WHILE PARENTS ARE LARGELY SUPPORTIVE OF TENNESSEE’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SOME ARE FEELING LESS CONFIDENT THAT SCHOOLS ARE HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
Parents are the best advocates for their children, and their voices are essential to informing a quality public school system. To better understand and reflect the opinions and concerns of parents – and how they continue to evolve over time – Better Student Outcomes Now conducts an annual survey to explore how parents feel about the state’s public education landscape.
Read our January 2024 survey results here
Read our January 2023 survey results here
Read our January 2022 survey results here
Read our November 2020 findings here
January 2024 Parent Priorities survey
Our January 2024 statewide survey builds on prior surveys (see above for previous survey results) and examines Tennessee parents’ attitudes and recommendations toward the state’s public K-12 education system. The survey, which interviewed more than 400 parents across the state, was completed in January 2024.
Top findings from the survey include:
78% of parents say schools need “some” or even “a lot” of change, an increase of 12 points since 2020.
61% of Tennesseans have a favorable opinion of school choice.
66% think parents should have the ability to customize their child’s education by sending them to alternatives such as public charter schools.
When polled about charter school performance, 44% of respondents say they perform better than traditional public schools, 27% feel they perform about the same, while only 11% said worse.