Newspapers give parents negative view of schools, survey finds

["Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>]

In School Board News May 2008 - www.nsba.org.sbn. 

Newspapers give parents negative view of schools, survey finds


By Del Stover

If parents are relying on newspapers for information about your local schools, then watch out: Their opinions about school safety, teacher quality, and academic success will be less positive than those of parents who get their information from other sources.

That was one of the most intriguing -- if not entirely surprising -- finding of What We Think: Parental Perceptions of Urban School Climate, soon to be published by NSBA's Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE). Brian Perkins, principal investigator of the study and president of the New Haven, Conn., school board, gave a preview of the findings during the Annual Conference.

"There are some significant differences among parents, depending on what they said was their primary source of information about schools," Perkins said. 

More than 76 percent of parents with personal experience in their local schools agreed that their children's schools were safe, the study found. But that figure dropped to 61.5 percent among parents who rely heavily on newspapers for information.

Nearly one in three parents believe some children carry guns or knives to school -- if they rely on newspapers to form their opinions, Perkins added. Only 11.1 percent agree with that assessment if they get their information on schools from their children.

A similar disconnect was found when parents were asked about the likelihood that their child would do well on standardized tests. Among those who rely on newspapers, twice as many are skeptical about the chances of high academic performance (10.8 percent) as are those parents with a personal experience with the schools (5 percent).

Asked if teachers care about their child's success, 85.5 percent of parents agree -- if they rely on their children as a primary source of information on the schools. Only 57 percent of parents agree if they rely on newspapers for information.

Overall, the study's findings suggest recognition of the quality and work of urban schools, said Perkins, past chair of CUBE and a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Southern Connecticut State University.

Most parents agreed that schools are a safe place for children (75.3 percent), that they often visit their child's school (75.7 percent), that they believe their children can succeed academically (84 percent), and that they trust their child's teachers (84 percent).

But the findings also indicate that school leaders need to respond to the negative impact that local newspapers appear to have on parents' opinions -- and, by inference, on the opinions of the majority of community members without school-aged children, he said. 

"The majority of people out there . . . get their information from the newspapers and television," Perkins said. So "you cannot ignore the impact that the media is having on people's perceptions."

In New Haven, he said, his school board responded to these findings by meeting with local newspaper editors. One complaint was that crime stories often linked a victim or criminal to a nearby school, even if the crime did not occur on school grounds or those involved were no longer students.

"What are you guys doing?" he said school officials asked the editors. "When you report a story about someone who was shot, it could be two blocks away from a school, but you say it's over there near so-and-so school. What about the church nearby? Or the liquor store? You didn't mention that."

The survey also found that opinions varied by race, with black parents more negative than other parents. For example, only 78.6 percent of black parents said they trusted the teachers at their children's schools, compared to 89.7 percent of white parents.

That's significant because, although the majority of parents are satisfied, school officials have to wonder why 21.4 percent of black parents don't trust -- or aren't sure they trust -- teachers.

A similar gap in perception on questions of student achievement and school safety points to the need to reach out to more to parents -- and help them learn more about their schools, Perkins said. 

"The importance of this has to do with relationships," he said. "It's hard to imagine sending a child somewhere where you don't know if you can trust the adults. There is some relationship building that needs to take place."

And the time is now, he added. "There are three things that are important in a school's climate: relationships, relationships, and relationships." 

The survey is the third in a series of CUBE reports exploring urban school climate. The first, Where We Learn, focuses on the attitudes of students toward schools. The second, Where We Teach, examines the opinions of teachers and administrators. 

The two earlier reports are available at www.nsba.org/cube.

Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2008, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789.

Monty Neill, Ed.D.
Deputy Director
FairTest
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