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Quality of Education
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Section 8

School Improvement/School Reform

A Nation at Risk
Question 1: Have you heard or read anything about the recent report of the President's National Commission on excellence in Education? (Asked in: 1983.)
[Code: 610-QuaSA-1]

Question 2: In general, do you agree or disagree with the report's conclusions? (Asked in: 1983.)
[Code: 611-QuaSA-2]

Question 3: The Commission concluded that the quality of education in the U.S. public schools is only fair and not improving. Do you agree with this opinion or disagree? (Asked in: 1983.)
[Code: 612-QuaSA-3]

Educational Innovation
Question 4: Do you feel that the local public schools are not interested enough in trying new ways and methods or are they too ready to try new ideas? (Asked in: 1970, 1974.)
[Code: 613-QuaSE-4]

Factors Related to Quality
Question 5: Here are some factors that are sometimes mentioned to explain why the public schools in some places are better than those in others. As I read off each one, would you tell me whether you think that factor is very important, quite important, not very important, or not at all important in determining the quality of the local public schools? Amount of support from parents of students in the local public schools; Amount of money spent on the local public schools; Kinds of students attending the local public schools. (Asked in: 1997.)
[Code: 614-QuaSF-5]

School Improvement
Question 6: Which of these ways do you think would do most to improve the quality of public school education overall? Devote more attention to teaching of basic skills; Enforce stricter discipline; Meet individual needs of students; Improve parent/school relations; Emphasize moral development; Emphasize career education and development of salable skills; Provide opportunities for teachers to keep up to date regarding new methods; Raise academic standards; Raise teachers' salaries; Increase amount of homework; Build new buildings; Lower age for compulsory attendance; None; Don't know/no answer. (Asked in: 1976.)
[Code: 622-QuaSI-6]

Question 7: What, if anything, do you think the public schools in this community should be doing that they are not doing now? More strict discipline; Better teachers; Back to basics; More parental involvement; Higher scholastic standards; More education about health hazards; More emphasis on careers. (Asked in: 1978.)
[Code: 621-QuaSI-7]

Question 8: Here are a number of things which may have a good effect on the education students receive in the public schools of this community. Will you choose four (from a list of 14 suggestions) which you think are particularly important. Well-educated teachers and principals; Emphasis on basics such as reading, writing, computation; Teachers and principals personally interested in progress of students; Good parent/teacher relationships; Careful check on student progress and effort; An orderly but not rigid atmosphere; Useful materials and adequate supplies; Small classes; Special classes for handicapped students; High goals and expectations on part of students; Wide variety of vocational courses ; Advanced classes for the gifted; Extracurricular activities; Successful athletic teams. (Asked in: 1980.)
[Code: 620-QuaSI-8]

Question 9: In order to improve public education in America, some people think the focus should be on reforming the existing public school system. Others believe the focus should be on finding an alternative to the existing public school system. Which approach do you think is preferable -- reforming the existing public school system or finding an alternative to the existing public school system? (Asked in: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.)
[Code: 823-QuaSI-9]

Question 10: In some communities that have a large percentage of low-performing public school students, the mayors have taken control of the entire public school system to attempt to correct the situation. If the public schools in your community had a large percentage of low-performing students, would you favor or oppose having the mayor take control of the schools? (Asked in: 2006, 2007.)
[Code: 830-QuaSI-10]

Measuring Effectiveness
Question 11: How important do you think each of the following is for measuring the effectiveness of the public schools in your community? Would you say very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important? Percentage of students who graduate from high school; Percentage of high school graduates who practice good citizenship; Percentage of high school graduates who go on to college or junior college; Percentage who graduate from college or junior college; Percentage of graduates who get jobs after completing high school; Scores that students receive on standardized tests. (Asked in: 1998, 2015.)
[Code: 615-QuaSM-11]

Question 12: One way to measure a school's performance is to base it on the percentage of students passing the test mandated by the state at the end of the school year. Another way is to measure the improvement students in the school make during the year. In your opinion, which is the best way to measure the school's performance -- the percentage passing the test or the improvement shown by the students? (Asked in: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.)
[Code: 822-QuaSM-12]

Progress of Students
Question 13: Compared to five years ago, would you say that student achievement in the local public schools has improved, gotten worse, or stayed about the same for students with above-average ability? (Asked in: 1987.)
[Code: 616-QuaSP-13]

Question 14: Compared to five years ago, would you say that student achievement in the local public schools has improved, gotten worse, or stayed about the same for students with average ability? (Asked in: 1987.)
[Code: 617-QuaSP-14]

Question 15: Compared to five years ago, would you say that student achievement in the local schools has improved, gotten worse, or stayed about the same for students with below-average ability? (Asked in: 1987.)
[Code: 618-QuaSP-15]

Reform Existing System or Vouchers
Question 16: Which one of these two plans would you prefer -- improving and strengthening the existing public schools or providing vouchers for parents to use in selecting and paying for private and/or church-related schools? (Asked in: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.)
[Code: 619-QuaSR-16]

School Improvement/School Reform: Effectiveness of Education
Question 17: As I read off each of the following statements, would you tell me whether you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with that statement? (Asked in: 2007.)
[Code: 846-QuaSE-17]

Question 18: Overall, do you think public schools in America are moving on the right track or the wrong track in terms of providing quality education? (Asked in: 2009.)
[Code: 883-QuaRT-18]

Question 19: I am going to read several factors. For each, tell me how important you think that factor is in keeping public schools moving on the right track? (Asked in: 2009.)
[Code: 884-QuaRT-19]

Question 20: Which, if any, of the following factors do you believe keep public schools in your community from moving on the right track? (Asked in: 2009.)
[Code: 885-QuaRT-20]

Question 21: Which, if any, of the following factors do you believe keep public schools in your community from moving on the right track? (Asked in: 2010.)
[Code: 890-QuaRT-21]

Question 22: There are many ideas about how to improve the quality of public schools. How important are the following ideas for improving public schools in your community? Quality of the teachers. Expectations for what students should learn. Effectiveness of the principals. How much money the schools have to spend. Using test to measure what students have learned. (Asked in: 2015.) [Code: 993-Qua8SI-22] Online poll

Question 23: If you had to choose, do you think it's better for the public schools in your community to: Have larger classes but with more enrichment and learning support services or have smaller classes but with less enrichment and learning support services? Have more honors or advanced academic classes or have more career-technical or skills-based classes? Have more traditional teaching and less use of technology or have more use of technology and less traditional teaching? Raise teachers' salaries or hire more teachers? (Asked in: 2016.) [Code: 1016-Qua8SP-23] Phone poll

Question 24: Thinking about all public schools in general, what do you think is the best approach for dealing with a public school that has been failing for a number of years -- close it down or keep it open and try to improve it? (Asked in: 2016.) [Code: 1017-Qua8FX-24] Phone poll

Question 25: If a failing public school is kept open, which of these do you think is the best approach -- replace its administrators and faculty or keep its administrators and faculty and spend more on its resources and support staff? (Asked in: 2016.) [Code: 1018-Qua8FX-25] Phone poll

Question 26: If a failing public school is closed, which of these do you think is the best approach -- open a new school in its place or send the students to other schools in the area? (Asked in: 2016.) [Code: 1019-Qua8FX-26] Phone poll

Importance of factors
Question 27: For each item I name, please tell me how important it is in school quality -- extremely important, very important, somewhat important, not so important, or not important at all: (a) How well students do on standardized tests; (b) How well the school helps students learn skills like being cooperative, respectful of others, and persistent at solving problems; (c) Having advanced academic classes; (d) Having art and music classes; (e) Having extracurricular activities; (f) Having technology and engineering classes to help students prepare for careers in those fields. (Asked in: 2017.)
[Code: 1034-Qua8MX-27]

Importance of factors
Question 28: As far as you are aware, how good a job does your state do when it evaluates the quality of public schools in your community -- does it do this very well, somewhat well, somewhat poorly, or very poorly? (Asked in: 2017.)
[Code: 1035-Qua8MX-28]

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Last modified July 3, 2018
k_q_quality_8.htm