What happens when people love their local schools but criticize education on a national level? How can parents, educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders reconcile these disparate perceptions and make positive reforms?
Public perception of schools and the education situation vary depending on individuals' relationships with schools. In other words, "People like the schools they know," says Bill Bushaw, executive director of Phi Delta Kappa International.
The results of the 40th Annual Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools appear to support that theory. Respondents were asked to grade the schools within their community as well as the nation's schools. Parents were also asked to grade the school their oldest child attends. PDK/Gallup reports that the results of the 2008 poll show Americans continue to hold their local schools in positive regard, with 46 percent giving their area schools a grade of AorB. The national picture, however, is not so rose-colored. Only 22 percent of respondents rate the nation's schools an A or B.
"It's not unusual, the disparity between 'I like the schools in my community, but I don't like the nation's schools,'" explains Bushaw. "It's the same thing that applies to, 'I like my Congress person, but I don't like Congress.'" Similar sentiments abound in the 2008 State of Our Nation's Youth report by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. Teens polled were pessimistic about the fate of the nation but optimistic about their own futures.
According to the PDK/Gallup poll, parents tend to have a favorable opinion of the school attended by their oldest child. The poll shows 72 percent of parents give their child's school an AorB, marking the highest recorded approval rating in 15 years. These results match anecdotal and statistical data that show parents generally see their child's school as better and more rigorous than the school they attended. In particular, Public Agenda's Reality Check 2006: Issue 1reported most Americans think school today is better (61 percent) and harder (65 percent) than it was when they were students. But, in reality, are schools any more rigorous than in previous years?
Experts warn that this public perception can be hazardous and should be recalibrated to the higher demands and expectations today's students face in a shifting global economy. Business leaders and content experts agree that school curriculum must be more rigorous to give students a chance in a constantly evolving market. "Unless we prepare people for a much higher level of functioning," says William Habermehl, superintendent for Orange County, Calif., "the jobs are going to be gone or they're going to get a low-paying job. Parents want something better for their children, but you've got to confront [parents] with, What are they going to do if [their child doesn't] have the skill and preparation to go on?"
In his commentary on the 2008 PDK/Gallup Poll results, Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, noted the changing economy requires a different kind of learning than students' parents experienced. Changes needed to make this difference a reality are hampered by the public's relative satisfaction with their community schools.
Claus Von Zastrow, executive director of the Learning First Alliance, disagrees with Tucker's sentiment that public satisfaction necessarily hamstrings positive reforms. "I think the constant talk of urgency tends to alienate people and make them less engaged and withdraw from public schools," says Von Zastrow. "When we say 'the public just doesn't get it,' we're insulting the people that have a direct stake in their schools," he warns. "We need to capitalize on positive opinions of community schools and vault that into higher expectations at the local level and for schools in general."
Listening to Local Sentiments
When the public supports local schools but condemns the nation's schools, policymakers may have a hard time keeping up. "The underlying problem," says Bushaw, "[is] politicians look at the report card for the nation's schools and create policy based on that. And, oftentimes, the policy tends to be a bit more punitive—focusing on fixing schools and the name and shame and those kinds of things. When those policies permeate their way down to the local schools, these same policymakers are blindsided because they're not accepted by the people who vote for them because of the disparity between what people say of the nation's schools and what people say about their community schools."
Bushaw argues that while the media continues to feed public hysteria, most Americans don't want to see education policies that are overly punitive or rigid. "America has great concern about the state of the nation's schools as reported in the media, but don't create policy based on that. [We should] create policy that's supportive of Americans' opinions of their local schools." As an example, Bushaw offers the phenomenon of Americans turning away from large-scale standardized tests. "Teacher observations trump standardized tests in credibility, and that's been a movement over the last eight years." Parents want all schools to improve, but they often disagree with punitive measures that move too far from sound educational practices.
Pulling Parents into Participation
Although policymakers can learn by listening and building on what's working in local schools, how do local schools get adults in the community—particularly parents—to rally behind necessary reforms, especially if parents generally believe things are OK?
District of Columbia Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee learned this lesson firsthand during the 2007–08 school year, when she proposed closing 23 beloved community schools. Before the closing of one of these schools, Rhee was talking to community members who urged her not to close the school. They explained that they loved the school; the principal had been there 37 years; and the school was doing great. "I was thinking to myself: This is not a great school," said Rhee, speaking to the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association in Chicago this April. "Nine percent of the kids at this school are proficient or advanced. What it made me realize is that we have a job to do."
Rhee realized that she needed to gain buy-in from parents, students, and other stakeholders by communicating openly and honestly about the planned school closings and proposed reforms. "It is incumbent upon us as a district to be reaching out to parents," said Rhee, "to be educating and informing them better, to be taking the data to them to say, 'Look, if your child is not operating at grade level by 3rd grade, the chances that [he or she will] ever be on grade level are slim to none.'"
Start Locally to Build Globally
Polls like those from PDK/Gallup and Public Agenda portray a public that cares and is thoughtful about the future of public education. It's up to school leaders to capitalize on the strengths of an informed citizenry. A recent study from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of Research Findings, details the beneficial effect of purposeful community engagement and mobilization around issues of teacher quality and student achievement.
Hugh Price, Brookings Fellow and author of the ASCD book Mobilizing the Community to Help Students Succeed, reflects that "For a lot of parents of kids who are in most need of schools that are reformed, there's an engagement gap that's not bred of satisfaction, but bred of insecurity or indifference, or not having enough political clout to take on a big system, and not having the knowledge to take on a big bureaucracy."
It's up to political leaders to build on the capacity of what local schools are doing well and to listen to what the public says about the future of education. PDK/Gallup survey coauthor and Executive Director Emeritus Lowell Rose says school reform proposals "should be built on the assumption that people like the schools they have." Likewise, the public wants policymakers to turn to those closest to schools when crafting reforms. "We asked a new question this year," Bushaw shares. "'Who should the next president turn to for advice on education?' Seventy-seven percent of Americans said education leaders, as opposed to political and business leaders. That's an overwhelming response—it surprised us."
