July Newsletter from United Christian Parish Preschool

By Marilyn Orr, PAC Chair

   The annual parent survey was distributed to families in April of 2008 with a deadline of April 25th. The survey was basically unchanged from the previous year. The first two pages of the parent survey were the NAEYC required questions and a final page contained a few additional questions of interest to the Preschool and allowed parents space to write general comments. The survey questions are attached in Appendix A, with questions 1-26 being the NAEYC survey questions. For the short answer questions, the available responses were "Yes," "No," "Don't Know," and "N/A."
     By the end of the school year, 96 surveys had been completed and returned, the majority by the deadline. This represents approximately two-thirds of the families represented in the school. Overall, the results are very positive, with the overwhelming majority of the parents happy with the education and environment at UCP Preschool. In some cases, the NAEYC survey questions were more appropriate to a full day program, or a program caring for infants and younger toddlers than participate in UCP Preschool's program.
     The multiple choice questions received extremely positive responses. Of the questions applicable to the majority of students (i.e., excluding those questions targeting specific subgroups), all received better than 90 percent positive responses except for four questions. Two of those questions (with 89 and 70 percent positive responses) dealt with the frequency of communication between teacher and parents. The NAEYC survey is designed for a variety of programs, including those providing full day care or care for infants, where weekly or more frequent communication between parents and teachers is more likely. Only two of the surveys containing negative responses to these questions about communication contained any comments related to that issue. In fact, the vast majority of parents who gave a negative response to the one or both of the communication questions, gave very positive comments about the school. A third question, with 82% positive responses, also involved communication and the use of information by the teacher. The fourth question, with 88% positive responses, was poorly worded and should be changed. The remaining broadly applicable questions received better than 90 percent positive responses, including the questions about the quality of the teaching and administrative staff, the quality of the program, and communication.
     There were 70 written comments from 44 respondents, basically in the categories of Academics, Activities, Carline, Communication, Compliments, Facilities, Feedback, Parent Participation, Parenting Information, Personnel, Registration, and Schedule.   The largest group of comments (40 percent) was compliments for the teaching staff, administrative staff, and programs. The categories representing more than 5 percent of comments were Academics (5.7 percent), Communication (8 percent), Facilities (11 percent), Feedback (7 percent) and Personnel (5.7 percent). The general gist was that several parents requested more formal academics, more frequent and timely communications (perhaps via email) regarding school and classroom events, playground and other facilities improvements, and more frequent and detailed feedback on individual student progress.
     PAC and the Director consider survey results very carefully and make every effort to address any issues that are raised in the surveys. Parents are encouraged to send any concerns to first, the Director and next to PAC as issues arise, not waiting until next April's survey. Parent suggestions and questions are always welcomed.
     If you would like more detailed information than this summary provides, a copy of the full survey results is available in the Preschool office.