Schools
Parents and Faculty Disagree on District Communication
The results of parent and faculty satisfaction surveys are in. The student survey had such a low response that it was deemed an unsatisfactory representation of the student body.
Parents and faculty seem to have a different take on how the district communicates goals and its mission. In satisfaction surveys administered in May, district communication ranked among the least satisfactory categories with parents; it is one of the areas with which the faculty is most satisfied.
Paul Roth, the district's chief information officer, presented the results of parent and faculty satisfaction surveys to the Board of Education at Monday night's meeting.
The student survey garnered such a low response—approximately four percent of the high school student body—that results were deemed useless. All three surveys were offered online in May.
Find out what's happening in South Orangefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The parents had a higher response rate, with 1,085 responding. About 27 percent of the faculty offered feedback, a number the BOE hopes to improve next year.
Parents are most satisfied with:
-facilities: the building is orderly and well-organized
Find out what's happening in South Orangefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
-knowledge of how to contact teachers, guidance or administration regarding student progress
-quality of physical education curriculum and instruction
-quality of arts curriculum and instruction
-feeling welcome in their child's school
Parents are least satisfied with:
-communication with/from the district
-communication of district goals/mission
-communication from/with school administration
-quality of the world language curriculum
-quality of special education services
The faculty is most satisfied with:
-communication of district goals and mission
-opportunities to interact with students outside classroom
-inter-department/building collegiality among faculty members
-quality of their performance evaluations
-collegiality among faculty members within departments
The faculty is least satisfied with:
-ability to influence decisions in the district
-communication from district leadership
-quality of revised ELA (English Language Arts) curriculum
-recognition/appreciation of good teaching
-quality of technological and multimedia instructional resources/opportunities for research in discipline
Superintendent Brian Osborne noted that there are more than 500 pages of written responses from parents, which the administration is currently reviewing. He says they are looking for a way to quantify the information.
After hearing the results, board member Sandra Karriem said, "It seems to be the big result is that we need to do a better job communicating with the public. I encourage the administration to make this a special goal."
Student board member Seth Wolin found the lack of student response "disappointing."
"I think it's because it's not really marketed. The same announcement ran on CCN [the closed circuit student television network broadcast within Columbia High School] every morning, so it was just noise they heard day after day instead of being eye or ear catching."
He suggests using homeroom time next year, or scheduling library time, as is done for mandatory surveys.
Board member Andrea Wren-Hardin said that, "for something as important as this, having it be mandatory is something we should consider."
Board president Mark Gleason also noted that there is no way of knowing what some scores indicate, pointing out that the homework satisfaction score was low on the parent survey.
"Do they think there's too much, or not enough?" he questioned.
The board agreed to consider making the survey mandatory for students and faculty next year.
