Stuyvesant scored below the city average on two sections of the Department of Education’s (DOE) Learning Environment Survey.
The survey, distributed in the spring of this year to all New York City parents, teachers and students, evaluates how well schools are meeting the learning needs of their students.
In Stuyvesant, 42 percent of the faculty, 91 percent of the student body and 27 percent of parents completed the survey.
Students completed the surveys during homeroom last May, while teachers received surveys during a faculty meeting. Surveys were mailed home to parents.
The survey’s results were used to rate a school on a scale from one to 10 in four areas: safety and respect, academic expectations, engagement and communication.
Stuyvesant scored below the city average in both communication and engagement.
Stuyvesant scored a 5.4 in communication, or how effectively a school defines its educational goals and requirements, listens to community members and provides feedback on a child’s learning outcome. The city average is a 6.0.
Stuyvesant received a 5.7—under the city average of 5.9—in engagement, or how effectively a school involves teachers, parents and students in a partnership to promote student learning.
“I’m probably not as engaging of everyone’s opinions [when] making a decision,” Principal Stanley Teitel said.
Teitel said he is not overly concerned with the results of the survey and does not plan to make any significant changes to the school based on these results.
“You’re looking at a parents’ survey in which one out of four parents responded,” he said. “I wouldn’t make any decisions based on that.”
But Teitel is interested in achieving better communication with parents. He met with the Parents’ Association (PA) at a meeting in September. “I asked the parents about communicating with them on a regular basis,” he said.
PA First Vice President Larry Sit said, “Communication is an issue we’d like to address, but [it is] not a problem. This issue is certainly not unique to Stuy or the Stuy PA.”
According to Sit, the PA is seeking “to address the issues of engagement and communication” by “making an effort to increase membership meeting attendance [and] continuing to provide translation and interpretation services, among others.”
Students also believe communication in Stuyvesant needs improvement.
“The survey pretty much gave the general gist of life at Stuy,” junior Charles Kuang said. “I feel safe in the school and I definitely know what is expected of me academically speaking, but [I] don’t quite know what’s going on until the last minute.”
Sophomore Marley Lindsey agreed. “There is a problem of communication between the school and my home,” she said. “My mom is always complaining that she’s not in the know.”
