From the New York Times:

The Department of Education has begun a citywide survey of more than
1.8 million parents, students and teachers concerning their attitudes
about the public schools, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced yesterday.

The
$2 million effort is part of the Children First initiative, in which
each school will receive a report card with a standard school grade, A
through F. Data from the surveys will account for 10 percent of each
school’s grade.

The Learning Environment Surveys are being mailed
with postage-paid return envelopes to parents of middle school and high
school students and are being sent home with elementary school children
for their parents to fill out.

Students in the 6th through 12th
grades and teachers at all grade levels will get their surveys at
school. The parents, teachers and students invited to participate may
also fill out the forms online at schools.nyc.gov/surveys. The deadline is May 18.

The
survey is intended to produce “hard facts about which schools are
succeeding and which schools are falling behind,” Mr. Bloomberg said at
a news conference at Public School 76 in the Bronx..