Advertorial in Education Week, November 3, 2004

Contrary to the old saw about familiarity breeding contempt, those who know America’s public schools best see them as pretty good places. When parents are asked to grade the school their oldest child attends, a whopping 70% give that school an A or B. On the other hand, the public seems convinced that the nation’s schools on the whole are mediocre or worse. Only 26% of the public, whether they have children in school or not, give schools a grade of A or B.

That’s the contradictory message that comes when the public are asked to grade the nation’s and their own children’s schools using the traditional scale of A, B, C, D, Fail. In this year’s 36th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools — the results were released in September — the responses to the grading questions were consistent with those from past polls.

These questions are two of several “trend questions” asked in the annual poll. Trend-question answers are some of the most telling because they speak to the roots of our evolving understanding about schooling and about how public education can best serve the needs of all children.

Since 1906, Phi Delta Kappa International has embraced a mission of advocacy in support of public schools and high-quality, universally available education that will ensure the future of a free society. Our core tenets of leadership, research, and service in education are at the heart of what we believe and do. We also believe that America’s schools, though better than they often are portrayed, can and should be improved. The public is clear about where improvement should focus. Answering another trend question, poll respondents consistently say (and have done so in every PDK/Gallup Poll since 1999) that reform should come through the existing public school system, not through seeking an alternative.

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley once commented, “While education is a state responsibility and a local function, it also should be a national priority.” The No Child Left Behind Act was put into law to shine a national spotlight on school improvement. We have argued for changes to strengthen NCLB, and likely will continue to do so until the law’s shortcomings have been corrected, but we have consistently supported the hopeful intent of the law.

We can and should work to make even the best schools better and to help all schools improve. That goal hasn’t changed over the years. So what has? Something very important that NCLB has not corrected. Simply this: When asked by PDK/Gallup pollsters about the major problems facing the public schools, respondents used to give the dubious honor to discipline and drugs. Since 2000, however, “lack of financial support” has risen to the top every year. Under-funded mandates in NCLB and beleaguered national, state, and local economies are among the problems that have hampered school improvement efforts.

Bottom line: It will be hard to get better schools without making the investments — at all
levels — needed to bring about positive change. Whatever the national education agenda includes, and NCLB is a major aspect, it must incorporate a clear understanding that improving schools will require the investment of real resources, not merely high hopes.

Read a complete report of the 36th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools in the September issue of the Phi Delta Kappan or online at www.pdkintl.org.

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