Published: January 10, 2009 07:00 pm      

TCAPS surveys to learn why families leave

TRAVERSE CITY -- Like their students, administrators in Traverse City Area Public Schools wanted to know how they graded out.

So last summer, they asked families to rate their district experiences, while the fallout from decisions to close some schools and reconfigure others remained fresh.

And parents didn't hold back. They gave the district a B overall, scoring transportation and healthy lunch choices, for instance, higher than administrators' communication skills.

The results, part of TCAPS' first formal exit survey, are intended to help school leaders understand why families leave the district so they can start to curb years of declining enrollment.

"We really weren't pulling this information together to get a whole district perspective," said Alison Arnold, the district's communications director. "We knew that we needed to."

The process began in June, when administrators and a Michigan State University researcher analyzed the region's school choice data and held focus groups with families who left and later returned.

Telephone interviews were conducted in August with 69 elementary parents who pulled their students out of the district in the last school year.

Among the findings:

n The decision to attend a school largely is based on emotions, and attachments made to a building, teachers and classmates are important.

n Districts need to examine their district's offerings on a broader scale, rather than emphasize new or innovative programs that match neighboring schools.

n The idea of smaller schools and individualized attention plays a large role in parents' decisions.

"It was pretty uniform," said Keith Adler, an MSU associate professor who specializes in school communication research and assisted with TCAPS' survey. "There isn't a lot of variability."

The B average was slightly skewed, he said, by the inclusion of six respondents who gave the district failing grades.

But those results, and the lower communication scores, weren't surprising, Arnold said, "given the fact that we were doing a survey after a difficult year."

Parents had called for the surveys during the closing process, and school board member Marjie Rich advocated for them after she was elected in November 2007.

Norris, Glenn Loomis and Bertha Vos elementary schools closed in June.

Amy Thompson and her husband, Chris, moved sons Max, 11, and Jacob, 8, to Elk Rapids Schools beginning last year. She was surveyed for about 30 minutes last summer.

"I was thrilled that they called," said Thompson, of Traverse City. "I would hope once they have a clearer picture, they would be able to make changes going forward."

Districtwide communication broke down, she said, during the process to decide which schools to close.

She now has a stronger connection to the Elk Rapids district than she had when her sons attended Bertha Vos.

"I feel like everyone in the district is concerned for the welfare of my kids, and I didn't have that feeling before," Thompson said. "On a building basis, absolutely, but not any further than that."

In response, school staff are working to send home regular newsletters to parents, and a December follow-up survey to elementary school parents yielded 660 responses, Arnold said.

The district also plans to interview families who leave this year and begin working on a secondary school survey.