Secret: Lyons Township High Student Survey Results Withheld

LA GRANGE, IL – Last month, Lyons Township High School decided to keep teacher survey results secret from the public. It is now largely doing the same for the student survey.

Neighboring Hinsdale High School District 86 has posted the results of both surveys on its site for five years.

Recently, Lyons Township High School responded to Patch's request for student survey results. It gave a summary of the results, but not the portion with questions.

For instance, 70 percent of students were favorable toward the school's diversity and inclusion efforts, according to last spring's survey. And 64 percent feel positive about how teachers are holding them to high expectations.

But the school declined to produce the questions in the taxpayer-financed survey. It said the questions are the intellectual property of Boston-based Panorama Education.

By contrast, District 86 releases the questions and results. For example, District 86 students were asked, "How connected do you feel to the adults at your school?" The available answers are "extremely connected," "quite connected," "somewhat connected," "slightly connected" and "not at all connected."

Other questions are "How pleasant or unpleasant is the physical space at your school?" and "How often do your teachers seem excited to be teaching your classes?"

Last month, the school denied Patch's request for the teacher survey results. More recently, it also rejected the request for the survey questions themselves, citing the exemption under the state's open records law for preliminary drafts.

"(D)isclosure would give the respondent information regarding the policies or actions to be formulated from the results," the district's Freedom of Information Act officer, Mary Lin Muscolino, said in her denial letter to Patch.

Even though Muscolino issued the denial, she did not say who decided. Often, higher-ups or lawyers make the call.

Under state law, a public body is supposed to list the names and titles of those responsible for the denial. This prevents top officials from escaping accountability.

In an email, Patch asked Muscolino who was responsible. She did not respond.