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  • LAUSD receives mostly ‘B’ grades from district parents, survey reveals

    LAUSD receives mostly ‘B’ grades from district parents, survey reveals


    Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, right, with students at Miles Avenue Elementary School in Huntington Park.

    Credit: Twitter / LAUSDSup

    Parents and guardians of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District offer mixed reviews of the nation’s second-largest school district, scoring it low on how it disseminates information and considers parents’ perspectives but generally high on the quality of education their children are receiving. Specifically, less than a quarter give the district an “A,” according to the Family Insights survey, conducted by GPSN and Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Equity for English Learners.  

    The 2023 survey also marks the second year of the district’s four-year strategic plan under Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who garnered approval from two-thirds of survey respondents. 

    Forty-one percent of parents in the survey give district schools a ‘B’ overall — and 43% give the same grade to their children’s individual campus. 

    “Families generally feel positive about the quality of teaching and instruction in their direct school and their own child’s academic performance, but gave mixed results on the district’s overall performance,” according to the report.

    “Raising up family perspectives on the state of the district and its performance is key this year when we may expect to see progress from the many investments made to address learning loss and other impacts of the pandemic on students.” 

    The Penta Group, an independent research firm, surveyed a random sample of more than 500 district parents and guardians between Aug. 22 and Sept. 14, 2023 — asking them about the district’s progress and what they would like to see LAUSD focus on. 

    The survey sample was representative of Los Angeles families “with students attending district, magnet, pilot, and both affiliated and independent charter public schools, and aligns with key demographic variables of enrollment by grade level, race/ethnicity, school type, English learner status, language spoken in the home, board district enrollment, and family income level.”

    Academics 

    According to the report, parents throughout the district say they are satisfied with their children’s education and would like to see LAUSD invest in more enrichment opportunities and individualized support. However, many do not understand how their child or the district as a whole is performing. 

    Specifically, 82% of parents surveyed say instruction at their children’s school is “good” or “excellent.” 

    Parents’ broader perception of LAUSD’s academic performance, however, paints a different picture. A little more than half of parents think the majority of district students perform at grade level in reading and math. 

    Three-quarters of LAUSD parents surveyed also think their own child is performing at grade level in core subject areas. 

    In reality, however, 41% of students in the district met state standards in English language arts this past year, while 30.5% met state standards in math, according to state standardized test scores. 

    “As a family member, a parent or a guardian, you’re looking for the basic thing: Can my kids read? Can they do math at whatever level you think that’s appropriate?” said Ana Teresa Dahan, GPSN’s managing director. 

    “But … what type of words you’re reading and what your comprehension is really what differentiates having a basic skill versus being at grade level, and I think that’s like a nuance families don’t always understand.” 

    Families that make more than $60,000 are more likely to believe their child is performing adequately, the survey found. In contrast, only 28% of low-income families and 27% of families of English learners have the same confidence in their child performing at grade level. 

    “When you’re sending your kids to your neighborhood public school, there’s a trust that … the school is delivering on getting your kids at grade level,” Dahan said. “Unless someone is telling them that that’s not happening, I think they just inherently are trusting that it’s occurring.” 

    In previous years, the survey revealed a high demand for additional academic support as well as after-school and summer enrichment opportunities. And this year, the number of parents calling for that assistance — including one-on-one tutoring — increased even more.

    Parents “recognize and respect the challenges schools are facing and teachers are facing” in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dahan said. “You can’t just expect a teacher or the school to solve the entire challenge of what the pandemic brought to students and families and communities.” 

    Fifty-six percent of parents name high-quality tutoring as their top priority for the district as a whole —– marking a 25 percentage point increase over the past two years. Meanwhile, 54% say they want to see LAUSD offer free, widely accessible summer programs. 

    And specifically at their child’s school, 85% of parents — and 93% of English learner families — say they want one-on-one or group tutoring on campus.

    More than half of parents surveyed also voiced strong support for enrichment programs, including arts programs, sports and coding. 

    “We’re also seeing, for students in particular, what those 18 months of isolation did,” Dahan said.

    “Families are recognizing (that) impact (on) their students, whether that means not wanting to go to school or not being happy at home. … They know that straight learning at school isn’t going to bring back the joy, right? So, it’s the enrichment opportunities that do that.”

    Emotional support 

    Additional support for students’ mental health is also a top concern among the parents, with 45% of respondents naming counseling and therapy as their third priority for the district overall. 

    In comparison, 32% of parents made the same request in 2021, and 44% called for the same in 2022. 

    Food assistance 

    For the first time in the survey’s history, 38% of families called for food assistance to be more readily available on their child’s campus. 

    “The district has done a lot in the years (to feed students)” Dahan said. 

    “We know that the people most impacted coming out of the pandemic … continue to be families in low-income households. And, as different government financial support has faded away, I think we’re starting to see the effects of that in LAUSD.” 

    Internet connectivity 

    During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, LAUSD promised to provide a laptop to every student and provide free internet access to families in need. But now, nearly three-quarters of the families surveyed said they experience a barrier to consistent, quality internet access. That number, however, marks a 10% improvement since 2021. 

    This year, 42% say the cost of internet is a barrier, while 34% said their challenges had more to do with securing a good quality connection. 

    Twenty-six percent, however, attribute their challenges to their geographical area.

    Community involvement and communication 

    Parents also said they feel their input is increasingly insignificant to the district — and that they would like communication from LAUSD to improve, especially concerning academic standards. 

    Specifically, the number of parents who feel their thoughts matter “a great deal in school and district decisions” decreased by 9 percentage points, only accounting for 40% in 2023. That drop was even larger for low-income families, the study found. 

    Meanwhile, most families applaud LAUSD for timely and accessible communications, but more than half also say it “takes a lot of effort” to understand the messages. 

    Forty-eight percent of parents say they want to receive district communications via an app, while 44% said they prefer email. 

    More than half of the parents also say they want more information about academic standards and a better idea about what their child is learning in the classroom. Fifty-two percent also said they want to know whether district students are performing at grade level in the main subject areas. 

    “We want to ensure that families receive accessible and understandable information that aligns with their expectations and needs,” Dahan said. “That’s also going to be a factor not only just accessing programs, but their understanding of where their child is.” 

    A future in LAUSD 

    Despite mixed reviews in various areas, about 90% of families said they would likely keep their children in the district until they graduate from high school. 

    Respondents who said they are “extremely likely” to keep their children enrolled in the district, however, dropped by about 18 percentage points in the past year from 53% to 35%, according to the study. And the number of families who are “not very or not at all likely to stay” in LAUSD has increased from 3% to 8%.

    Forty-two percent of families that voiced an interest in leaving the district — which included disproportionate rates of low-income families, families of English learners and white families — said they would most likely pursue a charter school. 

    Private schools lagged in popularity for those considering leaving the district and would be the first choice of roughly 32% of families, while 28% said they would take their child to a public school in another district altogether. 

    “Whatever perspective families had about communications, or even their policies, the district (and the superintendent) really did rate high,” Dahan said. 

    “Effective leadership plays a pivotal role in driving school improvement and meeting the diversities of our community. I think that is a signal that families think that the district is going in the right direction. It also underscores the importance of sustained leadership support in fulfilling these aspirations of our families and kind of fostering a thriving educational environment.”





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  • Survey: Californians are worried about student health, lukewarm toward a state school bond

    Survey: Californians are worried about student health, lukewarm toward a state school bond


    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    Californians remain anxious about the mental health of public school students four years after the Covid virus closed down schools, according to a new survey released Wednesday. They also indicated they’re lukewarm toward passing a statewide school construction bond.

    In the Public Policy Institute of California’s survey of 1,605 California adult residents, 81% of all adults and public school parents said they were strongly or somewhat concerned  about students’ mental health and well-being – a view that, for most part, cut across race, political party affiliation and family income. The number reflects a continuing worry about the persistent impact of the pandemic two years after students returned to the classroom following school closures of more than a year.

    SOURCE: PPIC Statewide Survey, April 2024. Survey was fielded from March 19-25, 2024 (n=1,605 adults, n=1,089 likely voters, and n=252 public school parents).
    PPIC

    Advocates for a statewide bond to build and repair TK-12 school facilities may face an uphill battle to pass it – assuming Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators put the issue before voters in November.

    Only 53% of likely voters said they would vote for a state bond, while 44% said they’d vote no, with only 3% undecided, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, which on Wednesday released its annual survey of voters’ view on TK-12 education issues. The number is well below 60%, the standard level of favorability that comforts backers of an initiative heading into a campaign.

    The mid-March survey also found mixed views on how Newsom and the Legislature are handling the state education system; 51% of all Californians and 60% of public school parents said they liked how he had managed education. That’s the lowest number since his election in 2018, and consistent with PPIC’s most recent survey on his overall job performance. The survey had a margin of error of 3.3% plus or minus. 

    Newsom’s highest rating was in April 2020, when 73% of likely voters approved and 26% disapproved of his performance on TK-12 education. That coincided with the emergence of the coronavirus, and his decision to close schools. “Newsom got a bump in the early days of the crisis for responding decisively amid the shock of the pandemic,” said Mark Baldassare, survey director and chair of public policy for PPIC. 

    The Legislature and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also received roughly 50% approval in the latest survey; however, the poll also showed that most Californians agreed with their positions on social and political issues that captured headlines in the past year.

    • 69% of all adults said they strongly (43%) or somewhat (26%) oppose individual school boards passing laws to ban and remove certain books from classrooms and school libraries; a smaller majority of public school parents (30% strongly, 25% somewhat) agreed. Last year, Newsom threatened to fine Temecula Valley Unified and replace a social studies textbook that the board rejected because it included a reference to the late gay activist Harvey Milk; the board reversed its position.
    • 58% of all adults and 55% of public school parents oppose individual school boards creating policies to restrict what subjects teachers and students can discuss in the classroom.
    • More than 80% of adults and public school parents strongly or somewhat favor teaching about the history of slavery, racism, and segregation in public schools; more than 50% of all respondents strongly held that view.
    • Local schools got good marks for preparing students for college, but less so the workforce. 60% of all adults and 72% of public school parents said their schools did well preparing students for college, while 51% of all adults and 65% said they did a good job preparing students for jobs and the workforce.  Only 45% of African American respondents said the schools did a good job for college, compared with 64% of Asian Americans, 61% of Latinos and 61% of Whites.

    As with these and many of the issues surveyed, there was a sharp partisan division, with most Democrats supporting Newsom’s positions and most Republicans opposing them.

    California adults were about evenly split (50% support, 49% oppose), however, on whether to allow books with stories about transgender youth in public schools. Three in four Democrats support this, while eight in 10 Republicans oppose it, and independents are divided (51% support, 48% oppose). Only 42% of public school parents support the idea, and 57% said they oppose it; they also opposed including lessons on transgender issues by the same breakdown.

    Newsom and the Legislature have committed billions of dollars to phase in voluntary transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Two-thirds of all adults, including 77% of public school parents, 80% of Democrats, 41% of Republicans, 84% of Blacks, and 57% of Whites, said that’s a good idea.  

    Uncertainty about bond issue

    Newsom said in January that he supports placing a school construction bond on the November statewide ballot; voters last passed a state bond in 2016, and the state has run out of money to contribute to districts’ share of new construction and renovations.

    However, Newsom and legislative leaders have not negotiated the specifics. School consultant Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors, said that polling results could affect the size and scope of a bond. Instead of a $15 billion bond that legislative leaders have discussed, it could be much less; instead of including money for the University of California and California State University, which polls less favorably than TK-12, it could include money only for TK-12 and community colleges, he said.

    Gordon and Baldassare disagreed on how much to read into the 53% support of the bond eight months before the election.

    “All of the not-so-good news about the state budget, with billions of dollars in red ink, has had an impact on voters’ attitude that affects the bond issue now,” Gordon said. “But after this summer, with a balanced budget adopted, and with economists optimistic about the latter part of 2024, voters’ attitude could change.”

    Credit: Public Policy Institute of California, April 2024 survey

    Four years ago, voters rejected a state bond 46% to 54% in the March 2020 primary election. But, Gordon said, voters have never defeated a state bond initiative in a November election, which attracts more people to the polls.

    Baldassare said the bare majority support in the survey shows “there is a lot of economic anxiety among voters over inflation and anxiety over taking on more debt.” That showed in the bare passage last month, with 50.2% of the vote, of Proposition 1. It will determine how to spend money on housing for unhoused people suffering from mental illness.

    The survey also produced mixed, and perhaps puzzling results to the same questions asked in previous surveys:

    Asked “how concerned are you that California’s K-12 public school students in lower-income areas are less likely than other students to be ready for college,” 39% this year said “very concerned.” That’s the lowest percentage since the question was introduced in 2010, when 59% said they were very concerned.

    Asked, “How would you rate the quality of public schools in your neighborhood today,” 49% of likely voters gave their schools an A or B. That’s nine percentage points higher than last year and in pre-pandemic 2019.

    Asked whether the quality of education has gotten worse over the past few years, 52% of adults said it was worse, 11% said it had improved, and 34% said about the same. That was an improvement from last year, when 62% said education had gotten worse and only 5% said it had improved – and far better than in 2011. That was during the depths of the Great Recession, when school districts were slashing budgets following cuts in state revenue: that year, 62% said schools had gotten worse.





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  • Californians ding Newsom’s, lawmakers’ handling of schools in survey

    Californians ding Newsom’s, lawmakers’ handling of schools in survey


    Key Takeaways from pPIC Education survey
    • Five years ago, Californians thought schools were headed in the right direction; they no longer do. 
    • Most adults say teaching basics should be the No. 1 goal of school; parents of students disagree.
    • Nearly all in the survey agree that teachers’ pay is too low.

    Californians’ confidence in their public schools and approval of how Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature are handling public education have fallen sharply since the Covid pandemic, according to an annual survey on K-12 education released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). Half believe that the public school system is headed in the wrong direction.  

    The PPIC survey of 1,591 adults in English and Spanish also found widespread disagreement and overall concern with President Donald Trump’s actions on schools. 

    Nearly three-quarters of Californians oppose Trump’s executive order to close the U.S. Department of Education. 

    Two-thirds of adults are very or somewhat concerned about increased federal immigration efforts against undocumented students, and majorities support their local districts’ self-designation as “safe zones” from immigration enforcement. 

    Democratic and Republican respondents were sharply divided on this and many issues in the survey, however.

    An exception is voters’ agreement with Trump’s executive order to ban transgender participation in sports in schools and colleges. That resonates with 65% of adults and 71% of public school parents. They back requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the sex assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with — a position in sync with Newsom’s, but not with many of the state’s Democratic leaders.

    PPIC is a prominent nonpartisan research and public policy organization that explores issues of the environment, politics, economics and education, and regularly surveys Californians on their views. The latest education survey has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, meaning that 95 times out of 100, the results will be within 3.1 percentage points of what they would be if all adults in California were interviewed. The survey was administered between March 27 and April 4.

    How the state is handling schools

    In April 2020, weeks after Covid first emerged, 73% of survey respondents said they approved of how Newsom handled the K-12 system, and 26% disapproved.

    Five years later, approval has fallen to 50% while disapproval has risen to 46%. Newsom registered majority support among Black and Asian Americans, and the least support among white people (43%). While 73% of Democrats approve of his performance, only 13% of Republicans and 44% of independents do.  

    Views of the Legislature’s handling of schools were similar: a high-water mark of 69% approval and 29% disapproval in April 2020, and an even 48%-48% split in April 2025, with 5% saying they didn’t have an opinion.

    Mark Baldassare, director of PPIC’s statewide surveys, said the approval numbers of elected officials fluctuate based on “how people feel the system in general is working and if state officials in charge are meeting the moment.”

    “I remember a lot of the polling numbers around the country at the beginning of the pandemic were showing there was a rallying around our leaders and maybe a little bit of wishful thinking that we’re going to get through this,” he said.

    The past five years have been tumultuous for schools. Since districts returned to school after more than a year in remote learning, recovery has been slow, as reflected by lower test scores, stubbornly high rates of chronic absences and measures of rising student depression and unwellness.  

    Source: PPIC Statewide Survey 2025

    “It’s hard to blame Newsom and the Legislature. They’ve been very supportive of programs and funding for education,” said Carol Kocivar, past president of the California State PTA and a writer on education policy for ED 100, a parent education website. 

    “Schools have been through the wringer. Some districts are barely balancing budgets and are facing a teacher shortage and declining enrollment. All of these factors create perceptions of schools. Behavior problems and inability to pay attention from an addiction to social media don’t necessarily reflect what is happening in schools,” she said. 

    In past PPIC surveys, particularly after the Great Recession, when per-student funding in California was among the lowest in the nation, the public’s view was even lower. In 2015, only 35% of respondents approved of how the Legislature was handling education. When asked the same question in 2011, amid huge post-recession budget cuts, the approval rate was only 18%.

    Similarly, in response to the question, “How much of a problem is the quality of education in K-12 schools today?” 35% of all respondents say it is a big problem in the latest survey. That’s down from 27% in April 2020, but lower than each of the previous 18 years. In both 2012 and 2016, for example, 58% of all respondents said that education quality was a problem, and in 2000, 53%.

    Right or wrong direction?

    In the latest survey, 45% of all adults say that the school system overall is generally going in the right direction, while 51% say it’s headed in the wrong direction. There is a partisan divide, with 65% of Democrats saying it’s in the right direction and only 16% of Republicans and 38% of independents agreeing. 

    That answer, too, is down from April 2020, when 62% of all respondents said the school system was going in the right direction and only 30% said it was headed in the wrong direction.

    Asked to grade the quality of their local public schools from A to F, 12% of respondents assigned an A; 36% graded B; 33% graded C; 11% graded D, and 6% an F. 

    That’s down from the 20% who gave schools an A in 2018, the last time the question was asked.  

    Challenges facing schools

    In the latest survey, respondents indicated that the challenges to schools — chronic absenteeism and declining enrollment, along with threats of wildfires and school shootings, a perennial worry — remain top of mind.

    A majority of adults (55%) and almost half of public school parents (47%) are very concerned or somewhat concerned about chronic absenteeism (defined as a student’s absence on 10% or more of school days). More Black (32%) and Hispanic (24%) adults than whites and Asians (both 14%) say they are very concerned about the problem.

    Since school funding is tied to attendance, more public school parents (68%) say they are very or somewhat concerned than all adults (61%) surveyed that declining enrollment would affect funding for their local public schools. 

    Source: PPIC Statewide Survey 2025

    School financing

    Asked about the current level of state funding in the latest survey, 48% say it is not enough, 34% say just enough, and 13% more than enough. Perhaps reflecting the huge one-time state and federal Covid relief aid, that number is down significantly since 2012 and in 2000, when 63% said funding was not enough.

    At the same time, nearly all Californians say that the level of pay for teachers relative to living costs is either a big problem (38%) or somewhat of a problem (48%). 

    Vouchers: In 2002, California voters resoundingly rejected a ballot initiative to provide parents with state funding to send their children to a public or private school of their choice by a vote of 70% to 30%. The latest PPIC survey indicated 44% of likely voters favor a school voucher system, and 56% oppose it. However, 62% of public school parents, Black and Hispanic respondents, now say they too favor it.  

    Supporters of an alternative voucher plan to place an initiative for an education savings account on the statewide ballot in 2026.

    School priorities: Asked what they think should be the most important goal of K-12 education, the top three priorities of all respondents are: 

    • Teaching students the basics including math, reading, and writing, 40%’
    • Teaching students life skills (21%)
    • Preparing students for college (16%)

    In contrast, Hispanic Californians (27%) and public school parents (32%) say preparing students for college should be the top goal. 

    LCFF: In 2012, the Legislature passed the Local Control Funding Formula, which provides additional money to school districts with more English learners and low-income students. Each year, read a short summary of the formula, large majorities surveyed say they favor it (this year 66% of all respondents).

    And yet each year, between 68% and 80% of respondents say they knew nothing at all about the landmark law, including this year 75% of all respondents and 67% of public school parents.

    School districts are required to reach out to parents for their ideas on how to spend the funding. This year, two-thirds of all parents of school-age children – those with a college degree and those without, those earning more than $80,000 per year and those earning less – said their districts had failed to do so.





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