WHAT GRADE WOULDyou give your child’s school for its performance during the pandemic? For nearly one-third of parents with children in Massachusetts public schools, that grade would be a C.
That’s according to a new poll done by Emerson College Polling Institute for the Pioneer Institute.
According to the poll, 30 percent of parents would give the Massachusetts school system a C. Another 40 percent would give the system an A or B, and the remaining 30 percent would give the schools a D or F.
The view among parents was slightly more favorable than the perception of the public overall, and there were significant demographic and political differences. For example, 57 percent of Republicans gave the school system a D or F, compared to just 23 percent of Democrats. Blacks were the racial group most likely to give the school system an F (30 percent), while Asians were most likely to give the school system an A (22 percent).
The poll found that parents had significant concerns about the quality of their child’s education this past year. A majority (54 percent) said they believe their child’s education has been compromised during the pandemic at a 7 or higher, on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being entirely compromised. Sixteen percent would consider having their child repeat a grade, a number that was highest among parents whose children were learning entirely asynchronously, via recorded lessons or independent work rather than live teaching.
The social isolation that has affected many during the pandemic is unsurprisingly also affecting children. Among parents, 43 percent feel their child’s socialization has been totally inadequate, and another 26 percent ranked it somewhat inadequate, with the most unhappiness reported among white parents.
The Pioneer Institute is a right-leaning think tank that generally favors school choice policies and has been critical of teachers’ unions. Their poll asked respondents to distinguish between teachers and their unions.
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About Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
About Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
It found that around half (49 percent) of respondents were somewhat or very satisfied with the performance of teachers during the pandemic, with particularly high satisfaction (84 percent) among parents of younger children, in kindergarten through second grade. Only 29 percent were somewhat or totally unsatisfied, and the remainder had no opinion. But respondents were less happy with teachers’ unions, with 45 percent saying they believe unions were not acting in the best interest of children during the pandemic, and 39 percent saying they were.
The poll of 1,500 residents, of whom 613 are parents of K-12 public school children, was conducted March 19-21 and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage pointsfor all residents and 3.9 points for parents.
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