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Find more Kappan articles in the Welcome to the online version of the
PDK/Gallup Poll Advisory Panel The following individuals worked with Alec Gallup and the Gallup Organization to select and frame the questions asked in the 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. Frederick M. Hess, Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute,
The 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools AS THIS poll appears for its 38th consecutive year, it serves as a memorial and a continuing tribute to the work of George Gallup, Sr. He was one of the poll's founders, considered it his poll, picked the panel to select the questions, oversaw the surveying, analyzed the results, and wrote the report. He drew great satisfaction from the poll and watched over it closely until his death in 1984. The close relationship between the Gallup Organization and Phi Delta Kappa International continues today with Alec Gallup, Chairman of the Gallup Poll, replacing his father. Since 1992, I have had the pleasure of directing the poll for PDK. Alec and I share the belief that being true to the poll's heritage requires keeping it free from bias while operating at the cutting edge of issues facing K-12 schools. Alec controls the wording of the questions and is responsible for making sure that the findings and conclusions are supported by the data. We present the results here in a user-friendly fashion intended to permit readers to delve into the data to verify our interpretations or draw their own conclusions. -- LCR Major Findings and Conclusions The results of this poll are released at a press conference held in August in the Gallup Building in Washington, D.C. The first question a reporter asked at a recent conference was, "What are the major story lines of this poll?" Opening by answering that question has now become standard practice for the press conference, and we replicate it here by starting with the findings and conclusions that we believe have the greatest significance. Our aim is not to minimize or downplay the remaining findings and conclusions. However, we believe that the findings and conclusions presented here provide a context for interpreting the remaining results. The major findings center on how people want improvement to come about, on the way the public assesses the public schools, and on how it views some of the strategies used in current change efforts. (The tables pertaining to these questions are grouped at the end of this section.) Everything else in this poll builds to the final section, which deals with the change strategy dominating K-12 education today, the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. We begin with a brief story. A reporter at the 2001 press conference suggested asking the public whether improvement in public education should be sought by reforming the existing system or by finding an alternative system. This question would provide a benchmark to use in weighing the responses to questions dealing with proposals for change. The suggestion was accepted, a question was framed and asked in 2002, and the question has been repeated in each subsequent poll. (See Table 1.) Findings. The 2002 question found that 69% of the public expressed a preference for improvement through reforming the existing system. The number this year is 71%. By contrast, just 27% of respondents in 2002 preferred seeking an alternative system, and that figure is at 24% for 2006. Conclusion I. The public's strong preference is to seek improvement through the existing public schools. Policies shaped with this fact in mind are most likely to gain public approval. Each year we ask the public to assess its schools using the familiar A to F scale. This practice started in 1974 with a question asking respondents to grade the schools in the local community. Grading of the nation's schools was added in 1981, and, beginning in 1985, parents were asked to grade the school their oldest child attends. Each question has been repeated every year since it was first asked. (See Tables 2, 3, and 4.) Findings. In this year's poll, 49% give the schools in the community an A or a B. The percentage last year was 48%. The percentage of A's and B's climbs to 56% for public school parents and to 64% when parents grade the school their oldest child attends. The nation's schools continue to draw the lowest grades, with just 21% of the public awarding them an A or a B. Of course, the nation's schools must also be schools in someone's "community" and schools someone's "oldest child attends." Conclusion II. Public ratings of the local schools are near the top of their 38-year range. Conclusion III. The closer people get to the schools in the community, the higher the grades they give them. Conclusion IV. Policies at the state and federal levels that build on the assumption that local schools have a high approval rating are likely to gain public support. Conclusion V. Gaining public support for school improvement will be more likely if proposals are based on the schools in the community and not on the nation's schools. In stories reported about the public schools, declining public support for the schools is taken almost as a given. The grades assigned the schools in this poll since 1974 demonstrate clearly that such is not the case. Findings: * In 1974, 48% of the public gave schools in the community a grade of A or B. In 2006, the percentage awarding local schools an A or a B is 49%. * In 1994, 66% of parents gave the school their oldest child attends a grade of A or B. This year's figure is 64%. Conclusion VI. There has been no decline in public support for public schools. Approval ratings remain high and remarkably stable. Vouchers that parents can use to send their children to private, church-related, or public schools of their choice are an alternative that first received public notice after a 1955 address by economist Milton Friedman. He saw vouchers as a way of providing competition for the public schools. However, vouchers remain controversial because they touch on the line involving separation of church and state and because they are seen as diverting money from the public schools. Since 1991, the PDK/Gallup polls have approached this issue with a question that measures approval of the voucher concept -- "allowing parents and students to choose a private school to attend at public expense" -- without using the politically charged word "vouchers." Table 5 provides this year's results. In considering the results, it is useful to keep in mind that choice, independent of a specific program, is popular with the public. Findings. The percentage favoring vouchers dropped from 38% a year ago to 36% this year, while opposition grew from 57% to 60%. Support for vouchers started at 24% in 1993, fluctuated up and down for years, and peaked at 46% in 2002. It is now at the mid-Nineties level. Conclusion VII. Support for vouchers is declining and stands in the mid-30% range. Although charter schools are public schools, many people do not think of them as such, because they operate outside the traditional K-12 structure. The two charter questions in this year's poll explore public support for the idea of charter schools and public understanding of the nature of such schools. The second question is new and was asked because public comments on charters often reflect a lack of understanding of the concept. (See Tables 6 and 7.) Findings. Public approval of charter schools has climbed from 42% in 2000 to 53% in 2006. This finding must be weighed against responses indicating that the concept is not clearly understood. Here are some comparisons: * 39% of respondents say charter schools are public schools; 53% say they are not (fact: they are public schools). * 50% say charters are free to teach religion; 34% say they are not (fact: they are not). * 60% say charters can charge tuition; 29% say they cannot (fact: they cannot). * 58% say charters can base student selection on ability; 29% say they cannot (fact: they cannot). Conclusion VIII. Those who would implement the charter school concept should ensure that the public has a clear understanding of the nature of such schools. We are often asked why grades for the local schools remain so high in the face of such negative factors as the persistent achievement gap and unacceptably high dropout rates. The answer may lie in the responses to two questions -- one first asked in 1990, the other first asked in 2002. The first asked whether the fault for the problems of schools lay primarily with the schools or should be attributed to problems of the larger society. The second asked whether the achievement gap was mostly related to the quality of schooling received or to other factors. (See Tables 8 and 9.) Findings. In 1990, 73% faulted the effect of societal problems and 16% the performance of schools. The corresponding figures this year are 70% and 22%. When asked in 2002 about the achievement gap, 66% attributed it to other factors, and 29% to the quality of schooling received. The corresponding figures this year are 77% and 19%. Conclusion IX. There is near-consensus support for the belief that the problems the public schools face result from societal issues and not from the quality of schooling. Tables for the Major Findings and Conclusions
This is the one question that has been asked in each of the 38 polls. Respondents are free to mention any problem that comes to mind, and Table 10 displays the percentage of respondents who mentioned a given problem. Discipline was the top problem for the poll's first 16 years. Drugs then took over and occupied the top position alone until financial support drew into a tie in 1991. Frequent changes occurred in the Nineties until lack of financial support came back to the top in 2000. It has held that position in each poll since.
Findings. Lack of financial support tops the poll, with 24% of mentions. Conclusion X. The public is aware of the link between adequate funding and effective schooling and understands that current funding levels are a challenge for schools. Given the increasing role played by those at the state level and the growth in federal influence through NCLB, it seemed timely to repeat a 1980 question regarding the influence of the levels of government on what is taught in local schools. The remaining two questions deal with recent directions in the governance of some schools.
Findings. While 58% still prefer that the local school board make decisions as to what is taught in local schools, that percentage is down from 68% in 1980. The shift has been in the direction of the state level, where the percentage has grown from 15% to 26%. The percentage saying the federal government should have the greatest influence has gone up from 9% to 14%. Contracting out the operation of entire public school systems is now approved by 24% of respondents, down from 31% in 2002. Having the mayor take over control of schools with a large number of low-performing students is favored by only 29%. Conclusion XI. The public's preference is that the local school board make decisions about what the schools teach. Of those favoring decisions at the state or federal level, two-thirds opt for the state. True to its preference for change through the existing school system, the public opposes contracting with private firms for the operation of schools and having mayors take over schools with large numbers of low-performing students. Federal and state accountability efforts have brought about a significant increase in the amount of testing. Public reaction to the increase has been tracked in the first of the following questions. The next two questions deal with whether the emphasis on testing promotes "teaching to the test" and whether or not that would be a good thing. The final question is new and seeks the public's reaction to the use of a qualifying exam to determine whether a diploma should be given.
Findings. Since 2000, the percentage of respondents saying that there is too much emphasis on testing is up 9% to 39%. Overall, the numbers saying not enough and just about the right amount still make up a majority of 58% of respondents who support at least the current level of testing. That the public is not rejecting testing is also indicated by the fact that 63% favor requiring students to pass a qualifying exam in order to graduate from high school. Some of the move away from testing may be explained by the fact that the percentage saying the current emphasis on testing will mean "teaching to the test" is up by 9% in one year and now stands at 67%, while the percentage regarding this as a "bad thing" is up 21% to 75%. Conclusion XII. There is still majority support for at least the current level of testing, although there has been a shift toward the belief that there is "too much testing." Conclusion XIII. Large and growing numbers see the emphasis on testing translating into "teaching to the test," and those saying that doing so is a "bad thing" are nearing consensus. Conclusion XIV. The support for using a graduate qualifying exam to determine whether a student receives a diploma is strong. The test referred to as the Nation's Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, shows blacks trailing whites in grade-8 reading by 30%, Hispanics trailing whites by 26%, and children from homes where students are eligible for free lunches trailing those whose lunches are not subsidized by 24%. The percentages are comparable for math. Five questions in this year's poll deal with this problem. The first three deal with the importance of closing the gap, the impact of high standards on the gap, and the responsibility for closing it. The final two deal with using preschool programs to try to close the gap and the funding for such programs.
Findings. Eighty-eight percent of respondents say that closing the achievement gap is either very important or somewhat important, and 81% believe the goal can be accomplished while maintaining high standards for all students. Although only 19% of respondents say that the gap is related to the quality of schooling (Table 9), 57% say that it is the responsibility of the public schools to close the gap. Conclusion XV. There is near consensus that closing the achievement gap is of great importance and that it is unnecessary to sacrifice high standards to do it. Conclusion XVI. The public attributes the gap to factors other than the quality of schooling but still concludes that it is the responsibility of the schools to close it.
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