Education

Poll shows declining parent confidence in Boston Public Schools

Only 40% of parents said they'd choose a BPS school over any other school for their child.

A Boston Latin Academy student waits on her school bus after attending her school day.
A new poll shows that BPS parents lack confidence in the district. (Jonathan Wiggs /Globe Staff)

By Susannah Sudborough

4 minutes to read

As Boston students head back to school this week, a new poll shows that parents’ confidence in Boston Public Schools is declining.

The poll, which was released Monday by MassINC Polling Group, found that only 29% of BPS parents are “very satisfied” with the district, down eight points from 37% in April, and down 11 points from a year ago.

At the same time, the percentage of parents who are “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” have both roughly doubled year over year.

In August 2021, 8% of parents said they were somewhat dissatisfied and 5% said they were very dissatisfied. But now, 15% say they are somewhat dissatisfied, and 11% say they are very dissatisfied. Together, these groups make up about a quarter of BPS parents.

Polling results show that BPS parents have become more dissatisfied with the school district over time. – MassINC Polling Group

Other poll results also suggest a lack of confidence

The poll also found that, over time, more and more parents have come to think that BPS is focused on serving the superintendent and BPS school leaders, while the percentage of parents who believe the school is focused on serving students has decreased.

Advertisement:

A year ago, 23% of parents said they thought the district was focused on serving school leaders. That number increased to 26% in November 2021, then to 29% in April 2022, and finally to 31% in August 2022.

This means that now nearly a third of parents think BPS is most focused on serving BPS administrators.

A year ago, 54% of parents thought BPS was most focused on serving students. That number dropped to 44% by November 2021, and has stayed approximately the same since then.

The poll shows that more BPS parents have come to believe that the school district is focused on serving school leaders over time. – MassINC Polling Group

Perhaps one of the starkest differences found in the poll was the gap between how many parents said they wanted to be “very engaged” in their child’s education and how many parents felt BPS allowed them to be very engaged in their child’s education.

Advertisement:

While 83% said they wanted to be very engaged in their child’s education, only 45% said they thought BPS allowed them to be.

Similarly, the percentage of parents who “strongly agree” that BPS leaders value their feedback has declined over time. While 39% said they strongly agreed that BPS leaders valued their feedback a year ago, today, only 30% do.

The poll found an even greater decrease over time in the percentage of parents who “strongly agreed” that they were welcome at BPS. While 55% of parents strongly agreed that BPS welcomed them a year ago, today, only 43% do.

Given those results, it’s not surprising that the poll found only 40% of parents would choose a BPS school for their child if they could send their child to any school.

Importantly, MassINC Polling Group said that each poll included oversamples of Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander parents so that their views can be examined in greater detail.

Why parents lack confidence in BPS

While it is hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing parents to lose confidence in Boston Public Schools, the district has faced many controversies in the last year.

Perhaps the biggest controversy in the last year was the looming threat of the state taking over the district due to poor academic performance — a threat that lasted for months.

Advertisement:

In June, the district, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) came to a last-minute agreement that prevented state receivership of the district.

But the plan to improve the district could not erase the impact of the damaging report DESE had produced in May that said the school district was vastly underserving English language learners and special education students.

Additionally, there have been concerns over Sup. Brenda Cassellius’s leadership. Parents have complained about a lack of transparency throughout the district and the extremely high turnover rate in the administrative position in charge of ensuring the district adequately serves English language learners and special education students.

Boston News

Cassellius left her position at the end of the 2021-2022 school year and the district successfully hired Somerville Sup. Mary Skipper to replace her. But some parents were dissatisfied with a lack of transparency in the selection process and the fact that neither of the final two candidates for the position were people of color.

The Boston School Committee said previously that two other candidates who were women of color made it to the final round, but that they unexpectedly dropped out of the running the weekend before the final decision was made. No explanation has been given for their sudden recusal from the process.

Advertisement:

The poll found that 51% of parents said they pay very close attention to news about the district, and 34% said they follow news about the district “somewhat closely.”

“Polls like this one that look at trends over time let us see how opinion evolves as situations and policies change,” Steve Koczela, President of MassINC Polling Group, said in a news release about the poll.

“This poll finds parents are keeping a close eye on the difficulties the district is facing as a new year begins and a new superintendent takes over.”

To comment, please create a screen name in your profile

Conversation

This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com