I came up with this survey only to correspond to the start of school. I had no idea that this week Time Magazine would do a cover story on ‘What Makes a School Great’ or that President Obama would be in Philadelphia telling Masterman students that “Showing up to school on time. Paying attention in class. Doing your homework. Studying for exams. Staying out of trouble. That kind of discipline and drive — the kind of hard work — is absolutely essential for success.”
I often wonder why we go around chanting C-Pride about our basketball program when our school district is the worst in the state. Do we have our priorities mis-appropriated?
This is the first survey that had results that really surprised me. Nearly half of you believe that the biggest challenge facing Chester students are problems at home. Wouldn’t you know that the Time Magazine survey reveals that 52% of their respondents believe that what will improve students performance the most is more involved parents. You guys seem be in agreement with the rest of the country with what appears to be the real problem with our student’s success.
Chester, we have got to get out of the basement. We can’t continue to have State Championship basketball teams and track athletes and continue to have the worst academic performing students in the state. Let’s get passionate about improving the education of our kids.
To this end, the next few surveys will address education only.
Survey Results were:
Problems at home: 23 (45%)
Bullying, Gangs, Violence: 13 (25%)
Low Academic Performance: 6 (11%)
Inadequate Classroom Facilities: 5 (9%)
Truancy: 2 (3%)
Drop Outs: 1 (1%)
Standardized Test Scores: 1 (1%)
This was one of the most interesting surveys because these issues touched us personally in one way or the other. I did actually get a sampling of students to take the survey online. But I could not get them all to take it online because if you tried to vote multiple times on the same computer, the other student who had previously voted selection would change. This was a good fail safe system, nothing wrong with it.
ReplyDeleteTo get all students to participate in the survey, I simply presented it the old fashion way,on paper. What is the biggest challenge facing Chester Public School Students? Why? I included the "why" to get some idea for the reasons for their choices. I got a total of 72 votes. Here are the results:
Bullying, Gang, Violence: 46%
Drop Outs: 15%
Low Academic Performance: 13%
Problems at Home: 11%
Truancy: 8%
Standardized Test Scores: 7%
Inadequate Classroom Facilities 0%
Now I know you topped off with problems at home but I am thinking you got most of your votes from adults. I can see the tendency to vote this way. But when students vote, they may not admit to this problem.
Of course, the responses came with a variety of reasons. I think Bullying, Gang, Violence involves the fear factor; Low Academic Performance "not taking school seriously"; Problems at Home "everything starts at home...bad habits and negative surroundings influences them to act negatively" and "because some people bring their problems from home or the streets and it effects them at school."
So thanks for coming up with this survey to correspond with the start of school. Looks like Time Magazine and President Obama, and you were on the same page. I guess, great minds think alike.
Thanks. Keep the students involved. We love to get the youth perspective on what us adults think we are experts on.
ReplyDeleteCatch up with Colin Powell's statement on Meet the Press this week. He said that teachers are not truant officers...teaching children begins in the home before they go to school.
ReplyDeleteRecently, someone asked me how these students feel about how others view them. Why do people (outside of Chester) view them so negatively?
I met a monster this week. Just when you think they can't get any worst, in it comes. Don't get me wrong, I have some nice ones but just 1 monster makes "IT" hell.
"According to a new study from the National Education Association, a teachers union, half of new U.S. teachers are likely to quit within the first five years because of poor working conditions and low salaries."
ReplyDeleteThis student said they were written up 12 times by each teacher last year. The parent said they had an anger management issue and can't do anything about it. My child will finish high school this year with zero incidents.