The 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes toward the Public Schools

Abstract

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. Source of School Improvement 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. Rating of the Public Schools 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. …