Education Team Listening Survey

Jersey City Together

A Listening Action

Jersey City Together has been listening to parents and caregivers since school shut down in mid-March. As part of our listening campaign we shared a survey that sought input about the COVID19 remote learning experience. We received nearly 350 responses and wanted to share major themes that jumped out at us.

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We plan to deepen our listening in the coming weeks, and we invite parents to join our Education team calls to share their experiences. Your perspective will be critical as we lay the groundwork for our team's continuing work this fall to ensure all children have the resources they deserve and that no one slips through the cracks.

• Technology, Internet Connection, Tech Support. More than 25% of survey responses indicated that students did not have a dedicated (their own) device to use for classwork. We need our students to each have a device, to be able to connect, and to feel supported in connecting from home if we are remote-learning this fall.
• Regular virtual meetings - appropriately sized - are key. Parents (and students) responded positively to regular, consistent, smaller-group meetings with teachers; there should be clear expectations this fall around regular touchpoints between teachers and students. Kids miss their teachers and their classmates, and when given a chance to connect, it helped not only academically but also socially and emotionally. The kids must feel like they can make a connection which means, now more than ever, class size matters.
• Parents are concerned for the social and emotional health of their children. The current pandemic, resulting isolation, and feeling of disconnectedness is very real, and the educational experience this fall must account for sufficient social and emotional support. If we don't meet our children's physical and emotional needs, their academics will suffer. Put another way - "we must Maslow before we can Bloom."

- Jersey City Together Education Team | July 2020

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Experiences with Remote Learning

Parents have variable experiences with remote learning. Key factors emerge as important for making remote learning more successful.

Positive & Negative Remote Learning Experiences

Negative Experiences

Positive Experiences

Large groups of more than 10 children per a zoom class is not helpful.

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Not enough zoom meetings and my child doesn’t want to do any of her work because she doesn’t have the teachers constantly telling her to do it

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My child hasn't functioning well during the pandemic. He seems to need the in person encouragement and attention from teachers. Away from school he is having great difficulty engaging in schoolwork.

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Negative responses:

Lack of engagement due to infrequent virtual meetings or large groups

The fun friday days are great for the whole class to get together and have fun, I really like the small group instruction where they are learning more as it is hard for 18 kids on one zoom call, when it is about learning. I appreciate that our teacher did both.

Positive responses:

social & emotional support, small group instruction

Usefulness of Virtual Meetings

On a 0-5 scale, more than 50% of respondents indicated that virtual meetings are generally useful (selecting 4 or 5).

What specific feedback do you have about your child's virtual meetings?

Negative Feedback

Mixed Feedback

Positive Feedback

Student Access to Devices

More than 25% of survey respondents do not have access to their own device.

Technical Issues

48 survey respondents indicated having technical issues

Student Emotions

The most frequently reported emotion that students feel during remote learning is sadness.

78%

of survey respondents say their child did not have access to a counselor

Student Emotions by grade band

Student Emotions by SES (FRL %)