is at both Roosevelt and Coolidge.

The open classroom and the multi-age program are both magnet programs and require the parent to sign up for a lottery system to be placed in the limited number of seats available. For the non-magnet program, parents can sign their children up without the lottery and place them in a class.

"I think it's very telling that only 19 percent favored using a lottery system," Butters said. "(Parents) like the programs but feel the lottery creates winners and losers."

The survey, which was calculated independently from the district by Lindson Feun, Ph.D. at Oakland Schools, stated in it's executive summary: "From the comments, parents indicated they like having a choice in soliciting their child's programs/school, but disliked using a lottery as a means of selection. The lottery system was described by some parents as producing perceived 'winners and losers.' The majority of parents felt co-locating two themed program in one school does not contribute to a positive school culture."

(You can read the responses and comments from all the surveys here.)

The surveys also revealed

• 91 percent of parents indicated their child's school has high academic standards
• 85 percent believe the school is doing a good job of preparing their student for the next grade level
• 88 percent were satisfied with their child's education regardless of school and/or program
• More than 95 percent indicated they valued art, music and physical education for academic programming
• 72 percent value a world language program
• 95 percent feel welcome at their child's school
• 84 percent feel classroom volunteers are important
• 98 percent of parent indicated family involvement continued to a positive school culture

A world language program received the most interest, the survey's summary states, with 65 percent of the parents indicating an interest and/or extreme interest.

What's next?

Ferndale's elementary programs will see some changes. But what those changes will look like is still unknown.

"There are potential short-term changes as early as next year and other changes that could be phased in by 2013," Meier told the parents.

He said on one end of the spectrum of change could be that the multi-age classroom wouldn't be offered in the fall, eventually phasing it out. Those in the multi-age program right now would continue but there would be no new incoming multi-age students. On the other end, and more long-term, he said, a complete restructuring of the elementary program that could encompass all facilities are K-6 with fully integrated programs.

"We're not at a point to make any recommendations," Meier said. "It is complicated and we don't want to change for the sake of changing."

But, changes could be seen early next year, he said.

Additionally, he added that there is no way the lottery is going away this year, which takes place in February.

Responders broken up by program

School

Program

Percentage

No. of responses

JFK

Open

30.4

133

JFK

Multi-Age

13.5

59

Roosevelt

Open

18.8

82

Roosevelt

Brain-Based

13

57

Coolidge

Traditional

24.3

106

Responders' city of residence

City

Percentage

No. of responses

Ferndale

56.4

244

Oak Park

26.6

115

Pleasant Ridge

9.5

41

Royal Oak Twp

5.1

22

Other

2.5

11

Responders' school grade of children

Grade

Percentage

No. of surveys

Preschool

0.5

2

Kindergarten

16.9

74

First

14.2

62

Second

11.4

50

Third

13.5

59

Fourth

13

57

Fifth

13.2

58

Sixth

17.4

76

Data from Ferndale Public Schools