During the fall of 1999, a parent satisfaction survey was mailed to 600 randomly selected parents of Austin Public Schools students, and 180 were sent back to the district.

Monday, June 25, 2001

During the fall of 1999, a parent satisfaction survey was mailed to 600 randomly selected parents of Austin Public Schools students, and 180 were sent back to the district.

Parents feel they need more of an opportunity to communicate with School Board members.

"The district needs to continue to find a way to communicate," Sue Roehrich, educational services coordinator for the Austin School District, said. "We’re working on that with e-mail and with trying to call people on the phone."

Parents also reported a need for communicate more often with teachers, especially about the academic progress of their children.

Additionally, parents report that opportunities for high-potential students need to improve primarily at the middle and elementary school levels. One-third of the parent respondents of students in grades 6-12 report that they do not receive useful information on the academic progress and achievement of their children.

Parents commented that information regarding poor or failing grades is not provided until it is too late to improve the grade before the semester or quarter concludes.

To solve this, the district revised the report card process at the elementary schools. Elementary schools and Ellis Middle School also are planning back-to-school conferences in the fall of 2001 to improve communications and to establish a strong school-home collaborative. Additionally, almost 80 percent of those who sent their surveys back strongly agreed or agreed that they are satisfied with the information provided by the report card.

A second area of parental dissatisfaction is high-potential students.

Slightly more than one-third of those answering the survey indicated that the school is not meeting the needs of students with high academic potential.

During the past two years, the high-potential coordinator worked with the District High Potential Advisory Committee to improve offerings and programs.

Parent responses from the middle school and elementary school-aged children support this percentage with comments suggesting high-potential students are not being fully challenged.

Generally, the school district received high marks for its instruction.

Almost 85 percent of those who sent their surveys back strongly agreed or agreed that their children are prepared for the next grade level.

The summary of the survey follows indicates the percentage of parents who strongly agree or agree:

Understand world through science – 90 percent

Use Fine Arts for expression – 88 percent

Be better citizens – 87 percent

Speak effectively – 85 percent

Use math to solve problems – 85 percent

Use computer – 83 percent

Reach potential in writing – 79 percent

Reach potential in reading – 78 percent

Use resources for decision making – 78 percent

Learn to ask questions – 71 percent

More than 80 percent of the respondents are satisfied with the education their children are receiving at Austin Public Schools.

Although some parents indicated that some individual teachers have poor attitudes, the majority of teachers received positive feedback.

Almost 80 percent of those answering the survey strongly agree or agree that the school is meeting the needs of students with disabilities.

Overall, parents are satisfied with the education their children are receiving from the Austin School District. They provided a number of positive comments about specific curricular areas, safety of children in the school setting, an issue the nation’s schools have deal with tin the recent past, also received positive reports.

The survey is a state mandated component of the Annual Report on Curriculum, Instruction and Student Performance component of the Systems Accountability Report, which is included in the calendar all parents receive at the start of the school year.

Call Sam Garchik at 434-2233 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.