Recent Poll Finds Boston Public Schools Failing Parents' Satisfaction

Parents' satisfaction towards the services and programs of Boston Public School are falling.

The MassINC Polling Group released a new survey Thursday stating that only 32 percent of parents are "very satisfied" overall with Boston Public Schools (BPS), a 10 percent decrease to the satisfaction rate from last year.

Seven out of 10 parents expressed their concern about the school's frequent substitute teachers, late buses and their kids' physical and emotional well-being while at school.

According to the president of the MassINC Polling Group, Steve Koczela, the result of the poll was not a huge surprise because comparing the services and programs of the school from last year, parents are looking at satisfaction from different components and angles in 2022.

The recent poll is the fifth in a series of surveys conducted by the polling group on parents' overall satisfaction with BPS. The first poll,which was conducted in July and August of last year found that 42 percent of parents were "very satisfied."

Forty-seven percent of parents, on the other hand, said that they are "somewhat satisfied," a 2 percent increase from the first poll in 2021.

Biggest issue is students' physical and emotional well-being

One of the bigger issues found was that almost 70 percent of parents expressed they were at least "somewhat concerned" with their child's physical and emotional well-being while at school, Boston.Com reported.

Moreover, parents of color expressed more concern for their child's well-being at school as compared to white parents. Fifty-four percent among Black parents were "very concerned" for their kids' emotional well-being while 62 percent were "very concerned" for their physical well-being.

It was also discovered that Black parents had the lowest level of satisfaction with BPS, with only 19 percent expressing that they are "very satisfied."

Koczela enumerated other issues that contributed to the overall satisfaction, and these are day-to-day issues like school buses being late, too many substitute teachers and the school not doing enough for parents to be engaged.

Eighty-two percent of parents expressed that they want to be "very engaged." However, only 46 percent of them feel that BPS gives them the opportunity to be as engaged as they want to be.

"I would say the district definitely needs to do better in terms of how it conducts outreach. Any Boston Public School parent will tell you that you get dozens and dozens of emails a week from the district, from your kid's school. But in terms of the larger district hearing people, I think there's a disconnect there, a BPS parent and member of the grassroots parents' group Quality Education for Every Student, Travis Marshall, declared.

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Fast turnovers

Further, Marshall, who was not a participant of the poll, proclaimed that most parents love the school their kids attend. It's just that they feel that the school's system is a mess, GBH shared.

He said that as a BPS parent, it feels like they are "being tugged in two very different directions" - their kids are actually getting a great education yet they see problems in "superintendent turnover."

Mary Skipper, the new superintendent, took up her position at BPS in September, replacing former superintendent Brenda Cassellius, who left the job after three years. It was described as the latest in a "string of short tenures" over the last 10 years.

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