Comments on: Market research on how Oakland families pick schools

By: AC Mom

AC Mom — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:34:38 +0000

I cosign to Response #2. Although the researchers may intend to do a broader sampling, there have been many instances where “preliminary” research has been used to justify broad policy changes. That is not the fault of the reseachers, but it is something that gives me pause.

By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:53:34 +0000

…Just to be clear, it’s not that only families with resources matter, obviously. But when those families — who have the full range of choices, unlike disadvantaged families — are increasingly choosing public, that has impact on public education overall, and on all students.

By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:47:44 +0000

Michelle and colleagues, are you specifically studying Oakland, or studying issues around parent school choice in general? Here in San Francisco*, our district has been all-choice for several years, and the public-private debate has heated up as a trend has grown for advantaged families to return to public. In my time (my kids started SFUSD in 1996 and 1999), the overall climate was for private-school families to scorn and pity public-school families, But now those who choose private school are generally on the defensive (for the obvious reasons — questions of racism, elitism and status-seeking, plus the looming question of whether this is a smart consumer decision).

The organization Parents for Public Schools-San Francisco, which started up in 1999, has been a big influence — http://www.ppssf.org. Another source is the high-traffic blog TheSFKFiles, http://thesfkfiles.blogspot.com/

*I read Katy Murphy’s blog because Oakland is such a hotbed of “school reform,” which I follow with a highly skeptical eye.

By: Joan Ferrari

Joan Ferrari — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 05:21:17 +0000

Donna- thanks for the tip about ranking things toward the end of the survey. I was able to get through to the end.

By: Gordon Danning

Gordon Danning — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:30:35 +0000

Rebecca Hopkins:

“[T]he data they collect will provide us with a start”? Really? It appears that even an 8th grader should know otherwise: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Gvc4B-Vacf0J:www.glencoe.com/sec/math/prealg/prealg04/add_lesson/using_sampling_pa1.pdf+%22voluntary+response+sample%22+why+invalid&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShCG2MSYHvF0OYtFAAsPdlLWG1XO5JP2aOBukVfg16rDkHaBs8RqDVKrSsggl33E7zaYG5k7BzipruLVAZWeHkCRqRk1QDzDTRgwcWIFBSdS88kYUM9kH96egOtzF_gs_rspNRp&sig=AHIEtbQSr7H-ov8g_fXO59yvdK6QLlZ15A

Do you have any evidence that a voluntary response sample such as this one has any value? BTW, a citation to a legitimate source re: statistics is required for an adequate response.

By: Donna

Donna — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:14:24 +0000

For those having problems with the survey: Very near the end is a page where you have to rank things like safety, test scores, school appearance, and the like. You cannot rank any variable with the same degree of importance (or lack thereof) even if you feel they are of equal importance. Hope this helps.

By: Rebecca Hopkins

Rebecca Hopkins — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:20:48 +0000

OUSD is paying nothing for the survey. The Haas students are volunteering a significant amount of time to this project. While imperfect, the data they collect will provide us with a start and we are grateful for their work.

By: Joan Ferrari

Joan Ferrari — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:05:06 +0000

I just spent 45 minutes trying to do the survey, but it’s not letting me answer some of the fields, and won’t let me skip them. Is there someone to contact, to let them know?

By: WestOaklandRez

WestOaklandRez — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:41:18 +0000

I really hope no REAL action will be taken from a survey such as this. It might be FUN to read but how valid can it actually be – when most oakland parents/guardians don’t even know about it and since it is online only – many can’t even access it. PLUS – whats to stop a stranger from filling it out falsely. Some might say – who would do such a thing – but i’ve seen worse and there’s lots of out of work – bored and/or blaming people out there.

Good luck to their research, I get the need for a degree but i really hope OUSD doesn’t go pay thousands of dollars for something that’s not very inclusive or verifiable. Or even if its free info – doesn’t make changes based on outcomes from this – again might be a fun read as long as the right questions are asked about who was or was not included or what was or was not asked.

By: Michelle Florendo

Michelle Florendo — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:33:24 +0000

Oakland Educator: Thanks for your comment, as we had thought through the exact point you mentioned. For this project, we are only fielding the survey online due to limited resources, and will recognize how this impacts our sample in our findings. Hopefully if the findings are really useful, we’ll be able to get the resources we’d need to do another project where we can field a paper survey.