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Extensive survey probes parent, student, staff satisfaction with Palo Alto schools

Most satisfied with academic quality, many concerned about consistency

Ninety percent of Palo Alto parents and 93 percent of high school students say they are "somewhat satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the education children receive in the Palo Alto school district.

Eighty-four percent of parents and 78 percent of high school students are "somewhat satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the "social and emotional experience students have" in the district.

Those are among the findings of an extensive survey of nearly 4,000 parents, high school students and school staff taken recently in connection with an update of the school district's five-year-old strategic plan.

The Board of Education will discuss the survey results in a study session at 12:30 p.m. Friday, April 12, in Conference Room A of school district headquarters, 25 Churchill Ave.

A strength of the district is that "satisfaction with PAUSD's overall academic experience remains very high," officials said in a section on "key insights" in the area of academic excellence and learning.

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However, survey results indicate the district needs to improve in many areas, particularly regarding expectations and support for underrepresented and underperforming students; college and career counseling (especially at Gunn High School); in developing student skills in creativity and writing; and in improving content in English Language Arts, technology and career-technical education.

Parents also said they want more foreign-language instruction for students at an earlier age.

In the area of student personal development, a "strength to build on," is that "overall, the social and emotional experience for students in PAUSD is positive (83 percent)," the survey analysis said.

But "student stress levels are high, particularly due to academic performance concerns" and "students are more stressed out than parents perceive," the report said.

The analysis, performed by district statistician Diana Wilmot, also said that "parents are a strong source of stress for students but don't perceive themselves as such."

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Eighty-four percent of parents and 87 percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that students are well-prepared for college.

Parents cited "overall quality of education" and "teacher quality" among the top-rated aspects of the district but were most critical of "consistency across teachers and courses," "level of academic support required or provided" and the "quality of college and career counseling."

Students likewise rated the "overall quality of education" highly but, like their parents, were critical of the district's "consistency across teachers and courses" and also of the district's support for underperforming students.

Eighty-nine percent of both parents and students said they are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the quality of teachers throughout the school district.

Yet in an analysis of open-ended responses, the most-commented-on topic, with 21 percent frequency, was teacher quality.

Among those commenting, 24 percent were "positive or very positive" while 59 percent were "very negative or somewhat negative."

The next-most-commented-upon category, at 7.3 percent frequency, was social-emotional health and stress as well as support for high-need students, with the comments overwhelmingly negative.

Only 58 percent of parents and 52 percent of students agreed, or strongly agreed, that "grading is fair across teachers and courses." Even lower numbers, 43 percent and 47 percent, said "curriculum and instruction is consistent across teachers and courses."

"Students enrolling in the same course could receive teachers ranging from bad to good, consequently resulting in inconsistent learning experiences," a student wrote.

In comparing this year's survey results with those in unspecified past years, opinions in most of 75 categories remained essentially unchanged.

However, this year's results showed a decline of more than 3 points in 18 of the 75 categories, including parent agreement with the statements "students are challenged to excel academically," "students are well prepared for college," "school has high academic expectations for all students, including under-represented" and "underperforming students are well-supported to improve academically."

Only one of the 75 categories showed an improvement of more than 3 percentage points since prior surveys. That was the percentage of students -- 69 -- agreeing with the statement that "students are excited about coming to school to learn."

The survey is part of the district's effort to update its 2008 strategic plan, which was broken into categories of "academic excellence and learning," "staff recruitment and development," "budget trends and infrastructure" and "governance and communication."

In this year's update -- with volunteer assistance from the consulting firm McKinsey, as in 2008 -- officials are considering tweaking the broad framework to suggest a more student-centered educational approach that will place "personal development and support" on par with the category "academic excellence and learning."

View the survey here.

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Extensive survey probes parent, student, staff satisfaction with Palo Alto schools

Most satisfied with academic quality, many concerned about consistency

by / Palo Alto Weekly

Uploaded: Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 4:11 pm

Ninety percent of Palo Alto parents and 93 percent of high school students say they are "somewhat satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the education children receive in the Palo Alto school district.

Eighty-four percent of parents and 78 percent of high school students are "somewhat satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the "social and emotional experience students have" in the district.

Those are among the findings of an extensive survey of nearly 4,000 parents, high school students and school staff taken recently in connection with an update of the school district's five-year-old strategic plan.

The Board of Education will discuss the survey results in a study session at 12:30 p.m. Friday, April 12, in Conference Room A of school district headquarters, 25 Churchill Ave.

A strength of the district is that "satisfaction with PAUSD's overall academic experience remains very high," officials said in a section on "key insights" in the area of academic excellence and learning.

However, survey results indicate the district needs to improve in many areas, particularly regarding expectations and support for underrepresented and underperforming students; college and career counseling (especially at Gunn High School); in developing student skills in creativity and writing; and in improving content in English Language Arts, technology and career-technical education.

Parents also said they want more foreign-language instruction for students at an earlier age.

In the area of student personal development, a "strength to build on," is that "overall, the social and emotional experience for students in PAUSD is positive (83 percent)," the survey analysis said.

But "student stress levels are high, particularly due to academic performance concerns" and "students are more stressed out than parents perceive," the report said.

The analysis, performed by district statistician Diana Wilmot, also said that "parents are a strong source of stress for students but don't perceive themselves as such."

Eighty-four percent of parents and 87 percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that students are well-prepared for college.

Parents cited "overall quality of education" and "teacher quality" among the top-rated aspects of the district but were most critical of "consistency across teachers and courses," "level of academic support required or provided" and the "quality of college and career counseling."

Students likewise rated the "overall quality of education" highly but, like their parents, were critical of the district's "consistency across teachers and courses" and also of the district's support for underperforming students.

Eighty-nine percent of both parents and students said they are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the quality of teachers throughout the school district.

Yet in an analysis of open-ended responses, the most-commented-on topic, with 21 percent frequency, was teacher quality.

Among those commenting, 24 percent were "positive or very positive" while 59 percent were "very negative or somewhat negative."

The next-most-commented-upon category, at 7.3 percent frequency, was social-emotional health and stress as well as support for high-need students, with the comments overwhelmingly negative.

Only 58 percent of parents and 52 percent of students agreed, or strongly agreed, that "grading is fair across teachers and courses." Even lower numbers, 43 percent and 47 percent, said "curriculum and instruction is consistent across teachers and courses."

"Students enrolling in the same course could receive teachers ranging from bad to good, consequently resulting in inconsistent learning experiences," a student wrote.

In comparing this year's survey results with those in unspecified past years, opinions in most of 75 categories remained essentially unchanged.

However, this year's results showed a decline of more than 3 points in 18 of the 75 categories, including parent agreement with the statements "students are challenged to excel academically," "students are well prepared for college," "school has high academic expectations for all students, including under-represented" and "underperforming students are well-supported to improve academically."

Only one of the 75 categories showed an improvement of more than 3 percentage points since prior surveys. That was the percentage of students -- 69 -- agreeing with the statement that "students are excited about coming to school to learn."

The survey is part of the district's effort to update its 2008 strategic plan, which was broken into categories of "academic excellence and learning," "staff recruitment and development," "budget trends and infrastructure" and "governance and communication."

In this year's update -- with volunteer assistance from the consulting firm McKinsey, as in 2008 -- officials are considering tweaking the broad framework to suggest a more student-centered educational approach that will place "personal development and support" on par with the category "academic excellence and learning."

View the survey here.

Comments

took the survey
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 11, 2013 at 8:05 pm
took the survey, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 11, 2013 at 8:05 pm

Can someone please post the "budget and infrastructure" questions here? They were pathetic. No mention of doing a good job monitoring the bond measure, efficient and effective budgeting, improving health and safety, maintenance practices, etc. One of the few questions they did ask was completely incomprehensible to me. I was really disappointed at how poorly the questioning for this topic was set up, as if the questioners wanted to diminish the priority of facilities from the get go. The environment affects kids health and wellbeing, too. I didn't see even an inkling of those priorities in the questioning.


Marcia
Palo Alto High School
on Apr 11, 2013 at 9:52 pm
Marcia, Palo Alto High School
on Apr 11, 2013 at 9:52 pm

"Students enrolling in the same course could receive teachers ranging from bad to good, consequently resulting in inconsistent learning experiences," a student wrote.

Completely agree. Some history and English teachers are at opposite ends of the extreme. While "A"s are easy with one, they are difficult with another.


data please?
Adobe-Meadow
on Apr 11, 2013 at 10:42 pm
data please?, Adobe-Meadow
on Apr 11, 2013 at 10:42 pm

Let's see the full data behind this slide deck. The only counseling satisfaction data is about "college counseling" and Paly is still kicking Gunn's behind even in that. Let's see the social-emotional numbers. Hey new PR guy, I want to see what you do with that one.


TMI
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 12, 2013 at 7:16 am
TMI, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 12, 2013 at 7:16 am

We don't need to waste another $150K on a PR person, Diana Wilmot has done that already with an overuse of graphics and color in a way that takes away from the data. This is great data for district office folks, a good eye opener for the teacher's union (wake-up call: not all teachers are effective, you are just like us, human and of varying abilities, so you should not be paid the same, in fact some 1st year teachers are better than some 10th year teachers), but in the end, things like the recent Verde article on rape in the PAUSD, the number of our kids who have or want to kill themselves, and the deceit and incompetence of our top leaders (Skelly, Young, the board, etc.) indicate that our district is seriously flawed, even more than other nearby districts that we look down upon. As Joe DiSalvo said around six years ago in the Weekly, this is a pretty sick place. We need to clean our house and reform the top leadership, that IMHO, is the most pressing issue of today. Sometimes, you have to ask the right questions.


Grover
Adobe-Meadow
on Apr 12, 2013 at 9:31 am
Grover, Adobe-Meadow
on Apr 12, 2013 at 9:31 am

It's quite revealing to see the overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents about their experience with PAUSD in this survey and contrast that with the frequent complaining that we see on the message boards here.

If someone's only source of information were the postings on these boards, they would get the impression that Palo Alto is a miserable place to live with a terrible school system. It's nice to see a more representative, broad-based study show that in reality, most people are quite happy to be here.


Mildred
Walter Hays School
on Apr 12, 2013 at 10:29 am
Mildred, Walter Hays School
on Apr 12, 2013 at 10:29 am

It's amazing how folks rant and rave about the schools. Yet if their students actually have difficulties of various sorts to try to get help from schools for bullying or those with verified disabilities by doctors
watch out. No help, understanding, it's the kids fault, never the teachers or the other students. I mean this district has charges from the Federal government in regards to bullying. House really needs to be cleaned and new rules established.


JayZ
Palo Alto High School
on Apr 12, 2013 at 10:38 am
JayZ, Palo Alto High School
on Apr 12, 2013 at 10:38 am

The survey results are a good indication of overall feel but the survey was poorly designed to learn much beneath the surface. For example, one bad teacher causes 80% of the stress and issues for my child and for us as a family. Yet, the feedback mechanism (believe me we've tried) is not conducive to being honest and the student is a potential victim if the teacher takes feedback the wrong way. This survey groups all teachers together. The reality is that most of our teachers over the years have been outstanding but a few are not and they are not weeded out and they turn off kids to learning a subject as well as create other stresses. I would have answered questions differently (very differently this year) if not for one teacher. Do I answer based on the 5 great teachers or the 1 bad teacher? Do I answer based on the "average". Not sure how you interpret the results of this survey when you don't really know how individuals interpret the question and how they choose to answer.


Yawn
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 12, 2013 at 11:04 am
Yawn, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 12, 2013 at 11:04 am

Great! Now the Board can go back to sleep. And Skelly can continue his antics unrestrained.


sara
Stanford
on Apr 12, 2013 at 1:19 pm
sara, Stanford
on Apr 12, 2013 at 1:19 pm

The survey is poorly designed - or rather - the survey is designed to give the District the answers they want. Very sad.


classified
East Palo Alto
on Apr 12, 2013 at 6:47 pm
classified, East Palo Alto
on Apr 12, 2013 at 6:47 pm

I am curious to know what % of classified employees took the survey. I did not take it. Seemed to me that the questions were not relevant to me. I have pasted the first page of the classified survey in the following thread dealing with the strategic plan: Web Link


classified
East Palo Alto
on Apr 13, 2013 at 9:07 pm
classified, East Palo Alto
on Apr 13, 2013 at 9:07 pm

Trying to make sure I understood: The first sentence ofthe article above: "Ninety percent of Palo Alto parents and 93 percent of high school students say they are "somewhat satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the education children receive in the Palo Alto school district..." Later is is stated that nearly 4000 surveys were analysed.
Do I understand correctly that the 90%, 93% mentioned in the first sentence of the article above reflect % of those who took the survey? not of the PAUSD population?
Do I understand correctly that the 4000 surveys analysed are a cumulative combination of parents/high school students/stuff?


soccer mom
Midtown
on Apr 15, 2013 at 8:14 am
soccer mom, Midtown
on Apr 15, 2013 at 8:14 am

The survey included questions as to the use and purpose of tutoring. The survey asked if your student used outside tutoring resources, for what purpose (remediation, to pre-prepare for classes) and how much the family spent on tutoring each month.

I would like to see the results from this series of survey questions.


Chris Kenrick, Palo Alto Weekly staff writer
Old Palo Alto
on Apr 15, 2013 at 9:04 am
Chris Kenrick, Palo Alto Weekly staff writer, Old Palo Alto
on Apr 15, 2013 at 9:04 am

Classified --

A total of 3,848 people completed the survey. Of those, 2,392 are parents; 780 are high school students; 477 are teachers; 162 are classified staff and 37 are administrators. You are correct that the 90 percent and 93 percent mentioned in the first sentence reflect the parents and high school students, respectively, who took the survey.


Chris Kenrick, Palo Alto Weekly staff writer
Old Palo Alto
on Apr 15, 2013 at 9:11 am
Chris Kenrick, Palo Alto Weekly staff writer, Old Palo Alto
on Apr 15, 2013 at 9:11 am

Soccer Mom --

See pages 30 and 31 of the appendix, here: Web Link

There's a lot of data here.


Michele Dauber
Barron Park
on Apr 15, 2013 at 10:24 am
Michele Dauber, Barron Park
on Apr 15, 2013 at 10:24 am

Here is a slide from the Strategic Plan data, just gathered, that supports again the counseling gap between Gunn and Paly: Web Link

This is from page 42: Web Link

We Can Do Better will be making a request for the raw survey data and will provide the community with an analysis of stress, counseling, tutoring and other data related to student social-emotional health. On a first reading, the data supports the position that there is too much stress, inconsistent policies, practices, and teacher quality is adding to that stress, that parents are paying a lot of money to mitigate those effects, and that counseling at Gunn continues to lag far behind that at Paly both in college counseling and in the social-emotional realm.

Another interesting data point is that around a third of parents feel that the district level staff and oversight is poor and that the district's response to bullying is poor. See page 65.

These are other issues that WCDB will continue to advocate on.

Overall, this is great data. Hopefully it will do more than sit on a shelf and gather dust as have previous Strategic Plan surveys.


What comparable means
Adobe-Meadow
on Apr 15, 2013 at 5:07 pm
What comparable means, Adobe-Meadow
on Apr 15, 2013 at 5:07 pm

Dear Dr. Skelly:
At a recent board meeting you and Dr. Millikin stated that you did not know what comparable means. If you would be so kind to look at your own report prepared by yourself as linked above you can see what comparable means. Your report says that there is "a large gap" in satisfaction between Paly and Gunn counseling. So if you want to know what "comparable" means it means close the gap until they Gunn is not lagging. Make them similar. Make each have a number that is "like" the number for the other. So if Phil keeps improving Paly (wow that's great for us at Paly!!) then that means that to make Gunn "comparable" "similar" or "like" Paly you have to make Gunn a lot better than it is. It is probably not likely that 7 people at Gunn can do the work of 50 at Paly. Not similar.

I hope this helps you to understand what comparable means. If you forget you can look at your own report again.

Thanks,

A Paly Parent


Wondering?
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 15, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Wondering?, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 15, 2013 at 5:11 pm

One has to wonder just how knowledgeable a high school student's sense of the quality of his/her education in terms of preparation for college.

This sort of information would better be sought from Freshmen/Sophmores in college--who graduated within the past two years, rather than students who have yet to graduate.

Also have to wonder how much about the quality of a PAUSD education can be gleaned from classided employees.


classified
East Palo Alto
on Apr 15, 2013 at 5:58 pm
classified, East Palo Alto
on Apr 15, 2013 at 5:58 pm

@Chris Kenrick - thank you for your detailed response.
@Wondering? - you wrote: "Also have to wonder how much about the quality of a PAUSD education can be gleaned from classided employees." Could you elaborate, please?


Wondering?
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 15, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Wondering?, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 15, 2013 at 6:54 pm

A generalized questionnaire about the school district that offers all respondents the opportunity to answer all questions is likely to get answers from some respondents that are not particularly meaningful.

For instance, most classified employees are not involved with the direct delivery of education content. So, their opinions about the quality of the district’s education delivery are not likely to be very deeply considered.

On the other hand, questions targeting classified employees about their job satisfaction, compensation, or their sense of how effective their immediate management chain might be, is another matter. The district should probably be conducting surveys every year to establish baselines for employee relations purposes.


Survey fatigue
Palo Verde
on Apr 15, 2013 at 10:36 pm
Survey fatigue, Palo Verde
on Apr 15, 2013 at 10:36 pm

Is there anyone we can complain to about the survey design? I've tried to complete it twice, and abandoned it about 1/3 way through.

If I recall correctly, the question that broke me was some long list that required me to enter percentages for each item that add up to a 100. I know, I could have just cheated, and completed the parts I care about truthfully. But when I see a survey designed like this, I get the sense that the pollster does not really care about what I think.


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