CMS rolls out student assignment survey results

Following a near month-long survey period, Charlotte-Mecklenburg School officials released the results of its student assignment survey.

Members of the CMS policy committee walked through those results Thursday, in an open meeting with parents, staff and concerned members of the community.

There were 27,453 participants who responded to the survey online and at various community sites. Respondents were asked questions about school diversity, class size, test scores and bus routes.

Superintendent Ann Clark who attended the meeting said she looked to survey results as a guide to what analysis is still needed.

Clark also said developing the districts guiding principles for the 2017 school term was among the immediate goals.

"The thing I'm most interested in is really looking at what our parents say they want in terms of programming," said Clark in reference to magnet programs.

Among survey questions, respondents were asked what traits they found most important in a school.

In the survey, 80 percent named staff at the school as the most important trait, with school environment next in line.

West Mecklenburg counselor Shaun Gaines took more than 20 students to Thursday's meeting and said many had questions about the future of their education.

"They have said they're unsure, they would like to have opportunities other kids have," he said. "That's part of the reason we came, to try to help them get some more understanding."

CMS parent Shawn Belcher was among those who felt she left with as many questions as answers after viewing the survey results.

Belcher has one child attending CMS schools with another who'll be impacted by changes made in the 2017-18 academic calendar.

"It was slightly skewed to say the least," said Belcher of the survey. "I think they started realizing this evening, depending on how you manipulate the data is going to be how you take away something from that."

While taking a closer look at the results of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' assignment survey, Channel 9 discovered there are no results for a huge chunk of the questions that parents had to answer.

The CMS student assignment survey will help determine where thousands of students go to school in the 2017-18 school year. Eyewitness News anchor Stephanie Maxwell found out why the report is missing some vital information.

The survey is more than 200 pages of information that uncovers what parents really care about when selecting a school for their children as CMS is looking to improve diversity and academics across the district. The results are broken down for all of CMS, and each area of the district.

Pages including where the survey taker lives, how much they make and the survey taker's race or ethnicity were left out of the results.

"I think it will be helpful to know more about the people who responded," Tom Tate, CMS school board District 4 and policy committee chair, said.

Tate, who heads the committee that developed this student assignment survey, said he doesn't know when that information will be made public, but he said it will be along with more in-depth information about the responses.

"What we decided to do is to get as much as the data that people were actually responding to questions about before the board as quickly as possible," Tate said.

Areas 1 and 6 which include Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Mint Hill and Matthews strongly favor neighborhood schools over busing students to other schools to achieve diversity.

Those towns are now questioning whether they should break-away from CMS. Tate said the board has not had the chance to look closely at the priorities of those areas.

This leaves a lot of uncertainty for community leaders and parents as to what happens next.

"Is it going to improve student involvement or the schools, or is it going to hurt us," Shaun Gaines of West Meck Youth Empowerment asked.