In NYC, questions about school climate surveys
In Baltimore this academic year, the annual school climate surveys completed by parents, teachers and students will be administered under much tighter regulations. The results will be used in evaluating principals.
In New York City, such surveys are already used as a factor in giving schools A through F letter grades. If low enough for long enough, those grades can cost principals their jobs and prompt school closings.
The New York Post reported yesterday that more than 60 principals there were urged to keep the surveys away from "toxic" students who might bring their rankings down. In a document posted online last year by a school system official, the article says, "Principals were also advised to have school staffers help parents not only with translating a survey, but with 'filling it out,' and to urge students and teachers to complete the surveys following 'fun' events." The article quotes parents who say their principals told them falsely that low marks on the surveys would cost their schools funding.
The Post reports that the document in question has been taken down from the New York education department's Web site, but the department defended the integrity of the surveys.
Categories: Around the Nation, Baltimore City
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Comments
There has been a shift in responsibility from the central office to principals, however, for school climate surveys it seems like an obvious conflict of interest. People should not be in charge of their own evaluations.
Posted by: Corey | December 2, 2008 8:48 AM
I don't have faith whatsoever in the school climate surveys being disseminated or used appropriately.
I worked under a rather tyrannical principal who fires and/or re-assigns quality staff members, yet somehow he touts a high-80s faculty approval rate on the school climate survey. Yet I, nor none of my colleagues, filled it out. It's a mystery how or when it was given out.
If indeed this will be used as an evaluation tool for principals this year, the way these surveys are handed out and processed will need to be radically changed before there will be any sort of fairness or effectiveness to the process at all.
Posted by: Dana | December 2, 2008 6:40 PM