SurveyWorks results examine Rhode Island public schools from different viewpoints

This year’s SurveyWorks saw the highest response rates yet from parents and educators. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

More Rhode Island public school teachers are satisfied with having enough professional development activities at their schools, according to the results from the annual survey of school engagement by the state education department  

Approximately 41% of teachers responded favorably to questions about the frequency of professional development activities at their schools. That was a 7% increase in teachers’ favorable responses, up from 34% in both of the last two years.

That was perhaps the biggest increase in the 2024 version of SurveyWorks, the yearly ritual when Rhode Islanders voice how they feel about the state’s public schools. There were no seismic shifts in data collected this year: Most categories that saw changes in what Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) surveyors consider “favorable” responses had increases or decreases of 1%. The education department-issued survey ran from January to March this year and collected responses from students, families and educators. Results were released last Monday and can be viewed in their entirety online. 

While there weren’t many dramatic changes across student, family and educator responses this year, there were a lot of responses overall. Students made up the bulk of the 130,214 responses, with educators and families responding at their highest rates ever. 

The data is usually released with a little pomp and circumstance — like in 2023, when the results arrived in late May and were revealed with a ceremony at Sgt. Cornel Young, Jr. & Charlotte Woods Elementary School in Providence. But RIDE spokesperson Victor Morente said via email that most schools are now on summer vacation, so that means no ceremonies this year. Were there any major accomplishments worth celebrating? 

RIDE noted in a news release that students continue to progress away from pandemic-era anxiety. This year, the majority (65%) of students in grades 3 to 5 felt less stressed, as did most (53%) students in grades 6 through 12. 

“I am glad that we continue to see steady gains in important areas,” said Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green in a statement. “There is still much work to be done, but this year’s results show that we are moving down the right path.”

But even within seemingly high-scoring categories like professional development, favorable numbers for individual questions varied significantly. Amenities and supports aren’t consistent across the state’s schools. About 59% of teachers said they never engaged in lesson studies or lesson rehearsal groups, and 42% said they never met with an instructional coach. But most teachers, 57%, said they did work collaboratively on materials and activities at least two or three times a month. 

That’s just one example of the many specific data points RIDE collects with its survey. This year, elementary students answered 56 questions, high schoolers tackled 65 and educators offered their thoughts on 94 inquiries. Families answered 39 questions, and this survey’s results lent some insight into how parents feel about everyone involved in their children’s school lives:

Among parents, the social-emotional learning category dipped to its lowest score since 2021, with 65% of families responding favorably to the category’s four questions. A 4% increase in parents’ positive replies to a question about their child’s ability to remain calm was matched by a 5% decrease to another question: “How much respect do students at your child’s school show each other?” 42% of parents thought students at their kid’s school showed at least “a little bit of respect.” Nearly 1,200 parents, or 3%, thought students showed each other “no respect at all.”

The family engagement category had the lowest averaged score in the parental survey. Questions related to how often parents got involved with their kid’s school saw a 2% decrease in favorable responses, for a total of 23%. That’s still better than 2021 and 2022, when pandemic-era chaos saw the category stagnate at 15% favorable responses for two years.

But levels of parental engagement are hardly consistent in intensity. About 52% responded favorably when asked if they attended a meeting or event at their child’s school, which meant visiting at least every few months. Less favorable were numbers relating to how involved parents got outside of one-time events:

53% said they “almost never” helped out at their child’s school in the past year. 
46% said they were not at all involved in their school’s parents’ group. 
When asked “How often have you discussed your child’s school with other parents from the school?” the favorable responses (meaning at least a monthly chat) were matched by parents who said they “almost never” talked to other parents — both categories comprised 29% of the sample, a little over 10,000 parents.  

As for students, it’s true they appear to be less stressed — or at least some do. Numbers were distributed pretty evenly across five levels of response to the question: “How much has stress interfered with your ability to participate in school the past 30 days?” 

25% said stress interfered “somewhat.” 
Only 12% of students statewide, or over 6,600 kids, said that stress interfered “a tremendous amount.” 
20% of students said stress didn’t affect their participation “at all.”

To the stress question, responses from students were mostly consistent across race, with most hovering around 40% favorable responses regardless of their ethnic background. Gender seemed to play a bigger role: 51% of male students said stress was either a small issue or a nonissue. But only 19% of nonbinary-identifying students said stress was a small or nonissue. Female students replied favorably 37% of the time, meaning stress interfered in their school lives a little or not at all. 

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