An Annual Poll of Los Angeles Families
Last year, we published our first annual representative poll of Los Angeles public school families, with the aim of uplifting families' voices and honoring their role as co-educators. This year's poll revisited questions from the previous year to see how perspectives changed after a full year of in-person learning during the ongoing pandemic, and posed new questions about Superintendent Carvalho's strategic plan and priorities for LAUSD.
Instrument produced in collaboration with LMU-CEEL and GPSN; written by the Estrada Darley Miller Group and Gotham Research Group. Conducted by Gotham Research Group over phone and online from August 15 through September 22, 2022 among a representative sample of LAUSD families. n=500 (242 phone, 258 online); 81% English / 19% Spanish; MoE +/-4.4.
The sections below pull out the major points from the full report — the data, the examples, and the context behind the findings.
Asked where LAUSD should focus its resources, families prioritized academics, enrichment, and social-emotional learning during and outside of school hours. Their top public-education priorities were providing tools and support to meet students’ emotional and mental-health needs (47%, up from 26% in 2021), direct grants of $500 per child to parents (43%), expanding high-quality tutoring programs (43%, up from 31%), special funding for students with greater learning needs (42%), and summer-school instruction (41%). Support for every one of these grew from the prior year. Tutoring emerged as a clear, concrete ask: among families whose children lacked access to one-on-one tutoring, 72% wanted it implemented at their school site.
Families also wanted clearer information about their children’s academic progress. The share wanting to see what academic standards their child should be learning — and what they are actually learning — jumped 22 points to 61%, and interest in information on access and progress toward grade-level, high-quality curriculum rose to 50%. Among families of English learners, 90% reported receiving information about their child’s progress toward English language proficiency.
Families broadly endorsed the district’s new direction. Nearly all (91%) agreed the superintendent should be evaluated on the 2022–26 strategic plan, and they ranked its highest-value aims as providing students the support, knowledge, and skills to reach their full academic potential and graduate college- and career-ready (29%) and creating welcoming, safe school environments that support students’ social, emotional, and physical wellness (26%).
After a full academic year of in-person learning, families also felt more heard: 49% reported feeling represented a great deal in school-based decisions, up from 41% in 2021. Families of English learners felt the most represented at 58%, a 15-point increase, likely reflecting formal engagement structures such as ELAC. Commitment to the district held strong — 82% of families said they were very or extremely likely to keep their child in LAUSD long term, and among those weighing alternatives, most were considering another public-school option, led by a neighboring district within L.A. County (47%).
Commitment to LAUSD was not felt evenly. While 90% of White families said they were very or extremely likely to stay, that share fell to 82% among families of color and 67% among Black families. Black families also reported the lowest sense of representation, with just one-third (33%) feeling represented a great deal in school-based decisions.