Educon Notes: What DO Parents Want?

So I gotta tell you that I hate keynote presentations.  I almost never go to them.  I just can't stand any more 'sit-and-git' in my life. 

But this morning's keynote at Educon was different.  It featured Leroy Nunery---the Deputy Superintendent of the Philadelphia Public Schools---talking about the challenges faced by public schools and the steps that they're taking here in Philadelphia to address those challenges. 

About halfway through Leroy's slides---you can see 'em all here---he mentioned the results of a survey given to Philadelphia parents designed to highlight what the general community regarded as "must haves" in a good education system.  As Leroy explained it, once you know what the community values, you can work to protect those components of your system.

Well, look at what the community listed as their top "must haves:"

 

 

What Do Parents Want
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Question: How do your school/district/state's investment and spending decisions align with the programs identified as "must haves" by Philadelphia's parents?

Better Question:  Would the results turn out the same if you surveyed your community?

Best Question:  Isn't a bit arrogant to design a system that completely ignores the very programs that parents value the most?  When the choices that our schools and systems make don't align with parent desires and interests, aren't we setting ourselves up for an #epicfail? 

 

Comments

[Samantha Fleming]

In response to your last question, I agree that it does seem a bit arrogant to design a system that completely ignores the very programs that parents value the most. However, I don't think that it should be solely up to the parents. Every parents' values are going to be slightly different; therefore, you aren't going to be able to please everyone. I like the idea of taking a survey to find out what it is that's important to them, but I think when it comes down to designing the system, it should be left up to the school board with them taking into consideration the surveys of the parents in the community.