The American public gives similar grades to their local schools and schools in Europe and Asia according to The 40th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools. They do not, however, grade schools that are outside their own community as high nor do they grade them as high as they do schools in Europe and Asia.

Additional resources: Guide to the No Child Left Behind Act Guides to Standards and Testing Measuring student growth: A guide for informed decision making More than a horse race: A guide to international assessments of student achievement

The Findings

How does the public feel about the effectiveness of public schools?

• Almost half (46 percent) of the public gives public schools in their own community an A or B, while only 16 percent give their schools a D or failing mark.
• The public’s view of schools around the country is not as positive but is improving. Twenty-two percent give the nation’s public schools an A or B (up from 16 percent last year), while 18 percent give them a D or failing grade, which is down from 23 percent in 2007.
• The percent of adults who feel a lack of school funding is the biggest problem facing public schools dropped from 22 percent to 17 percent in the past year despite the downturn in the economy. However, funding is still the public's greatest concern and is ranked above discipline, overcrowding, fighting, drugs, good teachers, and standards.

What is the impact of election year politics on public education?

• A greater percentage of the American public would vote for Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats to strengthen our public schools over John McCain and the Republicans.

  Overview Title: Americans Speak Out—Are Educators and Policy Makers Listening? The 40th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools Author(s): William J. Bushaw and Alec M. Gallup Research Methods: Survey statistics Publisher: Phi Delta Kappa and The Gallup Organization Peer Reviewed: No Released: August 2008 The question(s): How does the public feel about the effectiveness of public schools? How does the public feel about changing public schools? What is the impact of election year politics on public education? How do U.S. schools measure up to schools around the world? How does the public feel about national standards?   The study:  Random calls were made to a national representative sample of adults eighteen years old and over to obtain their views of various issues pertaining to public education. The sample was distributed between political affiliations (24 percent Republican, 34 percent Democrat, and 32 percent Independent). More than half (52 percent) of the respondents were from suburban areas, while 26 percent were from urban and 22 percent from rural communities. Results based on the overall national sample has a margin of error of +/– 3 percentage points while the sample of parents of public school students has a margin of error of +/– 5 percentage points. Full Report

• Three out of four (77 percent) adults believe the next president should rely mostly on education leaders for advice on improving education instead of business leaders (14 percent) and politicians (4 percent). 
• Over 40 percent of the public believes the next president should change the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) significantly, while a quarter would like to see the law expire. Sixteen percent would like to see NCLB extended without change.
• Although a greater proportion of the public thinks the best way to finance public school is through federal taxes, they prefer for local school boards (46 percent) to have the greatest influence over what is taught in schools instead policymakers at the state (30 percent) or federal (20 percent) levels.

How do our schools measure up to schools around the world?

• The public gave European and Asian schools grades similar to the ones they gave schools in their own communities. Forty-eight percent gave European schools an A or B, 52 percent gave Asian schools the same grades, while 46 percent gave A's or B's to the schools in their own communities.
• Compared to other developed countries, the majority of Americans believe American schools rank near the middle of the pack in math and science, reading and writing, and creativity and problem solving.

How does the public feel about national standards?

• The public is divided on their preference between standards being set by their own state or at the national level, 46 and 50 percent respectively.
• The majority (62 percent) of the public believes if national standards are created they should be created by state leaders working together instead of the U.S. Department of Education (22 percent) or a federally appointed panel (10 percent).
• However, when the phrase "common expectations" is used instead of "national standards" nearly two-thirds (62 percent) prefer one set of common expectations for students across all states compared to 36 percent who prefer that each state set their own common expectations.
• This is despite the fact that nearly two-thirds (63 percent) say they are satisfied with their own state's standards.

What is the public’s view of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)?

• A similar percentage of people have a favorable view (32 percent) of NCLB as unfavorable (33 percent), while in 2007, 40 percent had an unfavorable view of NCLB. However, the majority (54 percent) of the public still know very little or nothing at all about NCLB.
• The public is split on whether they believe NCLB is hurting or helping local public schools (22 percent and 25 percent respectively), while 41 percent feel it is making no difference.
• The vast majority (80 percent) of the public would prefer that schools be judged by growth in students’ achievement rather than by the simple percent of students who score at or above proficiency on their state assessment.
• A greater number of public school parents believe that examples of student work (36 percent) and teacher observations (24 percent) are more accurate measures of student achievement than test scores (20 percent) or teacher grades (15 percent).

Cautions about the data

When interpreting the results from this survey it is important to keep in mind that the responses are subjective. For example, just because a respondent says they know a lot about NCLB does not necessarily mean they do. Furthermore, as with all survey data, small changes to the wording of questions could alter the results significantly.

Conclusion 

The American public still gives high grades to their local schools but sees a need for improvement in schools around the country. This may explain why the public prefers one common set of expectations across the country even though they are quite satisfied with their own state's standards. Although not asked in the survey, this suggests they would like their state's standards adopted nationwide. Interestingly, when the term "national standards" was used in lieu of "common expectations," the public was split in their preference between national and state standards.

Although the public is ambivalent about national standards, they are clear that they would like significant changes made to NCLB. Most of all, they would like schools to be judged on the academic growth their students make throughout the school year instead of the current system of judging schools on how well students performed on one test at one point in time. Judging schools using a growth model would not only provide a more accurate measure of success but would also provide teachers and administrators a wealth of information about which students are making the most progress in which programs. However, this important information is useful only if it is provided to teachers and administrators in a clear easy to use fashion.

Many districts across the nation have provided their teachers and administrators with software that can be used to easily access the information they need to make the best decisions possible for their students. Although school budgets are tight, school board members may find the investment in such software as invaluable.