A Snapshot of Thought about Public Schools

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

​For 49 year, PDK International has been polling the American public regarding their attitudes towards the public schools.  Yesterday I attended an event at the National Press Club at which the CEO PDK International (Joshua Starr)  gave an overview of the poll results.  Following the presentation, there was a panel discussion about the implications of the findings for education stakeholders.

We all know too well that poll results can be misleading or incorrect, so we must have a healthy sense of skepticism around  any findings.  However, the PDK poll on education does follow a rigorous methodological process.  In all, the results I'll share here are drawn from a sample size of 1,588 adults in the national population.  There is a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 to 5 percentage points, depending on which sub-population was sampled.  There is public access to the full national report. 

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The thesis developed from the poll results is that academic achievement isn’t the only mission of public education.  Under this thesis, the following key findings were shared:

• There is strong public support for the role of public schools in preparing students for life after high school. 82% of respondents think public schools should offer job or career skill classes, with 51% of respondents indicating that public schools should offer more job/career skills classes than they currently do.   

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

• According to the PDK poll, there is little public support for the use of public money (vouchers) to support private schools.  52% of respondents oppose use of vouchers to choose private school at public expense.  Interestingly, after hearing competing arguments around the issue, the percent opposed increased to 67%.  This finding has been widely criticized by advocates of school voucher systems, such as "Real Clear Education."  It is not surprising the the response to the  questions around public funding of private school were found to differ significantly between people associated with different political parties. 

Photo from NEA: http://neatoday.org/2017/08/29/2017-pdk-poll-resuts/

• People value diversity in public schools; with 73% of respondents indicating that a racially and ethnically diverse student body is extremely or somewhat important for a school and 72% of respondents indicating that economic diversity is extremely or somewhat important for a school.  However, only 25% of respondents would accept a longer commute in order to get to a more diverse school.

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

• There is strong public favor for schools to provide “wraparound” support for children and are justified in seeking additional public funding to pay for them.  Specifically, the public support a school providing after-school programs (92%), mental health support (87%), healthcare (79%) and dental services (65%).  

Photo from NYC.gov (community schools)

• To the public, the most important factor in school quality is interpersonal skills such as cooperation, respect and problem solving.  Offering technology and engineering classes was second and advanced academic classes third.  My school has made a collective effort around interpersonal skills recently and I am glad to see that this effort is viewed as an important aspect of a schools offering to students.   It was interesting to hear that people want interpersonal skills to be measured and for schools to be held accountable for it, and that there is little confidence in our ability to measure  interpersonal skills with standardized tests. 

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

• People give their local schools higher “grades” than those in the nation as a whole. 71% of respondents would give their child’s public school an A or B grade but only 24% of respondents would give the same grades to the Nation’s schools as a whole.   Interestingly, in the 2017 poll there were the highest percent of schools graded as earning an "A" since 1974.

Image from PDK poll http://pdkpoll.org/results/grading-the-public-schools

Even though local public schools earned high grades, if cost and location of a school were not an issue, only 30% of respondents would choose to send their child to public school.  I personally found this pretty  sad.

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

Interestingly, when the question is asked only to parents of public school student, the preference for public schools improved.  

Image from PDK poll http://pdkpoll.org/results/using-public-money-to-support-private-schools

• The public thinks that the biggest problem facing community schools is lack of funding (22%).  Standards (9%) and lack of good teachers (7%) were also noted as problems for schools.  

Image from PDK poll http://pdkpoll.org/results/grading-the-public-schools

• A majority (83%) of public school parents polled have an expectation that children will go to college after high school.  This result was especially interesting for me, teaching in a school in which there is a near 100% expectation for college and students don't seem to even understand that going to college is actually a choice.

Image from PDK poll http://pdkpoll.org/results/expecting-children-to-attend-college

Photo @LLAMcNabb via Twitter

After the poll results were shared there was a interesting panel discussion about the implications of the information. There was a informative civil discourse between advocates from different perspectives (listed from left to right as seated for the discussion):

• Leslie Fenwick, professor and dean emerita, Howard University School of Education
• Rick Kahlenberg, senior fellow, The Century Foundation
• Antwan Wilson, chancellor of DC Public Schools
• Tamir Harper, Educators Rising national student vice president​

• Jeanne Allen, founder & CEO, Center for Education Reform

​Topics that were discussed included the role of charter schools, school choice reform efforts, the need and importance of diversity within the teaching workforce, and the importance of focusing on the child in the center of all of this discussion.  There were many interesting and informative comments, however for the sake of time I will share one personal highlight from each of the panelist:

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Leslie Fenwick, professor and dean emerita, Howard University School of Education
Dean Fenwick commented that black parents are less satisfied than white parents with public schools.  ​She commented that many students of color live in "education deserts" and that charter schools may be the "shelter in the storm" for families.  I found her comment that the future majority in the United States (people of color) are currently the ones most suffering from being underfunded and under staffed by qualified teachers.  ​

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

​Rick Kahlenberg, senior fellow, The Century Foundation​
Mr. Kahlenberg  was heartened to know that Americans want schools to focus on broad educational goals, including interpersonal skills.  He thinks the poll results show a clear public support for public schools.  He commented that our nation should not, "outsource education to schools that don't have a core mission of supporting democracy."    

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

​Antwan Wilson, chancellor of DC Public Schools​
I found Chancellor Wilson  to be a powerful voice for the need to focus on the whole child.  He said, "Academics are really important and LOVE is really important in schools."  I think his comment is important for people to hear, especially since so many teacher enter the profession because they love kids and want to make a difference on individual kids lives.  What's more, it is well established in educational research that kids will learn better from teachers they know care about them as individuals.  "Our students need to FEEL the love we have for them."  Love that. 

​Tamir Harper, Educators Rising national student vice president​
Mr. Harper is a high school senior and future teacher.  Can I just say that I wish more students at my school were considering a career in education?  Mr. Harper spoke to the need to diversify the teacher workforce, stating that he didn't have a teacher of color until 9th grade and until after he went to school outside his neighborhood.  His comment is not surprising, given that only 2% of nation's educators are black males and only 40% of our schools have any teachers of color on staff. 

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

Jeanne Allen, founder & CEO, Center for Education Reform
I had the strongest reaction to the comments of Ms. Allen, an advocate for the parent choice/ school voucher movement.  She seemed to imply that teaching and schools haven't changed for a hundred years.  I think she is wrong on that point.  Educational research and pedagogical advancements have changed the way schools educate young people. Henry Ford would not understand the value of many of the instructional approaches used in my classroom and those classrooms of nearly all of the teachers with which I interact.  I'm sure Mr. Ford would have serious questions about why my students are dancing in class, why students are working together to problem solve without the teacher and why no textbooks are being used in the classroom.  That said, Ms. Allen made a very good point when she stated that "information is no longer a commodity," suggesting a reason why many feel that interpersonal skills are so valued in schools. 

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

The presentation session finished with a philosophical question, raised by PDK International CEO Joshua Starr.  He asked, "Is education a private commodity or a public good?"

Photo @pdkintl via Twitter

The question is posed to force a dichotomy in the answer.  Me or us?  The individual or the community?  Of course, the answer can be both.  In my opinion, K-12 education is about preparing an individual for life beyond high school (college and/or jobs) but also about ensuring our citizenship is educated and that our democracy works for the service of all.