GreatSchools Insights Survey 2019-2020

At GreatSchools, we are committed to understanding how families make choices about schools and providing our users with meaningful and actionable educational content. We know that parents and educators are concerned about life skills and academic learning, but that there are areas of contrast with regard to what these stakeholder groups believe constitutes educational quality and best practices. We also know that parent users’ concerns and priorities vary based on their child’s developmental stage, their economic status, and ethnic background.

This paper uses disaggregated survey data to explore how parents and educators think about schooling and what has changed or persisted since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic closed many of the nation’s schools and families and educators adapted to distance learning.

In addition to these insights about parents’ and educators’ hopes and concerns related to schooling as a result of the pandemic, we have also highlighted innovative practices that show early signs of promise for high school student success so that parents can become more familiar with strategies and practices of schools with a strong track record of postsecondary success.

For more information about this report, contact research@greatschools.org.