North Allegheny survey scores high on district quality, falls short on respect among students

More than 90% of students and parents of North Allegheny would recommend their school district to others, but there’s still a concern with student respect, according to the results of an annual survey.

A summary of the North Allegheny School District’s annual online survey given to parents and students in May was presented to the school board at its Sept. 10 meeting.

The district’s comprehensive and strategic plan employs key performance indicators to measure its progress, including the annual survey, according to North Allegheny Superintendent Brendan Hyland.

“What we have committed to the community is that we are going to be extremely transparent with our results, whether they’re good and whether they’re bad. We are going to share the things we need to work on, and we are going to celebrate our successes,” Hyland said.

Part of that process is to “take a look on how we’re doing” with the community and school board, he said.

The survey was sent to students in the transition years of fifth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades, with more than 2,400 students responding. Parents were provided a link to opt out their child, if desired, said Michele Dowell, assistant superintendent of elementary education at North Allegheny.

There were 1,930 responses from parents, which Dowell said is something they want to increase. Parents with multiple children were given a survey for each child.

Survey highlights reflecting the elementary, middle and high school levels were presented, including areas of growth by comparing the results of the 2023-24 survey to the 2024-25 survey. Strengths and areas of improvement also were provided.

At the elementary level, satisfaction with food service jumped from approximately 70% in the 2023-24 survey to 76% in 2024-25. Both elementary parents and students agreed that curricula are rigorous and challenging and that homework assignments were meaningful and helped them learn, each an increase from the previous year.

Another large area of growth at the elementary level was that students felt they were more able to manage school stressors compared to the previous year, 74% to 87%.

Respondents at the elementary, middle and high school levels all said their principal treats them with respect. The elementary level also scored high in all staff treating students with respect and a good quality of teaching.

An area of concern was related to the survey question on whether students treat other students with respect. This was a focused area of growth from the 2023-24 survey for middle schoolers. The average of the parents and students combined responses on this question fell from approximately 70% in 2023-24 to 67% in 2024-25.

When categorized, only 56% of students felt their peers were treating each other with respect, compared with 79% of parents’ opinions on that statement.

“This is a challenge that is shared across all schools and, quite honestly, in society in general. I always say it’s difficult to legislate adolescence, but in middle school that’s a focal area for us to strive to,” said David Deramo, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

This same statement for high schoolers increased in the last survey, going from a combined parent/student score of 67% two school years ago to 75% last school year.

The school continues to work on the issue, including focusing on peer behavior intervention support, Deramo said.

Another area of improvement for middle schoolers that will be a focus for the coming year is increasing the awareness of mental health supports, which increased from last year’s survey but still fell short of the preferred level, according to Dowell and Deramo.

High schoolers are pleased with laptop assistance and advanced placement courses but need improvement in meaningful homework assignments and proactively monitoring a student’s performance.

Creating meaningful homework assignments that also help students reflected a moderate increase at all three levels. The district will continue to evaluate this from kindergarten to 12th grade, focusing on “quality over quantity in terms of the amount of how much that we are asking students to complete outside of school day, along with enrichment and reinforcement,” Deramo said.

The survey scored very high in safety throughout the district.

A notable strength was that students and parents would recommend North Allegheny School District to someone moving to Western Pennsylvania, at more than 92%.

“That is a remarkable percentage, and I would hazard to say there are very few school districts that could get that type of number,” said Hyland, adding there is still work need to be done

“We are focused on continuous improvement in this district,” he said.

School board directors commented on students being more respectful with each other, with school board directors Richard McClure and Elizabeth Blackburn recommending the national anti-bullying and positive support program Rachel’s Challenge.

“This would be a wonderful thing for us to do as quickly as possible,” Blackburn said.

Elizabeth Warner, school board president, agreed they should “do whatever they have to do to work on that number.” She acknowledged the work of the high school principals as this was an area of improvement at that level.

The annual survey for 2025-26 will be sent to parents and students in April, and Dowell and Deramo encouraged participation.

“We value the voice of both the entire community, but especially our students and our parents,” Deramo said.

The survey results can be viewed at northallegheny.org/survey2025.