Follow AAE on:
Subscribe to RSS Feed:
| Poll: Americans Warming to Education Reforms |
| posted by: Alix | November 10, 2011, 09:00 PM |
|
As reported by AAE, a poll released in late summer by Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup highlighted some interesting facts about the changing public perceptions regarding teacher unions. While clearly the American people are seeing the growing disconnect between teachers and unions as evidenced by this poll, the typical American voter is also becoming more and more informed about public education reform and the need for change in our struggling system. Entitled, Public Attitudes toward Public Schools, the poll results underscore a growing momentum behind efforts to push specific education reform policies including, school choice, charter schools, and robust teacher evaluations. The one-size-fits-all model for schools and instruction is losing significant support among American voters as the vast majority of those polled supporting measures to provide teachers more flexibility. According to Joe Nathan, the Director of the Center for School Change at Macalester College, "The theme of choice, for teachers and parents, is something that resonates with the public." Just as most poll respondents want teachers to be free to select materials and strategies, another 74% support allowing families to choose which public schools in the community the students attend, regardless of where they live. Charter schools also received overwhelming and unprecedented support in the latest poll. The data concludes that the public approval of charter schools is at a record high since the group began tracking opinions over ten years ago, with young and conservative Americans among the strongest supporters. With support increasing by 10% since 2007 alone, poll respondents are embracing the charter school philosophy in facilitating innovative, non-union environments. With regard to effective teaching, American opinions severely undercut widely held union positions. For example, poll respondents believe that teacher salaries should be based on performance, evaluations, education level, and experience, instead of the union model, which is based almost exclusively on seniority. Further, a combined 87% of Americans believe that principal evaluations should be a very important or somewhat important factor when determining a teacher's salary. The poll also revealed that Americans believe those evaluations are equally important when determining teacher layoffs and are strongly opposed to LIFO, or last in, first out. More than half of those who responded also support the release of standardized test scores to the public, meaning that state lawmakers in states like Ohio and Indiana who are moving toward a performance-based system are beginning to gain public support. The poll's results align well with the 2011 AAE membership survey, particularly with the regard to school choice and LIFO. Interestingly, as both teachers and American voters are catching on to the need for commonsense reform, the positions of the teachers unions are becoming even further off base. What do you think about the poll results? Do they reflect your opinions? Comment below.
email to friend
Print
comment
Permalink
Comments (0)
 |
Sign up for AAE Emails
Blogroll
- American Board (ABCTE)
- Edspresso (CER)
- Eduwonk
- Flypaper (Fordham)
- Intercepts (Mike Antonucci)
- Jay Greene
- Joanne Jacobs
- Joe Williams (Democrats for Education Reform)
- National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
- Politics K-12 (EdWeek)
- Road to Teaching
- Teacher Beat (EdWeek)
- InformED (AIR)
- This Week in Education
