The Sunnyvale School District received some very good news at the November 1, 2012 Governing Board meeting. Everyone in the district surveyed – voters, parents, teachers and staff – has a very positive opinion of the District and the education it provides to local students. All of this became clear as Dr. J. Bradford Senden of the Center for Community Opinion presented the results of two surveys designed to measure the level of satisfaction with District programs and services.
When asked as part of a telephone survey what they consider the best thing about the Sunnyvale School District, 28.9% of those interviewed by telephone described the quality education offered in local classrooms. Another 25.2% said the best thing about the district was the good teachers found in local classrooms. When asked if there was one thing they would like to see changed about the district, one-third said there was nothing to change. The telephone survey involved 300 completed interviews with registered voters and the results have a margin of error of +/-5.5%.
In the same telephone survey, voters were asked to agree or disagree with 14 statements about the district. Typical of these questions were statements such as “the teachers and staff believe all children can learn” or “the district has well defined instructional goals.” There was strong agreement with all 14 of the statements. On average, 24.9% strongly agreed with the statements presented and 44.8% agreed.
A large majority among the voters interviewed, 66.2%, said they felt very well or somewhat informed about what is going on in the district. When asked where they received most of their information about the district, 29.2% said they relied on a printed newspaper with 20.6% naming the school district as their source of information.
Dr. Senden also presented the results of 975 on-line interviews with district parents, teachers and staff. These results offered more good news. To cite one example, 90.3% of the parents, teachers and staff who completed the on-line survey agreed or strongly agreed that teachers and staff “at my school” communicate the belief that all children can learn.
The full results of both surveys are available on the District website at: www.sesd.org
Article by the Office of Dr. Benjamin Picard, Sunnyvale School District
