New Action – UFT

Every year, students, families, and staff complete the annual school survey for their respective schools. The feedback provided is perhaps the most comprehensive way for the public to get a feel of the inner workings of a particular school. Questions about safety, facilities, and trust in leadership are just some examples of the dozens of topics covered in the annual survey.

For educators trying to decide whether they should return to their school or interview elsewhere, the public release date of the annual survey results is tantalizing. Traditionally, the data from the annual school surveys is made available to the public in early-mid August, just as Open Market is closing or has already closed. Imagine families trying to decide the best schools for their children and having to use year-old results to try to make their determination. Imagine an educator making an important, career-altering decision to change schools in July only to find out a month later that the school has plummeted over the past year and has less than stellar ratings. Imagine passing up on an offer from a school that has turned it around in the last year and is now lauded by students, families, and staff. New teachers and those definitely looking to transfer are most negatively impacted by the (lack of) timeliness with which results are made available. There have been educators who did their due diligence by researching the annual survey stats before making a decision, only to find that they had been misled. They took a job based on lofty principal ratings but later discovered that those belonged to the previous principal. The new principal had dreadful stats and turned out to be a nightmare. Our jobs are difficult enough. We shouldn’t be subjected to parsing through outdated data when making big decisions regarding our livelihoods.

For the past two years, New Action Caucus has published the survey results, with a focus on teacher-principal trust, teacher influence, and instructional leadership. However, by the time everything is published, it’s too late. Educators are locked into their positions for the upcoming school year and would only be able to leave if they are granted a release by their principal, a risky proposition to say the least, especially if they deny you.

All of this seems tremendously unfair to everyone involved, but this is the way it’s always been, so we accept it. But we shouldn’t, especially since superintendents have had access to the survey results since June 2 and principals have had access since June 3.

It makes sense that school leaders and superintendents have access to the survey results. The best of them may look at the results and hopefully reflect on what’s working and what isn’t and what they can do to improve their schools. Petty leaders may use the results for more nefarious purposes, such as targeting and tormenting their respective staffs. Regardless of what, if anything, superintendents and principals do with the information, the rest of us should be incensed that we will not have access to these very same results for another two months. The argument can easily be made that the survey data is much more imperative and time sensitive for educators, students, and families. After all, we’re the ones who must choose the best environment for ourselves and our loved ones. What benefit is it to give early access to school leadership instead of making the results publicly available to everyone? Why even keep up the facade of transparency when 99% of us are working off of year-old data?

It’s bad enough that the annual school survey results aren’t released until Open Market closes, but the situation becomes flat out unacceptable once you realize that the data is readily available to those in power, but not for the rest of us. It would be nice to know what the staff thinks of their principal or what the students think about school safety before going on that July interview. Instead, we’re left with outdated and possibly inaccurate information to help put the pieces together. We are not being treated fairly and we are not being given a sufficient opportunity to figure out our next steps.

School leaders are encouraged to review results with their staff, but how many principals actually do that? While that information may be valuable, we already know how we feel about our own schools. Moreso, the rest of the schools throughout the city would still remain a complete mystery. The annual school survey results need to be released to everybody as early as possible, not just school leaders and superintendents. Considering Open Market begins in April, the argument can be made that even early June is too long to wait. We deserve access to up-to-date information so that we have the chance to make career decisions that are best for us and our families.