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ERIC Number: EJ840564
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1558-2159
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Charter Schools and "Customer" Satisfaction: Lessons from Field Testing a Parent Survey
Wohlstetter, Priscilla; Nayfack, Michelle B.; Mora-Flores, Eugenia
Journal of School Choice, v2 n1 p66-84 2008
Since the development of magnet schools in the 1960s--and more recently, the proliferation of charter schools in the last fifteen years--school choice has been a pervasive element on the education reform landscape. With this growth has come the need for information tools to help site-based educators manage, grow, and improve their schools. This is a radical change from traditional public schools. Typically, district administrators decide where students attend school and, consequently, satisfying the "customer" has not been much of a priority in public education. This article reports on both the process of development and the information gained from a field test of a parent stakeholder satisfaction survey for charter schools and other schools of choice. The survey has been designed to assist schools with recruiting and retaining educational consumers by providing information both for external accountability and internal accountability. Preliminary findings from the first stakeholder group surveyed--parents--suggest positive levels of satisfaction with charter schools overall. The findings also reveal that parents, especially those whose children attend new charter schools, are only moderately satisfied with the school facilities and support services offered to students. However, as the charter schools age, these concerns appear to be addressed through school improvement efforts. We conclude with a series of lessons for developing stakeholder satisfaction surveys for charter schools and other schools of choice. (Contains 1 figure and 20 notes.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A