Let’s take a moment to learn about my parent-friendly schools report.

The report uses categories from the federal Parent and Family Involvement in Education report (hereafter PFIE), a survey of parental satisfaction in six areas of concern. Why not use the same methodology as the PFIE?

PFIE uses direct assessments of parental attitudes, but that kind of direct survey data is not available for North Carolina?s 115 school districts. It never occurred to state officials that they should collect this kind of qualitative data. I would welcome the effort. For now, though, education researchers are limited to using quantitative data available from the state.

Data limitations are a legitimate obstacle for any serious researcher. That is why I acknowledge the data problem in my report. Unfortunately, those with little knowledge of or little respect for research do not take that obstacle seriously.

The Parent Friendly ranking uses indirect assessments to determine if each of the state?s school systems offers educational conditions that the average parent would find satisfactory. It is not hard to believe that parents want their school system to provide a sound, basic education in a stable and safe school environment that is responsive to the needs of children and the concerns of parents. Even so, I would welcome serious debate, rather than partisan sniping by so-called “defenders of the public schools,” about the factors that make a school district friendly to parents and students.

These debates aside, I want to point out something obvious about the parent-friendly report – it acknowledges failure AND success. Some school systems get (and deserve) As and Bs for their efforts. We congratulate these school systems and hope that other school systems learn from them.