Education Pre K-12
June 1st, 2003 2 Minute Read Report by Duncan McCully, Patricia J. Malin

What Parents Think of New York's Charter Schools

This report presents the results of a poll of 300 parents of New York charter school students, performed by Zogby International for the Manhattan Institute. It is the first attempt to accurately gauge the degree of parental satisfaction with charter schools, and to explain their consistent popularity in New York.

The report shows that parents in New York are extremely satisfied with the work the charters are doing in almost every aspect of schooling. Their assessments are particularly striking when asked to compare the charter to the school, usually a standard public school, that their child attended prior to enrolling in their charter school.

The report’s main findings are as follows:

  • Parents throughout New York State indicate high levels of satisfaction with their child’s charter school. 42% gave their charter school an “A” grade overall compared to only 21% who gave their child’s prior school an “A.”
  • 51% of respondents say their charter school deserves an “A” for its quality of instruction, and 28% say it deserves a “B.” Only 4% gave their charter school an “F.”
  • When judging the individual components of charter schools, 90% of parents were satisfied with the safety of the schools, 87% were satisfied with parent-teacher relationships, 86% with the amount and quality of homework and 85% with class size. 84% of parents were satisfied with the schools academic quality, and 81% were satisfied with discipline and communications from school personnel.
  • 79% of parents re-enrolled their children in the same charter school for the current school year. Those who didn’t were usually those who did not have to or couldn’t, because their child graduated or the family moved to another town for example.
  • More than nine in every 10 parents say there is no problem at their child’s charter school with carrying guns on school property (94%), gang activity (93%), drug use (93%) or destruction of school property (91%).
  • When asked what one thing their child’s previous school did better than the charter school, by far the most common response (33% of parents) was “nothing.” When asked what one thing the charter school did better than their child’s previous school, the most common response (17%) was “better academics/education.”
  • READ FULL REPORT

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