Public Schools Get Lower Grades than the Post Office?

The valuable Joann Jacobs blog recently pointed to the 2008 Eduction Nex-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion report showing that Americans give the public schools a not-so-respectable C on performance. Although the nationwide survey of 2,500 adults and an oversample of 700 public teachers reveals "an abiding commitment to public education," this might hurt.

Local public schools receive lower marks than they did a year ago. More significantly, perhaps, survey respondents claim that their local post offices and police forces outperform their local schools.

The survey contains an abundance of good information. For example,

Though support for No Child Left Behind is dwindling, Americans continue to believe that schools should be held accountable through national standards and tests. No less than
69 percent ofthe public think the federal government should set standards for the country and administer tests in math, science,and reading. (Page 17)

As they did in 2007, a plurality of the overall public and every subgroup continue to support charter schools.Indeed, supporters of charter schools outnumber opponents more
than two to one.The modal response, however,continues to be?neither support nor oppose.�� (Page 20)

The schools seem to be doing better than the nation.

A slight majority of those surveyed, nonetheless, think that the public schools in their community are improving. Fifty-six percent ofthe public say that the local public schools
are heading in the right direction,compared to 44 percent who believe they are on the wrong track.In this respect, Americans? views of the nation?s education system appear to be considerably more optimistic than their views about the affairs ofthe
nation more generally.When Gallup,NBC and the Wall Street Journal,and the Associated Press used the same language to ask Americans about the direction ofthe nation as a whole
while our survey was in the field,less than one-quarter reported that it is on the right track achievement... (Page 16)

Most of that seems to square with perceptions of Washington schools. The national souring on NCLB has not eroded support for accountability. Neither has Washingtonians' growing apprehension about the WASL diminished enthusiasm for standards. The challenge, of course, is that its easier to embrace accountability and standards in the abstract than it is to agree on a particular set of criteria against which to judge. Tossing NCLB and the WASL in hopes of coming up with something better sometime in the future seems self-defeating.

For an excellent account of California's unrealized Scharzeneggerian education reform, see No Country for Strong Men. Daniel Weintraub documents how caution, budget woes, and the lack of a comprehensive and coherent reform vision doomed the governor's plans for major improvements in that state's public schools.

And, to end this on a positive note, George Will writes today of a successful charter school in Oakland, California.