Ladies and gentlemen, in the blue corner, weighing in with 1,018 certified teachers and 839 other “staff,” including 62 colleagues of the Superintendent from central office, Hartford Public Schools’ (HPS) Fall 2022 Culture and Climate Survey.  In the dark blue corner, weighing in with 5,656 teachers, three-quarters of them angry as hell, 72% of them with more than 11 years teaching experience, and 27% of them teaching in Hartford County, the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) October 2022 Member Survey.  The first results we see from the HPS survey is…we have clean schools!  Folks, that was made possible by Dr. Curtis and the fine staff at the Office of Talent Management, who are announcing today that they have filled 4 of 8 vacant janitorial positions.  However, they’ll need to work on filling that nearly 200 teacher vacancy if they want to fight at this level.  There’s a counter punch by the CEA, their first hit, 74% of teachers want to leave the profession early!  A devastating blow!

The preceding was intentionally over-the-top foolish, I hope I succeeded, because this is how I felt after reading and comparing the survey from HPS and the survey from the CEA.  I was left shaking my head, wondering how a school district could release such a piece of garbage to the public and feel good about it.  Wondering if HPS Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez actually believes that with the questions asked of teachers, she has accurately gauged their opinion on the culture and climate at HPS.  The HPS survey reveals a district leadership that fears accountability, loathes transparency, and mocks collaboration.  The HPS survey reveals clearly that Dr. Torres-Rodriguez cannot candidly and honestly lead the district the current tough, challenging times and those tough times appearing over the horizon. 

The CEA survey looked for feedback from teachers and asked the questions which would bring their most important concerns to the surface.  In contrast, the HPS survey looked for feedback from teachers and asked questions which left no doubt that the goal was to hide a major element of a school’s culture and climate, teacher satisfaction.  The stated goal of the HPS survey supports this criticism: “The goal of this overview is to focus on items from the climate survey to celebrate…”  Hence, the celebratory announcement of janitorial employment.  The questions asked of the teachers supports the goal, while showing little support for teachers.

Before reviewing the questions from the survey, one must keep in mind that the questions and responses from the “Staff Response Snapshot” section of the Superintendent’s meeting presentation, are to and from not only teachers, but are padded with the responses of 839 other “staff,” including those of 62 people working in HPS administrative offices.  This is like gauging the attitude of the chickens by asking the opinion of the fox.  Of the 40 questions asked of “staff,” only 11 could be liberally skewed as being somewhat concerned with the mental and emotional wellbeing of teachers. And let’s be clear, mental and emotional health are critical factors in determining organizational culture and climate.  Many of the HPS survey questions contain phrases like the following: “students feel…,” “students and families feel…,” “students learn…,” and “students are capable….”  The Superintendent wanted “staff” to respond to real, gritty, climate-revealing statements like the following: “All of my students have at least 1 friend,” “I care about student learning,” “I feel safe from the virus,” “Our school is clean,” “Our school is well maintained.”  Seriously?!  In contrast, the CEA’s questions got to the meat of the matter without keeping Avon in business with all the budget-busting lipstick purchases.  The CEA asked about teacher stress and burnout, teacher retention and salary, teacher satisfaction, and teacher respect.  The kicker is that these questions were asked of TEACHERS!  Naturally!  They didn’t ask these questions of CEA administrative staff.  HPS could have at least asked the teachers if they had at least 1 friend.

Only twice in the “staff” section of the survey was there an attempt to gauge the satisfaction of teachers, however, the results raise issues of candidness and trust toward Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez.  At one point, HPS “staff” are asked to rate the statement, “I am supported in meeting the expectations of my role,” to which 76% of respondents agreed.  Nearly 6,000 Connecticut teachers appear to be receiving less support than teachers in Hartford however, as the CEA survey found 71% of respondents feel they are not respected.  The level of support claimed by Hartford “staff” certainly isn’t driving actual teachers to Hartford.  “Our teachers claim the highest level of support in the state!”  would be a great teacher recruitment pitch only if people actually believed it to be remotely possible…and true.  In HPS’s other attempt at actually engaging the emotion of the teacher, they asked for a response to the statement, “My professional Learning experiences are excellent.”  This was asked on slide #36 of the HPS survey. Good question, however, the problem, again, is with the responses.  There are none!  The highly capable central office “staff” left out the response data to this statement.

While 61% of CEA members feel that their district is heading down the wrong track, like many wrong-way drivers on Connecticut highways, and headed for the same result, HPS’s summary of their survey’s sections reveals a fantastical picture of life in HPS that exists only in the mind of the storyteller.  According to the Superintendent and her minions, 83% of respondents feel favorably that HPS offers “high quality teaching and learning.”  The CEA found that 88% of teachers suffer stress and burnout, 64% say there is a “very serious” problem with student behavior. 62% feel that teachers are overburdened, 79% disrespected, 74% under paid, and 74% want to get the hell out.  What sort of “high quality teaching and learning” can occur in this emotionally toxic environment?  HPS leadership, as part of their professional development, should read the book, If you Don’t Feed the Teachers, They Eat the Students, by Neila A. Connors.

The HPS survey summary goes on, fairy tales never end.  While Hartford teachers and students are leaving Hartford, and while suburban students are turning their back on Hartford, the Superintendent insists, via her little survey, that 81% of respondents feel HPS has a “Welcoming culture and nurturing climate.”  I think the North Korean tourism bureau says the same thing.  The Superintendent’s survey reportedly found 78% of respondents agreeing that HPS has an “engaging family and partnership” relationship with the community.  Yet that relationship resulted in only 23% of parents participating in the HPS survey. Engaging! Sounds like something akin to an Adirondack shotgun wedding; no offense to the Adirondacks, I love your chairs.  Students had to be enticed with “incentives” to participate in the Superintendent’s survey.  Across Connecticut, the CEA survey found that 25% of teachers say parental involvement leaves much to be desired.  And finally, the laugher.  Eighty percent of those folks answering the Superintendent’s call, agreed that HPS has a “skillful staff” and “effective operations,” notwithstanding the pending budget deficits, the constant yearly drop in enrollment, and constant letters from the State warning HPS that they are out of compliance with special education requirements.

The fact that HPS will not survey teachers alone, and instead buffer their responses with those of 900 other folks, many who never teach in a classroom, is very telling of this Superintendent and raises credibility issues with her survey.  She doesn’t want to listen to teachers anymore than the students.  The cleansing and ignoring of true teacher feelings in this survey is an insult to every teacher who ever stood in front of a classroom.  A stand-alone survey completed by Hartford teachers would send a no-confidence signal on the ability of this Superintendent to be successful in leading this district.  Therefore, you’ll never see that survey.