Queens Tribune

Mayor Mike Bloomberg joined Chancellor Joel Klein at the High School of Applied Communications in Long Island City on July 1 to announce the results of the second annual Learning Environment Survey. The survey, distributed to parents, teachers and students in grades six through 12, is comprised of questions that fall into four categories: academic expectations, communication, engagement, and safety and respect. The results ultimately determine 15 percent of the letter grade on each school’s progress report.

“Asking the people you serve to tell you what you’re doing well and what you could do better is one of the most effective ways to improve, as this year’s Learning Environment Survey demonstrates,” Bloomberg said. “The responses schools received last year from parents, teachers, and students guided schools in making improvements, which helps explain why all three groups reported greater satisfaction this year.”

With the state law that established mayoral control of the City’s schools set to expire on June 30, 2009, Bloomberg was pleased by the survey’s apparent success.

More than 800,000 parents, teachers and students responded to the survey. According to the mayor’s office, the overall response rate rose from 41 percent last year to 55 percent this year.

But the number of respondents is not the only change from last year.

“We’ve made the survey reports easier to understand this year, and are releasing the results earlier in the summer so that school communities can use them as they plan their changes for next year,” Klein said.

And this year, for the first time, District 75 special education schools and City charter schools participated in the survey. The survey’s positive findings – more than 90 percent of parents expressed satisfaction with the quality of education their children received – may have been at least partially the result of charter schools’ participation.

In general, charter schools outperformed their counterparts on the 2007-08 state standardized tests. In Queens, 86.9 percent of charter school students met or exceeded grade-level standards in math. And in English Language Arts, 75 percent of Queens charter school students met or exceeded grade-level standards.

“What is most impressive is how consistent these numbers are,” New York City Center for Charter School Excellence CEO James Merriman said. “In almost every grade, and in both subjects, public charter schools performed at their highest levels yet.”

A total of 18 new City charter schools will open this fall.

“The outstanding gains made by students in charter schools this year show what a great choice these schools are providing for thousands of families across the City,” Bloomberg said. “Results like these are especially gratifying for those of us who worked last year to convince lawmakers in Albany to increase the cap on the number of charter schools we can open.”

For more information on the Learning Environment Survey, visit www.nyc.gov/schools.