Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Learning gaps remained
Dennis M. Walcott, the city schools chancellor since April, has not yet made a strong impression on residents, with 53 percent of adults having no opinion on his performance, a new poll found.
By SHARON OTTERMAN and ALLISON KOPICKI
Published: September 6, 2011
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How the Poll Was Conducted(September 7, 2011)
Robert Kemp, 74, a retired bank officer from Queens, said: “What they’re teaching is too narrowly focused. It’s all ‘Let’s pass tests’; it’s not about turning out educated kids.”
City Hall played down the results. “The numbers we are focused on are the gains our students are making in the classroom, and by those measures, we have made historic progress,” said Julie Wood, a mayoral spokeswoman. “Graduation rates are at an all-time high and we are outpacing the rest of the state on test scores. But we have to keep raising the bar.”
The poll was conducted Aug. 9 to 15, with telephone interviews of 1,027 adults throughout New York City. Of the respondents, 287 identified themselves as parents, and 167 said they were parents of a child in public school. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults, plus or minus six percentage points for all parents and plus or minus eight percentage points for public school parents.
Dissatisfaction with public schools in New York is longstanding. Through much of the 1990s, as well as in Mr. Bloomberg’s first years in office, few residents were satisfied, past Times polls found.
As Mr. Bloomberg reorganized the system and poured money into it, satisfaction slowly grew. It appeared to peak in 2009, when nearly one-third of registered voters said they were satisfied with the schools, and 57 percent with Mr. Bloomberg’s handling of them, according to Quinnipiac University polls.
But in 2010, a recalibrating of state test scores sent the city’s soaring passing rates nearly back to 2003 levels. Then Mr. Bloomberg made what the public may have judged as his biggest gaffe, naming Cathleen P. Black, a publishing executive with no education experience, as the schools chancellor. Even though Ms. Black was dismissed in April after three months, the effects on public opinion linger, analysts said. Fewer people today approve of Mr. Bloomberg’s handling of education now than in his first years as mayor.
And Dennis M. Walcott, the longtime deputy mayor who replaced Ms. Black as chancellor, has not yet made a strong impression, with 53 percent of those polled having no opinion on his performance.
A year of political attacks on teachers and their unions nationally appeared not to have registered with New Yorkers. A quarter said they had a favorable opinion of the local teachers’ union, compared with 16 percent who had an unfavorable opinion. A majority did not express an opinion.
Among parents, 34 percent volunteered that teachers were the best thing about their child’s school, more than in 2004, when 22 percent said so. A plurality of parents said teacher quality was the most important thing to look at when choosing a school.
Crowding and class sizes, which are growing, ranked highest when parents were asked to name the worst thing about their schools, at 13 percent. It is an issue frequently mentioned by the teachers’ union and parents, but not City Hall.
New Yorkers are pleased with some of Mr. Bloomberg’s initiatives: 56 percent, for example, said charter schools, which have expanded under the mayor, were a good idea. Fewer than half, however, favor having charters share buildings with traditional public schools, a situation that is increasingly common and contentious.
Public school parents also appreciated Mr. Bloomberg’s emphasis on school choice, with 67 percent saying they were satisfied with their choice of schools, compared with 51 percent in 2004.
“Maybe things aren’t perfect, but they are moving in the right direction,” said Takeisha Hall-Ruff, a Bronx resident whose 8-year-old is in a gifted and talented program and who approved of the mayor’s handling of education. “Schools are being evaluated, they are more accountable.”
Ms. Wood, the mayoral spokeswoman, said: “We are working to build a system of great schools and put a great teacher in every classroom. Parents have made clear that is what they want for their children, and today they are more satisfied with their choices of schools.”
Over all, New Yorkers are split on whether Mr. Bloomberg has made the schools better than he found them. Forty percent over all, and 43 percent of the public school parents, said the schools were about the same as nine years ago. Twenty-four percent of all respondents said schools were better, and 27 percent said they were worse; among public school parents, 29 percent said they were better, and 25 percent said they were worse.
About 6 in 10 people are dissatisfied with the schools’ quality. Satisfaction is higher among public school parents, at nearly 4 in 10, compared with almost 3 in 10 of all residents. A larger percentage of nonparents than parents said they did not know enough to answer the question.
The poll gave hints as to where Mr. Bloomberg needs to focus to improve his standing. Blacks and Hispanics, whose children make up 70 percent of the enrollment in public schools, expressed the most dissatisfaction, with 64 percent of blacks and 57 percent of Hispanics saying they are generally not satisfied, compared with 50 percent of whites.
“Some people wind up in better schools than others, and it continues to break down by race and class,” Joseph P. Viteritti, a professor of public policy at Hunter College, noted. “And the learning gap between minorities and whites is there, and it’s like that in every city across the country.”
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