kpoll284.htm
This year's poll included a number of questions designed to update the information previous polls have gathered concerning the impact of race on the public schools. Difficulties in desegregating the public schools were prominent in the minds of respondents in the first 13 years of these polls, but by 1982 desegregation and busing for desegregation had dropped out of the top group of problems.
As this poll was being prepared, many districts and some states were on the verge of abandoning desegregation efforts. A number of large school districts across the country had been released -- or were seeking release -- from federal court orders to achieve desegregation. There was also some evidence that blacks have grown disenchanted with the efforts to achieve desegregation.
The current poll sought to determine where the public stands on the advantages of integration, on the need for and effect of mixing the races in school, and on the importance of having teachers from all races represented in the teaching force.
Effects of Racial Integration on School Quality
The current disenchantment with efforts to seek integration, if it exists, is not reflected in the poll findings. Today, 61% of Americans believe that integration has improved school quality for blacks, and only 27% disagree. Opinion is evenly split on whether there are benefits for whites: 45% say yes; 44% say no.
Significantly, however, the percentages who say integration has improved the quality of education for blacks and for whites have been increasing steadily since these questions were first asked in 1971. For blacks the number has increased from 43% in 1971 to 55% in 1988 to 61% today. For whites the number has risen from 23% in 1971 to 35% in 1988 to 45% today. The percentages of public school parents holding these views have increased correspondingly.
Those under age 30 are most likely to believe that integration has improved the quality of education for blacks, while those over age 65 are least likely to think so. Groups most likely to say that integration has improved the quality of education for whites are those under age 30 and blacks. Those over age 65 and residents of the South are least likely to believe that integration has improved education for whites.
THE QUESTION: How do you feel about school integration? Do you feel it has improved the quality of education received by black students? Do you feel it has improved the quality of education received by white students? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Children
| Public
| Nonpublic
| |
Improved Education | ||||
Yes | 61 | 61 | 61 | 64 |
No | 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 |
Don't know | 12 | 12 | 13 | 10 |
Improved Education for Whites? | ||||
Yes | 45 | 45 | 47 | 44 |
No | 44 | 44 | 42 | 47 |
Don't know | 11 | 11 | 11 | 9 |
Desirability of Racial and Ethnic Integration
While almost half of the population (44%) doubts that integration has improved the quality of education for white students, the vast majority are convinced that having America's racial/ethnic mix represented in public school student bodies is a desirable goal. For the nation as a whole, 83% believe that a racial/ethnic mix is desirable, while 13% believe it is not. This proportion applies to nearly every population group, including public school parents. Only residents of the South diverge from this view -- and then by only a small margin: 77% say that racial mixing is desirable, compared to 87% in the other three regions.
THE QUESTION: In your opinion, is it a desirable goal to have persons from the different races and ethnic groups that make up the U.S. population represented in the student bodies of the public schools or not? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Children
| Public
| Nonpublic
| |
Yes, desirable | 83 | 83 | 84 | 85 |
No, not desirable | 13 | 13 | 12 | 14 |
Don't know | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
Effects on Achievement
A slight majority of the public (55%) thinks that including people of different races, ethnic groups, and cultures in the student body will not affect student achievement. Nonetheless, 34% do believe that student achievement will improve. Only 7% think it will decline. Those between 18 and 29 years of age and those living in the East are most likely to think that the mixing of races and ethnic groups will improve student achievement; those living in the South are least likely to think that student achievement will be enhanced thereby.
THE QUESTION: How do you feel about the effect of this on student achievement? Do you believe that the inclusion of more people from different races, ethnic groups, and cultures in the student body of a public school will produce an increase in student achievement, a decrease, or will achievement remain about the same? | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Children
| Public
| |||||||||
Increase achievement | 34 | 36 | 33 | ||||||||
Decrease achievement | 7 | 7 | 7
Achievement will remain about the same555357
Don't know443 | ||||||||
Makeup of the Teaching Force
By the turn of the century, up to 40% of the children in the nation's classrooms will be nonwhite. Today, only one in four public school students in the 47 largest cities in the U.S. is white. Yet the nation's teaching force is overwhelmingly white and becoming more so. African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans now make up only about 10% of the teaching force.
Respondents were asked whether they consider it important for the percentage of black teachers in a public school to be roughly the same as the percentage of black students in that school. A majority of whites (55%) and a much larger majority of blacks (76%) believe that this kind of balance is either very or somewhat important. Indeed, 45% of blacks, compared to only 19% of whites, say that this is very important.
THE QUESTION: In your opinion, how important is it that the percentage of black teachers in a public school is roughly the same as the percentage of black students in that school? Do you think it is very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NOT
| Total
| Very
| Somewhat
| Total
| Don't
| National Totals | 58 | 22 | 36 | 39 | 3
Whites551936423
Nonwhites774334221
Blacks764531231 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
