Friday, September 07, 2007

Survey Results


Some of you may remember the multiple choice surveys we had our students fill out last year. Here are the results.

The DOE released the results of their parent survey today.

They tried to manipulate the results to look like parents don't care about class size; even though it turned out to be the number one choice of parents among ten different options. When asked "which of the following improvements would you most like your school to make" class size came out at 24%. They actually had to lump together the responses of four other questions and called them "more and better programs." in a pathetic attempt to demonstrate that parents don't really care about this issue. They added together "More hands-on learning", "more or better enrichment programs,", "More or better arts programs, and "more challenging courses" to get this 45%. Of course, this begs the question of why parents should have to choose between smaller classes and arts and enrichment programs anyway!

A far better question would have been, which do you think would best improve our schools, smaller classes, more small schools, more charter schools, or more testing? The latter are the policies of this administration. I haven't noticed them offering our kids more enrichment or arts.

We asked this question in our independent parent poll, and we will let you know soon what the results were.

Reportedly, at his press conference this morning, the Mayor specifically singled out certain people who advocate for smaller classes, saying that these results confirm that he is right and that they are wrong and that class size isn't important to parents. Hopefully the media will be a little more critical. Check out WNBC news tonight for an interview.

My statement is just above their press release.

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters

No comments: