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August 28, 2007
Double vision on how the public sees No Child Left Behind?
Just as sales and Labor Day are signs of getting back to school, so is the 39th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. And just as in the past 39 years, the poll found once again that the public—especially parents of school age children—give their local schools high marks. But they’re not so generous with schools outside their communities. They give them lower marks. This year’s lesson? Americans are happy with their own schools but see room for improvement for others.
How Americans rate their schools is usually the highlight of this annual report but this year BoardBuzz thinks the headliner is how the public feels about the controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) since it is up for reauthorization this year. To add to the frenzy, several other recent polls by Public Agenda, the Education Testing Service (ETS), Education Next/Hoover Institute, and the Scripps Survey Research Center have spurred headlines both decrying the public’s dismay with NCLB and touting the public’s support for this controversial law. Umm, which is it?
To help BoardBuzz make sense of these polls and find out what the public really thinks about NCLB, we asked our friends at NSBA's Center for Public Education for their analysis. What they found across each of the polls were:
The public is not very knowledgeable about NCLB.
Only half claim to know at least a ‘fair amount ‘about NCLB.
According to the ETS poll, almost half (47 percent) of those who say they know at least a ‘fair amount’ about NCLB weren’t able to associate it with its basic components—standards and assessments.
The public would like to see changes to NCLB instead of scrapped all together.
Across the polls, between 10 and 20 percent of the public do not want NCLB reauthorized.
Although some would like NCLB reauthorized as is, the vast majority of the remaining 80 to 90 percent would like to see NCLB reauthorized with either minor or major changes.
What those changes would be and to what extent the public would like the law changed is unclear.
However, the public strongly supports (82 percent) having schools judged on how much students have learned from year to year (i.e., growth models) instead of whether they were able to jump the proficiency bar or not on a single test.
Our friends at the Center went on to say the polls are unclear on how the public believes NCLB is affecting their schools, some say it is hurting, others say it is helping, while many others are not sure. This goes to show that school board members are in the unique position to educate the public on NCLB and the effects it is having on our local schools. School board members can also get their representatives in Congress to co-sponsor NSBA’s Bill to Improve NCLB—HR 648.
To read more analysis on the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll, visit the Center for Public Education. To read the press statement from NSBA Executive Director Anne Bryant, click here.
Posted August 28, 2007 3:09 PM | No Child Left Behind
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