parents of school-age children

I missed this part of the public school survey:

Public schools get slightly lower marks from those Americans with children living at home. Among this group, 41% say public schools provide the best education while 47% say public schools are the worst.

Most Americans (54%) know a family whose children attend private school. Among families with children living at home, 62% know some who are in private school. 

In 2005, 42% of all Americans surveyed by Rasmussen thought public schools provided the best education for children; today, 41% of parents with children living at home say the same, while that number rises to 50% when you include people who don't have children living at home.

That's the opposite of what I assumed would be the case.

Interesting.

What happens to the views of parents whose children have grown and left home?

survey results for homeschooling

from the Rasmussen poll:

Although home schooling is a relatively new phenomenon, 45% of Americans have close friends or family members who home school their children. Among those who have children, 51% have home schooled friends of family members. [sic]

Among all adults, just 27% say the nation would be better off if more parents home schooled their children. Half (50%) say the nation would be worse off, while 23% are not sure.

However, among those who know someone who is home schooled, the response is much more favorable. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the nation would be better off while 42% say the opposite.

Fifty percent (50%) of Republicans have home schooling friends or family members. That number falls to 36% among Democrats. Fifty-three percent (53%) of those unaffiliated with either party know home schoolers.

Public Schools Best or Worst?

what do you make of this?

Rasmussen polls from 2005 and 2011:

In 2005:

"a plurality of Americans (42%) continues to believe that public schools provide the best education for children. Nearly as many, 39%, say private schools are best while 11% say home schooling is the top approach."

In 2010:

Fifty percent (50%) of all adults believe public school education is generally better for students than private schools and home schooling. Thirty-five percent (35%) think private school is a better option. Eight percent (8%) prefer schooling in the home.

At the same time:

"(61%), however, say public school education has become worse over the past 10 years, a view virtually unchanged from May 2008."

Public schools up, private schools down, but people believe public school quality has declined "in recent years."

I don't know whether the questions were phrased differently.

Sixty-two percent of the public thinks public schools are a good investment for taxpayers. I think that's because most people don't know what the schools are spending or what the rate of increase has been over the past decades:

The amount of money actually spent annually on children in school districts across the United States varies widely. For the districts in which our sample members live, per-pupil spending in 2004–05 ranged from $5,644 to $24,939,with an average of $10,377. This last figure is slightly higher than the true national average of $9,435.

How well informed is the public about these financial commitments? Not very. Among those asked without the prompt listing possible expenses, the median response was $2,000, or less than 20 percent of the true amount being spent in their districts. Over 90 percent of the public offered an amount less than the amount actually spent in their district, and more than 40 percent of the sample claimed that annual spending was $1,000 per pupil or less. The average estimate of $4,231 reflects the influence of a small percentage of individuals who offered extremely high figures. Even so, the average respondent’s estimate was just 42 percent of actual spending levels in their district (see Figure 1).

[snip]

On average, Americans underestimated teacher salaries in their states by 30 percent.

Is the Price Right?
By William Howell and Martin West
Summer 2008 / Vol. 8, No. 3

what do parents think?

This is interesting:

Overwhelming numbers of the public link job opportunities and economic success to education preparation, but almost one-half of parents believe today's graduates are less prepared for work or college than they were.
2010 survey - PDK (pdf file)

Wow.

I would have predicted that the general public feels this way but not necessarily parents specifically.

I wonder if a majority of parents say students in their local schools are better prepared than students coming out of other schools --- ?

PDK poll

Quick post before I get back to work.

A few weeks ago we were talking about whether there is opposition to charter schools in suburban districts. Given the comments people left, I believe there is.

So it was interesting today to see that the new pdk poll includes this bullet point in the press release (pdf file):

We like public charter schools more every year! We’d be happy to have new public charter schools in our communities and more throughout the United States. 

Phi Delta Kappan was once described to me as the flagship of the constructivist movement; it's got to be one of the most important journals in public education. If pdk is phrasing a 'pro' finding on charter schools this way, I take that as a sign.

parents & charters

In the Wall Street Journal today:

This past week the NAACP, the National Urban League and other civil-rights groups collectively condemned charter schools. Claiming to speak for minority Americans, the organizations expressed "reservations" about the Obama administration's "extensive reliance on charter schools." They specifically voiced concern about "the overrepresentation of charter schools in low-income and predominantly minority communities."

[snip]

The truth is that support for charters among ordinary African-Americans and Hispanics is strong and has only increased dramatically in the past two years.

[snip]

For the past four years, Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance, together with the journal Education Next, has surveyed a nationally representative cross-section of some 3,000 Americans about a variety of education policy issues. In 2010, we included extra samples of public-school teachers and all those living in zip codes where a charter school is located.

survey results:

• Support for charters among African Americans rose to 49% in 2009, up from 42% in 2008. This year it leapt upward to no less than 64%. Among Hispanics support jumped to 47% in 2010, from 37% in 2008.
• Opposition to charters is expressed by 14% of African-Americans and 21% of Hispanics. Twenty-three percent of African-Americans and 33% of Hispanics take a neutral position.
• Among the public as a whole, charter supporters currently outnumber opponents by a margin of better than 2 to 1. Forty-four percent say they are in favor of charters, while 19% stand in opposition. 
• Parents in general are even more supportive of charter schools: 51% like them, 15% don't.
• [P]arents in communities with charter schools favor them by a margin of 57% to 16%.
• [C]harter support among public school teachers has slipped to 39% in 2010, from 47% in 2008.

African-Americans for Charter Schools
By PAUL E. PETERSON AND MARTIN R. WEST

I think the figure from parents is huge.

51% pro; 15% con

I don't know how to extrapolate from polling data, but my feeling about that figure is that charter schools are here to stay.

I hope vouchers will be next. I worry about charters killing off private schools.

survey: best type of schooling

Forty-seven percent (47%) of all adults rate public schools as the best type of schooling for students. Thirty-five percent (35%) say private schools are best, while just nine percent (9%) think home schooling is the best way to go.

In August 2004, 42% of Americans said public schools provide the best education for children, but just as many (43%) said they offer the worst education.

Among those who now have children in elementary or secondary schools, support for public schools is even higher at 52%. Thirty-three percent (33%) of these adults think private schools are the best type of schooling for students, and five percent (5%) favor home schooling the most.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of these parents rate the performance of their child’s school as good or excellent, down nine points from September 2008. This includes 40% who say their children’s schools are excellent, but that’s a seven-point drop from the earlier survey. Just three percent (3%) now say their child’s school is performing poorly.

[snip]

Those who earn more than $75,000 per year view public and private schools equally in terms of which is the best type of schooling.

Women are twice as likely as men to view the performance of their child’s school as excellent. Younger parents have a much higher appreciation of the schools than those who are older.

45% Say Parents Less Involved

I wonder if it's meaningful that more people said public schools are best today than in 2004. I haven't seen other surveys showing that confidence in public schools is rising - ?

Women twice as likely as men to view their child's school as excellent: jibes with my impressions.

And: only 52% of those who currently have children in public schools think public schools are the best type of schooling? Five per cent of parents with kids currently attending public schools think homeschooling is best?^*

Wow.

Of course, that perception fuels overspending on houses in areas with nominally high performing schools.


^* Approximately 11% of US children attend private schools. (pdf file)

ed schools and you

(still revising, which is why I haven't been around -- )

I discovered today that the Public Agenda survey of professors in education schools is available online. From the press release:

In the first comprehensive survey of the views of education professors, Public Agenda found nearly eight in ten teachers of teachers (79%) believe the public's approach toward learning is "outmoded and mistaken," and suggest a different path for American education. In sharp contrast to the concerns expressed by typical Americans in earlier Public Agenda studies, small percentages of education professors feel maintaining discipline and order in the classroom (37%), stressing grammar as well as correct spelling and punctuation (19%), and expecting students to be on time and polite (12%) are "absolutely essential" qualities to impart to prospective teachers.

Professors of education offer an alternative set of priorities which translate into highly evolved expectations for K-12 teachers. Education professors overwhelmingly consider it "absolutely essential" to convey to prospective teachers the importance of lifelong learning (84%), teaching students to be active learners (82%), and having high expectations of all their students (72%). Their emphasis on a love of learning leads them to downplay more traditional educational practices. Fifty-nine percent, for example, think academic sanctions such as the threat of flunking or being held back are not important in motivating kids to learn. Six in ten (61%) believe when a public school teacher faces a disruptive class it probably means the teacher has failed to make lessons engaging enough.

"Professors of education have a particular vision of what teaching should be -- one that has some appealing features," said Deborah Wadsworth, Executive Director of Public Agenda. "But the disconnect between what the professors want and what most parents, teachers, business leaders and students say they need is often staggering. Their prescriptions for the public schools may appear to many Americans to be a type of rarified blindness given the public's concerns about school safety and discipline, and whether high school graduates have even basic skills," added Wadsworth.


Process Over Content

The process of learning is more important to education professors than whether or not students absorb specific knowledge. Nearly 9 in 10 (86%) say when K-12 teachers assign math or history questions, it is more important for kids to struggle with the process of finding the right answers than knowing the right answer. "We have for so many years said to kids 'What's 7+5?' as if that was the important thing. The question we should be asking is 'Give me as many questions whose answer is 12...,'" said a Chicago professor who was interviewed for this study.

Their focus on how to learn prompts a greater reliance on tools and less on teaching specific facts. For example, 57% think the use of calculators from the start will improve children's problem-solving skills. Only 10% of the general public, however, and 23% of public school teachers, agree. And only one-third of the professors (33%) would require students to know the names and geographic locations of the 50 states before getting a diploma. "Why should they know that?" a Los Angeles professor asked. "They need to know how to find out where they are. When I need to know that, I can go look it up. That's the important piece, and here is what's hard to get parents to understand."

yesirree, bob

It's damned hard to get parents to understand that.

It's damned hard to get parents to understand that because it is cracked.

I say that as a person from Illinois who once contemplated purchasing a t-shirt bearing the legend "University of Iowa, Idaho City, Ohio."

Full text of the report here (pdf file)



Different Drummers
the struggle
classroom discipline
portrait of a heterogeneous classroom

Up the administration

I’m new here as a writer (though I’m a longtime reader), and would like to thank Catherine for allowing me to post anonymously when I feel I have something to say. I work in the education industry, and blogging under cover gives me an opportunity to share thoughts and observations that I otherwise could not share.

I’d like to start my blogging career here by pointing to an issue that doesn’t seem to get much play. And that’s the role of school leadership in the problems we see today.

Teachers, and policies related to teaching, seem to get all the attention. There’s a lot of talk about teaching methods, certification, retention, unions, class sizes, and more. And certainly those are important issues: I’m we’ll aware of the research showing what effect a good teacher can have on the life of a child (or on the flip side, the effect a bad teacher can have).

But in all this talk about what happens in the classrooms, it really seems as if school leadership gets to cop a walk. We’re all talking about the crisis in teaching and learning, but no one’s talking about the crisis in leadership, which could absolutely have an impact on teaching practices and on many other factors involved in good schooling.

Principals have the authority to direct resources (staff, funds, and other resources) as they see fit. They set expectations and lay out the ways in which teachers will operate. If there are problems in education today, I believe that school leadership is just as responsible for them as are teachers, and I’d personally say that the school leaders are more responsible for any other group.

Do school leaders share this point of view? Oh lord no.

A few weeks ago I attended a conference for the state chapter of a national school leadership association. Despite all the problems the rest of us see in public education, this group of school and district leaders clearly felt that they had the bull by the horns: they were the solution, not the problem, and they were doing a pretty darn good job of things in their own eyes. And things would be just perfect if just a few things would happen, like eliminating NCLB or giving them a “better” (assumedly richer) group of students to work with.

It’s frightening to hear the leader of any organization saying that things are actually really good in the face of substantial evidence to the contrary, and also believing that anything that’s not good is out of their hands. To see that this thinking isn’t isolated, but is instead the norm, is alarming indeed.

I did some checking after the conference to follow up on what I heard, and came across a fascinating survey report by Public Agenda titled “The Insiders: How Principals and Superintendents See Public Education Today.” Here’s the blurb from the site:

The fourth in a series of Reality Check reports finds that most public school superintendents -– and principals to a lesser extent -– think local schools are already in pretty good shape. In fact, more than half of the nation's superintendents consider local schools to be "excellent." Most superintendents (77%) and principals (79%) say low academic standards are not a serious problem where they work. Superintendents are substantially less likely than classroom teachers to believe that too many students get passed through the system without learning. While 62 percent of teachers say this is a "very" or "somewhat serious" problem in local schools, just 27 percent of superintendents say the same.

So yes, I think it’s worth talking about effective teaching methods and materials, and also talking about how we can get individual teachers to change their ways for the better. But until we address the leadership issue, from which many of these problems originate, we’re going to be treating the symptoms and not the real problem.

A school survey that asks about tutoring

The problem of schools failing to account for the effects of outside tutoring when boasting about their test scores has frequently been brought up on KTM, and it came up again in the comments section of this post.

Well, the Bridgewater-Raritan school district in New Jersey has a survey out that asks several questions about outside tutoring. Here are some:

11. Does your child receive any form of tutoring extra help in math by someone other than a family member?

12. Why do you get extra help in math? a) My child is doing fine in math, but I want her/him to do even better. b) My child has difficulty with math and needs extra help. c) I’m dissatisfied with the math curriculum, and the tutoring makes up for that.

(Question 12 is important in order to learn if tutoring is being used primarily to help kids to gain an edge in competitive environments, as many schools claim.)

13. What type of tutoring/extra help do you utilize? a) Kumon, Huntington Learning Center, Sylvan Learning Center, or other professional tutoring service. b) Paid private tutor c) Extra help from classroom teacher

(In some school districts, it might be advisable to add a fourth option for question 13: Paid private tutoring from teachers in my child’s school. I was amazed to learn that this occurs; it doesn’t seem ethical.)

15. About how much does it cost you a month?

16. Does the tutor provide different techniques and strategies than those your child is learning in class?

Parents who post on this B-R forum are dissatisfied with their school’s choice of Everyday Math. This survey seems like it will capture important tutoring information for them. I would love to have my school send out something similar.

survey, if I'm lucky

Ed, who may or may not be living in the same house I am living in, came upstairs from his office today and announced today that it is possible to post surveys online!

An outfit called Survey Monkey will do it for you free!

(The reason I take this as evidence that the Ed who is sitting in the family room at this moment is an imposter is the fact that, back in Oct or Nov, he signed a Survey Monkey survey asking the superintendent to hold a district-wide meeting to discuss the math curriculum. That was after he signed the Survey Monkey survey on parent information night.)^*

Anyway, I think I've posted a survey.

Of course, if people don't vote the way I want them to vote, I'll (possibly) just ignore them and do what I want to do anyway.

I should run for School Board.

JUST KIDDING!

I'M KIDDING!

IT'S A JOKE!

^* correction: He didn't sign a Survey Monkey survey. He signed an online petition.