PDK Poll Research Articles

The Editor’s Note

In the 2017 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, Americans are calling for a course correction. They are saying that they want a blend of academics and practical preparation for students. That means job-related classes plus attention to the kind of social skills that make a difference in the workplace.

The 49th Annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools

The 2017 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools finds that Americans overwhelmingly want schools to do more than educate students in academic subjects. While they value traditional academic preparation, Americans say they want schools to substantially help position students for their working lives after school, which means both more direct career preparation and efforts to develop students’ interpersonal skills. In addition, as in past years, the 2017 poll also shows little public support for using public money to send children to private schools. The more Americans know about how voucher programs work, the less likely they are to support them or to say they’d participate in them. The poll also asked Americans about valuing diversity in schools, measuring school quality, wrapping support around students, grading the public schools, and expecting students to attend college. The 2017 poll is PDK’s 49th annual survey. It is based on a random, representative, 50-state sample of 1,588 adults interviewed by cell or landline telephone, in English or Spanish, in May 2017. For the first time, this year’s study also includes a pair of statewide samples — focusing on Georgia and New York — which are covered in separate reports that were not published in the magazine but are available at the organization’s poll web site. Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., produced this year’s poll.

Highlighted & Underlined

Students are unable to discern the difference between real and fake news, according to Stanford University study. Bilingual education is on an upswing, thanks to new vote in California. PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools reported that a plurality of Americans supported raising local property taxes to support their community’s public schools.

Highlighted & Underlined

When participation fees go up, participation goes down. Teachers want more collaborative time with colleagues. Principals average 59 hours of work each week. Student reflects on challenges of learning in an under-resourced school. Graph from the 2016 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools regarding support for various school improvement options.

Highlighted & Underlined

New research suggests that the income achievement gap for kindergartners can be reduced. The American Federation of Teachers has produced Immigrant and refugee children: A guide for educators and support staff, a 32-page guide for educators, school support staff, and service providers who teach and mentor undocumented youth and unaccompanied and refugee children in the U.S. Handwriting is not dead but it is less important than it once was. The PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools showed that Americans don’t believe schools are delivering as well as they should on their highest priority categories.

Washington View

The results of the 48th annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools suggest that Americans may have tired of the relentless focus on academics that occurred during the No Child Left Behind era and that they want more emphasis on preparing students for life after school.

The Editor’s Note

The editor responds to the most lopsided response in this year's PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, which concerned how to deal with failing schools. The public favors keeping failing schools open but replacing the principal and teachers in them. The editor says the public seems to think that just removing adults from a struggling school will solve its problems. But swapping out one principal and staff for others ignores the complexity of making change in low-performing schools. The author says that if the teachers and leader knew how to do their work differently, they would be doing it.

Why school? The 48th Annual PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools

Why school? The 48th Annual PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools included questions about the purpose of schooling, standards, homework, school funding, and parents' relationships with their schools. The 2016 poll, which was conducted by Langer Research Associates, was based on a telephone poll of 1,221 adults during April and May 2016. The results were reported in the September 2016 issue of Kappan magazine. The major finding was that less than half of adult Americans say preparing students academically is the main goal of a public education, and just one-third feel that way strongly. The remaining Americans split between preparing students for work (25%) and preparing students for citizenship (26%). In a related result — perhaps reflecting the economic uncertainty of recent years — the survey finds a heavy tilt in preferences away from more higher-level academics and toward more classes focused on work skills. By a broad 68% to 21%, Americans say having their local public schools focus more on career-technical or skills-based classes is better than focusing on more honors or advanced academic classes. These differing views of the overarching purpose of public education influence attitudes toward public schools more broadly. Local schools are better rated by those focused on academics, for example, and do less well among those who see their chief aim as preparing students for work.

Kappan call for manuscripts, 2016-17

Kappan’s upcoming publishing year promises to be pivotal. In addition to a new PDK poll and a new U.S. president, we’ll be looking issues ranging from competency-based education, teacher shortages, the stress that school brings to both adults and children, and the return of art and music to education. Hosting articles specific to the Common Core and other excellent articles on nonthemed issues also continues.

A timeline of teacher tenure

A timeline of the history of teacher tenure show that in New Jersey became the first state to pass a teacher tenure law, in 1909. By the 1950s about 80% of U.S. teachers had tenure protections. Since then there has been a slow erosion of both tenure protections and public support for teacher tenure. In 2015 a majority of U.S. adults said they oppose tenure in a PDK poll on education. Also that year, a California judge ruled the state’s teacher tenure law unconstitutional in Vergara v. California.