Making the Grade: Parents Grade Michigan Public Elementary Schools
This study draws on insights from the 2011 Thriving Schools program. As part of the Thriving Schools program, this study looks specifically at feedback from parents of elementary school children who attended a Michigan public school in 2010-2011. The Thriving Schools program gath-ers feedback from various school stakeholders regarding their experience with the school.
Background
The Thriving Schools program began in 2006 with 1 private school in Ann Arbor. As part of a larger strategic planning effort, the school board conducted a survey to gather feedback from school stakeholders (parents, teachers, school board, etc.). This feedback was then incorporated into the school’s strategic planning process with great success. Since then, we have conducted this program for over 100 schools and gathered over 10,000 responses.
In August 2011, we collaborated with Survey Sampling International (SSI) to conduct the Thriving Schools survey to a panel of over 300 parents who had at least one child attend a Michigan public school during the 2010-2011 school year.
We asked these parents to grade their public elementary school on overall satisfaction with the school, the image and reputation of the school, and 75 other measures across the school experience. This report provides the insights and analysis drawn from this informative feedback.
The 7 Drivers of Parent Satisfaction
Through quantitative analytics, we have identified 7 key Drivers of parent satisfaction with their Michigan public school experience. Administrators should focus on these 7 Drivers to effectively boost parent satisfaction.
1. Providing up-to-date resources
Students need facilities and equipment that can provide the learning environment needed, particularly in the classroom. The quality of the facilities provided by the school varies throughout the Michigan public elementary schools. In some districts, parents are looking for very basic improvements, such as air conditioning and facilities that work. In other schools, parents want to refresh an outdated learning environment. Administrators should evaluate school resources and consider which improvements would contribute most to increased parent satisfaction.
2. Maintaining high academic standards
Our public schools are commendable for working to ensure that no child falls through the educational cracks. This emphasis is core to the mission of public schools and is admirable as a societal goal of educating the entire community served by the school. Administrators, however, need to make sure that the schools simultaneously continue to emphasize high academic expectations. Some parents suggested that schools are tempted to lower academic expectations in order to move children through the system. Clearly, administrators and teachers do not support such an approach to education. Administrators, therefore, must act to make sure students and parents see the high academic expectations the schools have for their students.
3. Accommodating students of all levels
In extracurricular activities at the schools, parents want to make sure their child is able to plug in, regardless of his or her abilities. Administrators should engage the difficult task of making extracurricular activities available to novice students while concurrently providing challenging opportunities for more advanced students.
4. Attending to individual learning styles
Each child learns in a unique way. Administrators should encourage teachers to avoid a one-size-fits-all pedagogy and seek new ways to communicate uniquely with each student. High student-to-teacher ratios, challenging subject matter, and a variety of student academic levels can make such an approach difficult to implement. Nevertheless, finding creative methods to reach students pays tremendous dividends in parent satisfaction and their willingness to recommend the schools.
5. Creating a feeling of school community
We all thrive on a healthy school community. Increasingly, parents are looking to be part of a closer school community. Over the last few years, families across Michigan have become fragmented and stretched as we all face difficult economic times. The public elementary school is one of the few public institutions that forms a center of commonality for families of all walks of life. Intentionally cultivating a feeling of community at the school has a high impact on how parents feel about the school and, consequently, how they talk about the school to others.
6. Fostering healthy student-to-student relationships
Related to building a healthy school community are healthy student-to-student relationships. Parents clearly want their children to learn in a safe, friendly, and warm environment. Efforts to eliminate bullying from schools are on the mark. Administrators and teachers should go beyond the campaigns to demonstrate healthy relationships for students and show students how to resolve some conflicts on their own.
7. Being available for meeting with parents or students
Administrators and teachers are busy, with a host of administrative tasks and class preparation duties needed each day. However, administrators must not consider parent requests as intrusions on work. Rather, administrators should consider these requests as central to their work. Parents crave to be heard. Administrators must make a conscious effort to be available to interact with parents. This availability goes a long way toward addressing the other 6 Drivers on this list.
For more explanation of these 7 Drivers of parent satisfaction, download the full study:
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