President's Perspective

Mutual admiration society

by Randi Weingarten

Sep 20, 2007 1:11 PM

Perhaps the old lawyer’s admonition, “Don’t ask a question whose answer you don’t already know,” slipped the mind of former U.S. Justice Department Attorney Joel Klein when he decided to survey parents, teachers and students about their views on our public schools. Surely he did not expect some of the answers he received; he as much as said so at the press conference announcing the results.

But while the chancellor may have been surprised, I felt a huge sense of pride about one result in particular — one that’s gotten very little public play. Standing head and shoulders above the diverse responses to other questions was a rousing 90 percent positive response to the question, “How satisfied are you with the quality of your child’s teachers this year?” That’s 90 percent of 217,000 parents — the largest survey of parents ever. Coming as it did after you produced one of the smoothest school openings in recent years (with a few significant exceptions), it was great to have “data” to prove what we have always believed in: the overwhelming regard that parents have for you, their children’s teachers.

That response also testifies to the strong alliance that parents and teachers have struck in recent years as we have joined forces on behalf of our children. And it’s a good thing we’ve done that, because, although the survey was supposed to inform decision making, it’s clear the bureaucracy still has a far distance to go in responding positively when parent/teacher views don’t match theirs. So much for the magic power of “data.”

The official reaction to the survey finding on class size is a case in point. Parents were given 10 school improvement strategies and told to choose only one as most important. Therefore, anything that received more than 10 percent of the vote has relatively high importance.

Well, the single improvement most often cited — with 24 percent of parents choosing it — was smaller classes. (The next closest, with 19 percent, was “more or better enrichment programs,” probably a reaction to a curriculum that’s been significantly narrowed by double periods of math and English plus the excessive test prep that even last year was displacing instruction in the elementary schools an average of one day a week.)

The fact that smaller class sizes was most important to parents came as no surprise to us. Our parent/teacher/community coalition has been fighting for smaller classes for a long time, only to meet official resistance and roadblocks at every turn. But the DOE chose to interpret the data differently. By lumping together four other programmatic choices for school improvements (like arts programs and tougher courses), they came up with the conclusion that parents preferred “enriching programs” by two-to-one over class size reductions.

The DOE did the same statistical gymnastics when it came to test prep, claiming that parents are not as unhappy with drilling for tests as some critics claim. Frankly, given the emphasis on standardized testing, I am surprised that only 10 percent of parents said prepare students more. (Or maybe the 45 percent of parents who wanted an enriched curriculum were really saying “less test prep.”) Regardless, class size trumped even those who wanted more test prep by two-and-a-half times.

Still, despite the liberties taken with the data, nothing can diminish the fact that you (that includes all our members) are the best-qualified teaching force in this city since before the fiscal crisis (due in no small part to salaries that are 43 percent higher since 2002), and that parents know it and now say it. Given the challenges we will face this year — particularly with the debate over NCLB — that’s important.

Like their parents, students, too, have generally positive views of you. With only middle school and high school students responding, 88 percent agreed that “my teachers encourage me to succeed” and 86 percent say you help them understand what they need to do to succeed. Furthermore, they know you have a tough job. They recognize that while most teachers treat students with respect, most students don’t reciprocate. And they admit that most students don’t see doing well in school as cool. Give a shout-out to the kids for being honest!

The bad news of the survey was the fact that teachers don’t trust their principals nearly as much as parents trust them. Although most teachers say their principals are supportive and well intentioned, almost 40 percent are less sanguine about the outlook for collegiality, finding their bosses untrustworthy and ineffective. They say that principals discourage “open and honest communication” and do not invite teachers to play a “meaningful role in setting goals and making important decisions” for the school. Not news to us, but a red flag about the prospects for the new structure, since the only way it will work is if teachers and principals work together.

Finally, the survey findings on safety are revealing, although probably understated, as the response rate from both teachers and parents was heavily tilted to the earliest grades. Most teachers who responded said they feel safe at school, but they had more misgivings about the maintenance of “order and discipline.” And 38 percent reported that they could not get help to address student behavior problems.

More than 80 percent of middle and high school students feel safe within the classroom, but that drops to 60-plus percent when the survey asked about the halls and the bathrooms and even the immediate area outside the school. And parents, too, worry about crime and violence, although by and large they believe their own children are safe.

More significant than any of these citywide findings is what the survey reveals about your own school. Go to the DOE Web site (nyc.gov/schools), enter your school’s number and on your schools Web site click on Statistics and the Learning Environment Survey Report. (And now that it’s clear that the DOE respected confidentiality, be sure to get as many of your colleagues and parents as possible to complete the surveys next year. That way no one can debate whether the results are accurate.)

Talk with other teachers about the findings, and if you note something that should be addressed, ask your chapter leader to put it on the next monthly UFT consultation with your principal.

Some principals (and you know if yours is one of them) will be angry at negative responses because the survey results contribute in a small way (less than 15 percent) to the school’s Progress Report grade. That’s too bad, because the real purpose of the surveys should be to identify areas for the school to work on. I imagine the best principals will be asking our members how to solve these issues, rather than waiting for you to raise them.

The DOE wants teachers to use student test data to inform instruction? Well, these surveys provide important data for school leaders. We expect our school leaders — from the mayor to the chancellor to the principals — to pay attention and take action.