Parents say they love schools where kids can't read

Schools with parent satisfaction at or above 98% and an overall elementary-school score below 30% (2023-24). Mosaic Preparatory Academy is one of the more striking combinations: 99% parent satisfaction, 13% overall academic score, 73% chronic absenteeism. About three-quarters of students are chronically absent, most who attend score below proficient, and the parents who completed the survey report being satisfied. The measures don't contradict each other — they're tracking different aspects of the parent-school relationship.

Across all 779 NYC schools with both metrics in 2023-24, Pearson r between parent satisfaction and elementary academic composite is 0.11. R² = 0.012. This means parent satisfaction explains roughly 1% of school-to-school variation in academic outcomes. It is a near-useless predictor of academic results.

But that's not the same as saying parent satisfaction is useless. It's measuring something — community, relationships, school environment, trust. It's just not measuring "is my kid learning math?"

Three plausible explanations, not mutually exclusive:

1. Comparison set differs. Parents at higher-need schools may be comparing the school to alternatives they expect could be worse (closure, relocation, less-warm administration). Their satisfaction is real but contextual.

2. Survey response selection. Only the most-engaged parents respond. Parents whose kids aren't doing well may not be on PTA lists or engaging with surveys. Satisfaction is biased upward by who fills the form.

3. Different priorities. Parents may prioritize warmth, safety, communication, and continuity over test scores. A satisfied parent is using a different measure than the test-score metric does.

All three are partly supported. The takeaway is operational: parent satisfaction and academic outcomes are nearly orthogonal in this data (r=0.11). They measure different things, and one cannot stand in for the other.

At schools with 99%+ parent satisfaction and <30% academic composite, chronic absenteeism ranges 35% to 74%. Median: 50%.

The juxtaposition is the part of the data worth chewing on. Parents in the survey report satisfaction with the school. At the same time, half or more of students are chronically absent — well above attendance levels associated with on-grade academic progress. The two findings can both be true; they describe different aspects of the parent-school relationship.

Reporter angle: parents at these schools report high satisfaction with the institution; attendance patterns suggest that satisfaction does not always translate into daily attendance, for whatever combination of family circumstances and norms applies.