Dive Brief:
- Phi Delta Kappa International’s 48th annual public poll about education revealed a lack of consensus over the main role of public education, with 45% of respondents saying it is meant to prepare students academically, 26% saying to prepare students for citizenship and 25% to prepare students for work.
- In announcing the poll results, PDK reported only 14% of respondents think failing schools should be closed, and 62% said it is better to replace administrators and teachers in schools that are kept open rather than giving the schools more resources and support staff.
- Respondents identified lack of funding as the key problem facing schools for the 15th year in a row, and just more than half of respondents support raising property taxes to improve schools, though there is little agreement about how that money should be used by schools.
Dive Insight:
The PDK poll also asked adults whether they approved of allowing public school parents to opt their children out of standardized tests. Overall, 59% of respondents were opposed, but among black respondents, that portion rose to 67%. Researchers at Columbia University’s Teachers College recently surveyed opt-out activists, finding they were primarily white.
Critics of the movement have said those most negatively impacted by high opt-out rates are black and Latino students who suffer the most when schoolwide or districtwide scores are invalidated. One of the key reasons for annual standardized tests is to be able to track student progress and disaggregate the results by subgroups. Comparisons, however, are only valid if there is enough data.
The federal government has required districts to test 95% of students, but in New York State, more than one in five students did not take state tests last year, and some schools had participation rates as low as 10%. If the opt-out movement continues to gain steam, administrators may face significant consequences.