Survey: Parents Want School Info on Internet, Not Paper

By FCCPS Communications

More than 600 parents responded to a recent Falls Church City Public Schools survey on communication.  The response rate exceeds that of any other survey conducted by the school system, including the January 2006 survey on school starting times, which generated 554 responses.  Overall, this year’s survey results were positive, and parents offered some constructive suggestions for improving specific areas of school communication.

“In a school division of approximately 1200 households, this response rate is outstanding,” Superintendent Lois Berlin said.  “The suggestions were very thoughtful and constructive, and we have been able to identify some consistent trends and some common themes that will help drive decisions on how we communicate with our families in the future.”

More than 97 percent of those who responded indicated they have access to the Internet at home, at work or via a portable communications device, and most prefer to receive their general school news and information electronically.  The remaining three percent indicated by telephone that they do not have access to the Internet, and some rely on their children or the FCCPS parent liaison to deliver or translate important school information. 

“It is important that all parents have the opportunity to be partners in their children’s education, and we need to continue to identify ways to ensure important messages are reaching all parents,” Berlin said.

More than 70 percent of the respondents indicated the frequency with which they receive school information both electronically and in hard copy is ‘about right,’ although more than 20 percent indicated that the frequency is not often enough.   Other potential areas of improvement stem from common themes that emerged through open-ended comments, such as inconsistent Web-based practices from school-to-school, and occasional issues with accuracy and timeliness.

Division administrators, school administrators and teacher leaders will review and disaggregate the results in August to identify opportunities to enhance communications both at the division level and at the school level.   FCCPS faculty and staff will be given an opportunity to provide input in the fall.

The survey results are available at the FCCPS web site.