CBE student survey asking kids about math and stress is flawed, critics say
Student surveys are now being conducted in public schools, giving kids a chance to express their thoughts on issues from recycling to math skills and strategies for stress.
But parents are skeptical about what they call “leading questions” and wonder if the results will be a true measure of how kids are feeling about challenges they face in an increasingly complex world.
The Calgary Board of Education launched the survey in early April for students in grades 5 to 12, asking for a range of responses from strongly agree to strongly disagree on such statements as:
When I need to read in my everyday life, I have the skills I need.
When I have a math problem to solve, I can apply strategies I’ve learned and used before.
I think it’s important to help my fellow students when they need it.
I try to get others to reduce, reuse, and recycle in my school.
I have strategies to help myself that I use if I feel stressed about school.
But Sarah Bieber, mother of four CBE students and a spokeswoman for the Kids Come First student advocacy group, said the wording of the questions probably won’t provide accurate data.
“When kids are asked whether they have strategies to deal with something, they know they are supposed to have strategies so they will just say that they do, even when they don’t,” she said.
Bieber said the questions would serve administrators better if they were phrased in a more simple, open-ended way.
“Why not just simply ask: ‘ What is hard about math?’ or ‘Do you feel worried at school?’
“That way, we might actually get some good information about how kids are really feeling.”
Bieber, who has also worked as a teacher and math tutor, says many kids are struggling with word problems in math. But the way the survey question is worded, they may not express that specifically.
Deanna Bradley, who has a son attending a CBE junior high school, agreed, adding that surveying students at vulnerable times in their development, particularly late elementary and junior high, may not result in honest answers.
Kids may not take the survey questions seriously or they might be overly critical because they’re just feeling rebellious.
“You might just get a lot of kids fooling around with these surveys.”
Bradley suggested surveying teachers, who have a deep understanding of their students’ challenges and would provide professional, honest and highly valuable feedback.
Ronna Mosher, CBE acting superintendent of learning, said student surveys are common in the system, although this one is a little different.
“We really value student voices and we want to hear directly from them in terms of whether they feel successful or whether we need to do things differently,” she said.
Individual principals at CBE schools will receive the results of their students’ surveys by this fall and will be able to share them with their school’s parent council.
According to an email sent to CBE parents, the survey is part of a normal evaluation of the service provided by the CBE and is expected to take up to 40 minutes.