For some strange reason, I am always cynical about surveys. It seems like people spout off information, and use it to support their own causes. What really happens with the accumulated data anyway? For a few years we were able to evaluate our schools and their leaders in a very secretive system at the end of the the year. No names, no way to identify us. We received feedback for a couple of years. Then, the feedback stopped. Next, the surveys stopped. Everything just continued like the surveys had never existed in the first place.
I just read about a two million dollar survey that has provided all sorts of information about attitudes towards the public schools in New York City. It seems amazing to me that a survey could cost that much in the world of computers. Anyway, be prepared for new stuff you didn't know.
Nearly half of middle and high school students surveyed in New York City public schools say that students who get good grades are not respected. Nearly a quarter of parents call smaller class sizes the chief improvement they seek. More than a third of teachers say they do not trust their principals.
Those were some of the findings of a $2 million survey released yesterday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, to which 587,000 out of 1.8 million parents, teachers and middle and high school students responded, providing a trove of information on attitudes toward the schools.
Still, only 26 percent of parents responded. The rates were better among teachers and students. Forty-four percent of teachers and 65 percent of middle and high school students filled out the survey. Parent and teacher response rates were lower in schools that are largely poor and minority.
One of my not so favorite principals supported all of his decisions by claiming they were based on research. How can you argue with that? You might as well say you ran it by the "gut call" lady.