Public Supports Public Schools, Disagrees with NCLB

A recent poll suggests that people support their local public schools and oppose radical solutions to the problems facing public education.

Phi Delta Kappa International and the Gallup Organization released the 38th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools on August 22. The nationwide poll of 1,007 adults, 28 percent of whom had children in public schools, probed for views on public education, potential reforms, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

In addition to showing widespread support for local public schools, the poll also shows that people believe that school finance is the number one problem facing public education. A majority of those polled believe that educational problems have their roots in social problems, and a majority also appear to be willing to pay more taxes in order to see schools improve. Finally, the poll showed popular opposition to many features of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Local Support, Societal Problems, and Underfunding

When asked to grade their local public schools, 49 percent of respondents gave a grade of A or B, including 56 percent of parents of public school children. Sixty-four percent of parents gave the school their "oldest child attends" a grade of A or B. Despite this support for local schools, only 21 percent gave the nation's public schools at large a grade of A or B. The plurality of those polled gave the nation's public schools a C grade while the plurality also gave their local schools a B.

When asked whether the problems facing public education in their communities were the fault of the performance of schools or a result of larger societal problems, people overwhelmingly (70 percent to 22 percent) blamed societal issues. When asked what the biggest single problem facing public schools was, the plurality of respondents (24 percent) identified inadequate funding, followed by overcrowding (13 percent).

Similarly, the poll shows that people do not hold schools at fault for the achievement gap between white and black or Hispanic students. Over three-quarters attributed the achievement gap to factors other than the quality of education. Despite not blaming the schools for the achievement gap, 57 percent of respondents (though only 49 percent of public school parents) believed that it was the responsibility of public schools to narrow the gap.

Improve the System, Don't Abandon It

The poll's results showed that, when looking for answers to the challenges facing public education, people tend to favor improvements to the status quo over moving to a different system. When provided a choice, people preferred "reforming the existing public school system" to "finding an alternative to the existing public school system" by 71 percent to 24 percent, they opposed contracting private corporations to run public schools by 69 percent to 24 percent, and they opposed mayoral takeovers of public schools by 67 percent to 29 percent.

When asked about other options, slightly over half of respondents were in favor of charter schools, while about a third opposed them. However, the poll also showed that the majority of people have great misconceptions about how charter schools operate, so the data doesn't provide a strong indication of how people would feel about charter schools if they were better informed about how they actually operate. More convincing was the poll regarding school vouchers. When asked whether they favored "allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense" – the poll's language for vouchers – only 36 percent of those polled favored such programs, while 60 percent opposed them.

The poll also asked whether people thought that access to pre-school programs would help low-income students perform better in their teenage years; 82 percent responded "quite a lot" or "a great deal," and 66 percent were willing to pay more taxes in order to fund preschool for low-income students.

Together, these results suggest that people are generally supportive of their local public schools and would rather improve public schools than abandon them. This conclusion is corroborated by the result that, if given a choice under NCLB to transfer one's child out of a school that is "in need of improvement" or to have additional efforts made in the child's local school, only one in five parents would choose to transfer their child.

No Child Left Behind

Nearly 70 percent of those who claimed to be familiar with the No Child Left Behind Act (45 percent of those polled, up from 40 percent last year and 24 percent in 2003) believed that NCLB has either hurt or not helped public schools. When asked about specific provisions of NCLB, people appear to disagree with the way it was designed. Only 28 percent believed a single test provides a "fair picture" of whether a school "needs improvement," with 69 percent dissenting. Eighteen percent believe that testing English and math alone provides a fair picture, while 81 percent would favor using additional subjects. By an 81 percent to 17 percent margin, respondents believed that state tests should track students' improvement over time and not a percentage of passing students as a measure of a school's performance, as NCLB currently requires.

One-third believed that special education students should be included in a school's overall test scores, and only 21 percent believed that special education students should be held to the same standards as other students. The special education numbers have strong implications for policy because, under NCLB, a school in which every group of students except special education students meets state standards is still labeled "in need of improvement," or, in the popular media, a "failing school." If different standards were made for special education students, the number of schools that do not reach Adequate Yearly Progress each year might be radically reduced.

NCLB is up for reauthorization in 2007. The PDK/Gallup poll suggests that lawmakers could learn a great deal from public opinion when deciding how to revise the law.

Prepared by Matthew Samberg, August 30, 2006