Our independent parent survey; check it out!

Today, we released our independent NYC parent survey online.

It was launched by some of us who volunteered to be part of the DOE focus groups, but were sorely disappointed when so many of the critical issues we brought up were omitted from their official survey.

We then put together our own parent focus group, and enlisted the help of another public school parent who volunteered her time and experience as a professional survey designer to help write the questions in a fair and objective fashion.

The issues addressed in our survey include class size, testing, our schools' strengths and weaknesses, and the leadership and direction of the school system as a whole – none of which were covered in the official DOE survey. It's sponsored by Class Size Matters, with assistance from the National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham University. A polling company is also administering it by telephone, to ensure the statistical reliability of the responses.

I hope everyone will take just a few minutes to fill it out, now that your memories are still fresh about the year that just ended. Parents who have done so already have said the experience was fun and very fulfilling.

We hope that the results will help the Mayor and Chancellor better understand what areas may still need to be addressed in order to improve our schools and the system as a whole. I encourage all of you to please complete the survey, and then send the link to every other parent that you know!

Here is a press release about our survey; here is a NY1 story about it.