A new statewide survey of Massachusetts parents and caregivers found that 77% feel satisfied with their child’s school.
But the results of the poll, conducted by MassINC, also showed that nearly 40% of parents are very or somewhat concerned about their child’s academic progress, and those concerns were most prevalent among families of English learners, parents of special needs students and Black and Latino parents.
The findings were discussed Wednesday at a Suffolk University forum hosted with The Education Trust in Massachusetts.
“These numbers are not surprising when you look at who has the resources and who does not,” said parent Richard Carter from Taunton. "Data shows that children who have the resources excel and do well better than the ones that don’t.”
This poll is the eighth in a series of surveys conducted by MassINC highlighting education and parents' ongoing concerns for students’ social, emotional and academic development post-pandemic.
Steve Koczela, president of MassINC, said the grade that parents choose to give their child’s school is usually based on their child’s personal experience.
“You'll see that there's pretty different things that parents are thinking about when they think about this question and arrive at, OK, what would that grade be? It's not just academics," he said. "It's not just your own child's teacher.”
Many Black and Latino parents reported a decine in the number of extracurricular activities for their children. Only 35% of Black parents and 38% of Latino parents said their children had the same number of activities this year compared to school before the pandemic. More than half of white parents said the same.
Approximately a quarter of parents also reported that the time of day, cost and transportation issues were barriers to their child’s participation in extracurricular activities.
School safety was also a problem, with more than 40% of parents citing it as their top concern.
Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, said safety can mean different things to different parents. She said she recently spent time with a group of parents in Roxbury who were concerned about safety in poorly maintained schools.
“They're concerned that ... their kids are going to school in a building that has high levels of lead in the water," she said.
Concerns about student mental health appeared to decline slightly. Forty-five percent of parents remain “very or somewhat concerned” about their child’s mental health. Nearly half of parents said their child's school does not offer enough mental health resources to students.
