$95,000 Student Survey Criticized by Parents, Teachers

The Board of Education had to defend a survey given to students this week that cost the district $95,000. 

Students in grades three through 12 began taking the Tripod Student Survey this week which Superintendent Penny MacCormack said is the “best student survey out there." The survey is part of the district's attempt to analyse key elements of classroom life, give students a voice and improve teaching practices. 

But residents and teachers criticized the survey’s cost and effectiveness at the board meeting on Monday. 

Anne Barney-Giampoala, a parent and Montclair teacher, said she believed the money spent on the survey could be used in more useful ways. Being a teacher who administered the test to her own students, she also raised concerns whether students were actually reading the questions. 

“It hurts me as a taxpayer that we are spending $95,000 on this,” said Barney-Giampoala. “It’s not that I’m afraid of the results [of the survey] ... but as a parent, it worries me.” 

MacCormack defended the decision for the district to use the Tripod survey rather than creating a cheaper in-house survey by noting the survey was “very highly regarded and very well researched.”

“The plan has always been that we do the best teacher survey that’s out there,” said MaCormack. “You pay for what you get.”

The student survey is estimated to take between 20 and 30 minutes of class time to complete, and is expected to provide data on classroom learning conditions, teacher effectiveness and student engagement. 

Board member Tanya Coke said the surveys will provide “information to help us [the district] diagnose where we’re strong, where we’re weak, where we can give thanks and praise and where we can in fact do better.” 

The student survey is the first of three district surveys. Another survey will be given to parents, and the other to principals and teachers.

Board member Shelly Lombard said she was not expecting the outcry from the public that was seen on Monday, considering the breakdown of the survey comes to about $16 per student.  

“We spend like $15,000 a year to educate a child,” said Lombard. “I would certainly hope we would want to spend another $16 to see if we could improve that.” 

MacCormack declined to comment about cost estimates for the two additional surveys. The parent and principal/teacher surveys will be administered in the coming weeks. 

The results of all surveys will be presented to the public before the end June.