Negative public perception of schools nationally impacts the teaching profession in direct and indirect ways. This perception has depressed the number of students in teacher preparation programs at universities. Indirectly, public perception affects teacher working conditions, compensation, and morale. Education advocates and researchers talk…

Preparing students to enter the workforce and attracting and retaining good teachers are Americans' top educational priorities for the next administration in Washington, regardless of who wins the upcoming presidential election, the 2024 PDK Poll finds. While eight in 10 or more Americans pick those two items as priorities, other policy priorities…

Eminent historian David Labaree describes a gradual shift, over the last two centuries, in Americans' beliefs and attitudes about the goals of public education. At its founding, our school system was designed mainly to serve the public good, conceived at the time as an effort to create a unified citizenry. By the early 20th century, the schools…

Although current accountability systems have received a great deal of criticism for being too narrow and too focused on sanctions, relatively little concern has been directed at a related problem: the failure of accountability systems to meaningfully engage the public. Derek Gottlieb and Jack Schneider suggest that a better system would consider…

Conventional wisdom suggests that evangelical Christians, often among the most vocal advocates of school choice efforts in the U.S., are promoting choice out of a sense of frustration with public schools and perceived bias against religion. Research by Marilyn Anderson Rhames, however, suggests that evangelicals are no more concerned about…

The 2020 PDK Poll of the Public's Attitude Toward the Public Schools finds that more than half of adults consider public education highly important in their choice for president. And regardless of political party, most Americans agree that the administration in Washington should focus on attracting and retaining good teachers to the profession and…

Educators visit India to spread expertise and learn a more important lesson in community. They hadn't anticipated the quiet successes in the schools and classrooms they visited, causing them nearly overnight to switch from being experts to novices. No matter the socioeconomic status of the school, most striking was the high value placed on…

A former English teacher becomes a Teacher Academy instructor in a high school career and technical education department and learns of the bias against CTE [career-technical education] programs and students, which are stigmatized for supposedly lacking rigor and strong students. Such perceptions are outmoded, the author says, because CTE is much…

The columnist weighs in on the most recent PDK/Gallup poll. The real value of the poll, the author says, comes from looking at each response and then thinking about the connective tissue between and among them. The poll's 47-year history adds yet another layer of rich context. Uniquely, the poll provides not a snapshot of public opinion, rather an…

Americans want higher professional requirements for teachers and believe teacher pay is too low, but they don't like tenure, according to the newest PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes To­ward the Public Schools. Public school parents trust and have confidence in the nation's teachers, and they said communicating with their child's teacher…

In praise of isolation: Who says professional learning communities (PLCs) are a better way? The author says the PLC trend is but the latest education fad that is not helping teachers or students. PLCs, says the author, represents an administrative, clinical ideal of collaboration. He blames legions of high-paid consultants, and says that all along…

The 2018 PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools finds that Americans trust and support teachers, but they draw the line at wanting their own children to join a profession they see as undervalued and low-paid. An overwhelming 78% of public school parents say they would support teachers in their community if they went on strike…

Why school? The 48th Annual PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools included questions about the purpose of schooling, standards, homework, school funding, and parents' relationships with their schools. The 2016 poll, which was conducted by Langer Research Associates, was based on a telephone poll of 1,221 adults during April…

In this, the second installment of a two-part report of the 46th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, the report unveils what Americans are thinking about public schools--in particular their views of teachers and the classrooms where they work. Some findings were surprising, others were not. For example,…

This article presents an interview with Leon Botstein, longtime president of Bard College, as well as music director and conductor of the American and Jerusalem symphony orchestras. Botstein talks about his book entitled "Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture" and his views about teens and high schools in America.…