Satisfaction with the School District

Summary

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Respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I am generally satisfied with the performance of the Anchorage School District”. The following tables analyze the differences in opinions between those who are satisfied with the performance of the School District and those who are dissatisfied. The variables in the first table are all agree-disagrees (0-4 mean); those in the second table are ASD performance grades (0-4 mean). The listed variables all display differences between the satisfied and dissatisfied groups significant at the 99% level.

The tables list the means for the satisfied and dissatisfied groups and through use of the t-test the lower limit for the 95% confidence interval for the difference between the means is computed. In short, the higher the lower limit figure, the more significant the difference in opinion between the two groups. The table is ranked in decreasing order of this lower limit figure. The top issues in the list are those that “predict” dissatisfaction with the School District most.

	Satisfied Mean	Dissatisfied Mean	2.5% Lower Limit
Anchorage students are prepared for post-secondary education	2.590	0.987	1.318
The district listens to the concerns of the community	2.782	1.332	1.167
I am generally satisfied with the performance of schools in my neighborhood	3.123	1.892	0.960
I think the superintendent is doing a good job	3.146	2.256	0.330
I think the superintendent is accessible	2.698	1.976	0.472
I think school board memebers are accessible	2.699	2.013	0.133
I would pay more in taxes to increase technology in schools	2.810	2.033	0.420
Test scores in Anchorage are lower than they should be	2.637	3.275	0.350
My neighborhood school does a good job of communicating with me	2.765	2.120	0.332
Schools rely too much on computers	1.180	1.765	0.244
I think classrooms should have more computers	3.141	2.670	0.175
I think students learn less now than when I was in school	1.918	2.431	0.134
E-mail is a good way for teachers and parents to communicate	3.200	2.767	0.106
Computers are an important part of learning	3.711	3.401	0.102

	Satisfied Mean	Dissatisfied Mean	2.5% Lower Limit
Grade for teaching mathematical skills	2.732	1.859	0.647
Grade for teaching knowledge of the sciences	2.777	1.997	0.579
Grade for teaching literary skills, reading and writing	2.737	1.941	0.576
Grade for preparing students to enter college or university	2.577	1.895	0.459
Grade for teaching knowledge of music and the arts	2.497	1.846	0.413
Grade for teaching awareness of the importance of civics and citizenship	2.100	1.500	0.340
Grade for preparing students to enter the workforce	2.114	1.566	0.303

Among the agree-disagrees, the two variables that showed the strongest differences break down as follows:

	Satisfied	Dissatisfied
Anchorage students are prepared for post-secondary education
Agree	66.4%	16.7%
Disagree	21.9%	76.8%
Neutral/Not sure	11.7%	6.5%
The district listens to the concerns of the community
Agree	76.3%	29.5%
Disagree	15.9%	65.9%
Neutral/Not sure	7.8%	4.6%

This shows that satisfaction with the performance of the School District is most strongly related to these variables, to the perception of whether ASD prepares students for post-secondary education, and whether the district is perceived as listening to the community.

In terms of ASD grades, teaching mathematical skills ranked top, though not by a very great margin.

January 2002 Survey

Survey Home

School Start Times

Closed Campus

Computers & Technology

General Statements

Curriculum

School District Performance

Satisfaction with ASD

Statistical Information