Do public schools make grade?

Most Cambridge School Committee members were pleased last week when they heard the results of an $87,000 market survey: A sizable majority of current and incoming parents surveyed had positive things to say about the city's schools.

One member, however, thinks the survey wasn't worth the money. "This falls short," Patricia Nolan said of the report. "There's nothing in here from our focus groups, and it's scandalous that we didn't try to include parents who never entered the district."

For several years, enrollment has been declining, and School Committee members wanted to halt the flow and find out where the district's actual and perceived weaknesses lay in order to become more competitive with local charter and private schools.

The final spending came in well below the $150,000 that had been earmarked for the survey, according to committee member Fred Fantini.

The study was intended to poll parents of current and future students as well as those parents who opted out of the public school system.

All were included in the survey except those parents who never enrolled children in the district, but Nolan said feedback from that group is essential to the administration's goal of attracting more students to public schools.

"If we could get just 10 students back from a charter school, that would be worth it," said Fantini, a 25-year veteran on the committee. Because the district has to provide money to charter schools that enroll its students, he added, "At $15,000 per student, you're talking about $150,000."

The year long market survey process included nine focus groups made up of parents, teachers, and community members, followed by telephone surveys of 500 parents.

Sixty-three percent of parents of current students said they are satisfied to some degree with the Cambridge public school system, with 5 percent claiming dissatisfaction. (The remainder said that they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied or that they did not know.)

When asked to suggest improvements, nearly half of each surveyed group could offer none.

The majority of parents of both current and withdrawn students cited the cost of housing as the perceived reason for declining enrollment.

But when parents who withdrew their children were asked why they did so, 32 percent cited a lack of high-quality education as their number one reason, and only 8 percent said housing was a factor.

While the entire report has been made public, only the committee members received transcripts of the focus group meetings.

Nolan said that about half the money spent went toward the focus groups and she wanted to see summaries included in the final report. She added that they were more revealing than the survey alone.

In the group composed of parents who had withdrawn their children, "nine mentioned low expectations as the reason" for withdrawal, Nolan said.

Many parents wanted more or better teachers. But Justin T. Martin, director of public information for the district, said this is a perceived shortcoming. "We have always known we have high-quality teachers. We now have to do a better job of letting the community know this and promote the quality and level of teaching we have here," he said.

"We're very pleased with the fairly high grades we got in general," said Jim Maloney, chief operating officer for the schools. "Any business wants feedback from its clientele. There are a lot of choices out there for parents. If we continue to improve the product, word will get out and we'll be able to draw a larger market share."

Fantini said he was not surprised by any of the findings.

He sees the general acceptance of the district's controlled choice system -- 78 percent of current parents said they favor it -- as an indicator the issue can now be put to rest.

"This brings a somewhat divided committee together," he said, "because it's based on an independent reality," not someone's gut feeling.

Fantini added that the schools are approaching excellence, and this survey will help them close in on it.

The surveyors, Opinion Dynamics Corp., recommended several areas for improvement: better communication of progress and quality to parents and the community at large, a more effective discipline program, and more in-depth tours for parents of incoming kindergartners.