http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/26380034.html
Confidence in Public Schools and NCLB Declining, Democrats Favored to
Fix Nation's Education Problems, Education Next/PEPG National Survey
Finds
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2008
Contact:
William G. Howell, University of Chicago, (773) 834-8319
Paul E. Peterson, Harvard University, (617) 495-8312
Martin R. West, Brown University, (401) 863-6467
STANFORD -- Public confidence in America=92s public schools and the No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) declined in 2008, according to findings
from the second annual national survey by Education Next and the
Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at Harvard
University. And, with the presidential election in high gear,
Education Next/PEPG survey respondents give a clear edge to Democrats
as the party =93more likely to improve the nation=92s schools.=94
Results show that the public is now split over NCLB: half sup****t
leaving it as is or renewing it with minimal changes; half think it
needs a major overhaul or should be done away with. The survey also
shows that Americans--especially African Americans and Hispanics--are
more confident in their local police force than in their local
schools.
Some surprising findings concern public opinion on hot-button topics:
race- and income-based school integration, mainstreaming disabled
students, and single-*** education, among others. On each issue,
Americans=92 views run counter to some current--and staunchly defended--
practices in the nation=92s public schools.
The Education Next/PEPG findings come from the most comprehensive and
detailed nationwide survey of public attitudes currently available. It
is the only survey that also includes a large sample of teachers.
NCLB and School Accountability
With the 2008 election cycle in full swing, and Democrats fixing their
attention on President Bush=92s signature education achievement, public
sup****t for NCLB is waning.
In 2007, the Education Next/PEPG survey results found that 57 percent
of the public sup****ted renewing NCLB as is or with minimal changes;
today only 50 percent of the public do.
There are comparable declines in sup****t among African Americans,
Hispanics, and whites.
Public school teachers are especially critical of NCLB with only 26
percent sup****ting renewal as is or with minimal changes. By contrast,
33 percent suggest that Congress completely overhaul the act, and
another 42 percent recommend that Congress not renew the act at all.
Confidence in Public Schools
Americans offered lower evaluations of the nation=92s schools in 2008
than the year before, according to Education Next/PEPG survey results,
with some groups registering particularly sharp declines in
confidence.
Twenty-seven percent of African Americans gave the public schools an A
or a B in 2007, but in 2008 that figure fell to 20 percent.
The share of African Americans giving schools a D or an F rose from 22
percent to 31 percent. The share of Hispanics giving schools a
similarly poor grade doubled during the period, from 16 to 32
percent.
In fact, the public has more faith in its local police force than it
does in its local schools. This is especially pronounced among African
Americans and Hispanics: Fifty-five percent of African Americans and
64 percent of Hispanics gave their police force an A or B, a
significantly higher show of sup****t than for public schools.
The 2008 Presidential Election
As sup****t for NCLB has slipped, Education Next/PEPG survey
respondents believe Democrats are =93more likely to improve the nation=92s
schools.=94
Sixty-one percent of respondents rate the Democrats=92 record on
education more favorably, and 62 percent think them more likely to
improve the public schools.
Teachers prefer the Democrats by even larger margins, as do Hispanics
and African Americans.
Democrats and Republicans both tend to favor members of their party
when it comes to education, but they do so with varying levels of
conviction. Whereas self-identified Democrats prefer their own party
on education by margins of roughly 10 to 1, Republicans do so by
margins of just 3 to 1. This marks a departure from the pattern
observed in 2000, when polls compiled by political scientist Patrick
McGuinn showed that only 44 percent of Americans thought that the
Democrats would do a better job of improving education, compared with
41 percent who favored the GOP in this area. The Education Next-PEPG
2008 findings reveal a return to the patterns seen in the 1980s and
1990s, when voters consistently favored the Democrats on education by
margins of 20 percentage points or more.
Race- and Income-based School Integration
Education Next/PEPG survey results show that 63 percent of the public
are opposed to assigning students to schools based on racial
background in order to promote school diversity, a practice banned by
the Supreme Court in 2007.
Only 16 percent say that districts =93definitely=94 or =93probably=94
shoul=
d
be allowed to take students=92 racial background into account; 21
percent of the public are unsure.
Among African Americans, only 30 percent think districts should be
allowed to take race into account.
Surprisingly, on the question of assigning students to schools based
on family income--a strategy now being considered by many districts as
an alternative to race-based policies--the opposition is even greater.
Only 13 percent sup****t the idea; 62 percent are opposed and the
remainder uncertain.
Mainstreaming Disabled Students
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that
disabled students be educated in the least restrictive environment
possible, which has resulted in mainstreaming all but the most
severely disabled students into standard classrooms. According to the
U.S. Department of Education, the percentage of disabled students
considered to be =93fully mainstreamed=94 has risen from a little more
than 30 percent in 1989 to over 55 percent in 2005.
Education Next/PEPG survey results show that neither teachers nor the
general public express much sup****t for the practice of mainstreaming
emotionally or behaviorally disabled children.
When asked whether students =93who have been diagnosed with emotional
and behavioral disabilities should be taught in regular classrooms
with other students,=94 only 25 percent of teachers, and 28 percent of
the public, favored the idea. The rest said they should be =93taught in
separate settings.=94
Single-*** Public Schools
There has been a resurgence of interest in single-*** public schools
recently. The National Association for Single *** Public Education
projects that in fall 2008, roughly 400 public schools will offer
students at least some op****tunity for single-*** education, and a
quarter of these schools will enroll only boys or girls.
According to the Education Next/PEPG survey results, 37 percent of
respondents sup****t the idea of public school districts offering
parents the option of sending their child to a single-*** school; 25
percent oppose the idea; and the remainder are undecided.
Sup****t is stronger among public school teachers--47 percent approve
the idea.
When asked whether they would consider enrolling their own child in a
single-*** school, 42 percent of all parents, 48 percent of public
school teachers, and 53 percent of African Americans say that they
would.
Home Schooling
More Americans are homeschooling than ever before--the most recent
data from the National Center for Education Statistics estimate that,
as of 2003, 1.1 million students were being educated at home, up from
850,000 in 1999.
According to the Education Next/PEPG survey results, 45 percent of
Americans re****t that they know a family that home schools a child--up
from 40 percent in 2007.
Sixty-four percent of public school teachers re****t knowing a home-
schooling family.
Online Education
Online education is growing at a fast pace: according to the North
American Council for Online Learning, enrollment in online courses in
2000 totaled 45,000. In 2007 enrollments reached 1 million, about 70
percent of which were for high school courses.
According to Education Next/PEPG survey results, more than two thirds
of American parents say they would be willing to have their children
take some of their high school courses over the Internet.
In most instances, the American public favors public funding for
online courses that high school students take for credit over the
internet. The breadth of their sup****t, however, depends on the
purpose of the online education. A majority favor funding for high
schools offering advanced courses for students online and for high
schools that offer rural students a broader range of courses online. A
plurality of 40 percent sup****t funding online cl***** that help
dropouts gain credits, while only 26 percent of the public sup****ts
funding online cl***** for home schooled students.
All results and analysis of the 2008Education Next/PEPG Survey are
available online (as well as in PDF format).
The Education Next/PEPG survey was conducted by the polling firm
Knowledge Networks between February 16 and March 15, 2008. The
findings are based on a nationally representative stratified sample of
2,500 adults (age 18 years and older) and an oversample of 700 school
teachers. The sample consists of 2,546 non-Hispanic whites, 250 non-
Hispanic blacks, and 239 Hispanics. With 3,200 total respondents, the
margin of error for responses given by the full sample in the
Education Next/PEPG survey is roughly 1 percentage point.
The survey=92s authors are William G. Howell, Paul E. Peterson, and
Martin R. West. Howell is associate professor in the Harris School of
Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Peterson is professor of
government at Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Hoover
Institution. He serves as editor-in-chief of Education Next . West is
assistant professor of education at Brown University and an executive
editor of Education Next.
Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover
Institution that is committed to looking at hard facts about school
reform. Other sponsoring institutions are the Harvard Program on
Education Policy and Governance and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.
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