Our Teachers Work Incredibly Hard, So Why Aren't Parents More Impressed?

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

The Dream Versus the Frustrating Reality

It is the dream of every day school Head: a faculty that is genuinely first-rate, and a parent body that knows it. Faculty quality is the single most defensible reason a family pays Jewish day school tuition rather than choosing a public, charter, or other private alternative. When parents are convinced their school's teachers are exceptional, they re-enroll, they tolerate tuition increases, they recommend the school to friends, and they forgive the inevitable operational stumbles. When they are not convinced, none of those things hold.

Yet across the universe of Jewish day schools, that conviction is far from universal. When 2,534 parents at 18 Jewish day schools were asked how satisfied they were with their school's performance on "Hires and Supports a First-Rate Faculty," only 38% answered "Very Satisfied." Another 38% landed at "Somewhat Satisfied" — the polite shrug of a parent who is not yet a believer. Roughly one in eight parents was outright neutral or dissatisfied.

Exemplars of Parent-Perceived Faculty Excellence

Schools that scored significantly higher in terms of parent satisfaction with faculty excellence include

•         Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School — Pluralistic, K-8, OH

•         JKHA/RKYHS Kushner Hebrew Academy — Modern Orthodox, N-12, NJ

The Correlates of a Perceived “First Rate Faculty”

The school characteristics that statistically correlate in parents’ minds most strongly with "First-Rate Faculty" are:

Correlate of "First-Rate Faculty" rating	Spearman r
Teacher attention to individual student needs	0.62
Educational methods that adapt to each student	0.62
Innovative curriculum	0.60
Treats student feedback with respect	0.56
Proactive communication about my child	0.55

Parents do not, it turns out, read "first-rate faculty" as "the school hires great teachers." They read it as "the school operates in a way that reflects great teaching" — differentiated instruction, individual attention, innovative pedagogy, respect for student voice, and communication about their specific child.

Leader Schools Overdeliver on Every Dimension

The schools that achieve first-rate faculty ratings do not just outperform on the headline item. They outperform on every one of the underlying factors parents weigh into their judgment of faculty quality. Comparing leader schools to the comparison group on top-box (% Very Satisfied) satisfaction across the full driver set:

Driver of Faculty Quality Rating	Leaders	Comparison Schools	Gap
Treats Student Feedback with Respect	60%	36%	+24pp
Teacher Attention to Individual Student	55%	32%	+22pp
Innovative Curriculum	46%	24%	+22pp
Proactive Parent Communication	55%	34%	+21pp
Educational Methods Adapt to Student Needs	43%	24%	+19pp

The Supervision Difference

The parent data tells us "what" leader schools are perceived as delivering. When we examine Benchmarking for Good staff climate research survey data, we gain insight into "how" they do so. Specifically, what does the staff experience look like at the schools where parents are convinced of faculty excellence?

When we compare the staff experience at the three leader schools against the comparison schools, one cluster of items stands out clearly:

•         Supervisor appreciation: 61% of leader-school staff are Very Satisfied with their supervisor's appreciation for their work, vs. 44% at comparison schools — a 16 percentage-point gap (p < 0.001).

•         Growth-oriented feedback: 46% of leader-school staff are Very Satisfied that their supervisor's feedback helps them grow professionally, vs. 34% at comparison schools — a 13 percentage-point gap (p < 0.01).

•         Workload realism: 52% of leader-school staff find their supervisor's workload expectations Very Realistic, vs. 41% at comparison schools — an 11 percentage-point gap (p < 0.05).

These three items are about how managers manage. They are about whether teachers feel noticed, given feedback they can actually use, and protected from unrealistic demands. They are the most actionable levers a head of school directly controls — and they are where the leader schools beat the comparison group most decisively.

Why supervision matters more than money

What this Means for School Leaders

If this analysis is right — and the patterns hold across 2,500 parent responses and nearly 2,000 staff responses then several common board and leadership conversations need to be reframed.

Reframe the head-of-school evaluation conversation. Weight the supervisor practice items — staff satisfaction with supervisor appreciation, growth-oriented feedback, and realistic workload expectations — at least as heavily as compensation competitiveness in any climate dashboard. These are the items most predictive of the parent-side outcome the school is trying to achieve.

Reframe the board priorities conversation. Treat investment in supervisor capability — formal supervisor training, structured feedback frameworks, protected time for supervisor-teacher conversations, calibration across supervisors — as a higher-leverage investment than across-the-board salary increases. Both matter; the first matters more for the outcome most schools are trying to achieve.

Reframe the recruitment pitch. Start leading with the developmental experience: here is how we will help you grow as a teacher, whom you will report to, what feedback you can expect, and how your work will be appreciated. This is what the leader schools deliver, and it is what their staff stay for..

How Benchmarking for Good Can Help

Benchmarking for Good's Staff Climate and Parent surveys offer schools the hard information to assess both satisfaction and the inputs that cause it. Please contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org to learn how your school can qualify for a research grant during the coming Fall/Winter 2026 season.