News from Boston Public Schools:
BPS launches two on-line surveys to gather feedback on school climate and improvements to student assignment
Our Current Parent School Climate Survey is only open to current BPS parents and asks questions about the school your child attends. Different versions of this survey are being offered to students and teachers, who will receive the survey forms at school directly. The survey below is designed for current BPS parents only:Launch Current Parent School Climate survey in >>
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The Improving School Choice survey is available to the entire Boston community. It asks the same series of questions we discussed in community meetings in April:Launch Improving School Choice survey in >>
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“With these surveys we hope to get valuable insights into the work we still must do to improve all our schools,” said BPS Superintendent Carol R. Johnson. “Online options compliment the conversations we are having in our community meetings and in our schools. We want to make it is easier for all members of the community to be part of this conversation to ensure everyone has an opportunity to tell us what they think.”
The School Climate Survey asks students, parents and teachers what they think about various aspects of their school. The Improving School Choice: Student Assignment survey asks broader questions about school quality and the school choice process.
This is the fourth year BPS has offered the School Climate Survey, and the first year BPS has offered it as an online option. Students are asked to fill it out during homeroom; teachers will receive the survey through their school, and parents will receive it with postage-paid envelopes in the next week. The feedback is then summarized and sent back to each school so that the district and school leaders better understand how to improve our learning environments.
Last year, 60% of students and 55% of teachers completed the climate surveys, but parent participation was just 19%, so BPS is also offering an online option this year in an attempt to boost participation rates.
In last year’s survey, 95 percent of BPS parents who completed the voluntary survey either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with the statement “this school is a good place for my child to learn.”
BPS is also gathering feedback from the entire community as we prepare to design proposals for a redesigned student assignment process, which we expect to present to the Boston School Committee this winter. The online survey asks the same questions we have been discussing during our community meetings in March and April. More surveys and meetings, with different sets of questions, are planned for the coming months and we welcome these conversations as we move forward.
For more information on the Improving School Choice survey and our process, please visit our School Choice page. For questions about the School Climate Survey, contact Caitlin Green in the Office of Research, Assessment and Evaluation.
Thank you for your participation!
