A new WSJ/NBC News poll shows Americans give the nation’s public schools a GPA of 1.8 …Asked to grade the nation’s public schools using the common scale for students – A, B, C, D and F – only 2% of those surveyed gave them an A; 17% a B; almost half, 45%, said C; 25% a D, and 7% said F. – WSJ
Why the heck is this “news” and why would anyone care?
First, most people surveyed (only 700) did not have children in K-12 and almost half were more than 50 years old (pdf). Thus, most are not likely to have recent personal experience with the school system. Without children in K-12, much of what they “know” about K-12 education is probably based on media reports or discussions with neighbors, coworkers and family.
Second, the cutesy framing means that we have no way of knowing what, exactly, was being “graded”:
Students are usually given the grades A, B, C, D, and F to indicate the quality of their work. Suppose that schools were graded in the same way. Based on what you know, what grade would you give… Our nation’s public schools
Let’s see. “Quality” is being graded. And quality is measured … how, exactly? What constitutes system “quality”? Is it the graduation rate? Is it the level of math grades? Is it literacy skill? Is it college acceptance rates? And how might any one of those factors be affected by things like stability of a child’s home environment, unmet nutritional needs, a parent who is not involved in the child’s education? In other words, how might outcome be affected by factors outside of the control of the school board, principal and teachers?
Finally, why are we reporting the opinions of those who probably know next-to-nothing about how we learn? The survey shows that 1-in-3 think that “financial rewards for the best teachers would produce a big improvement.” We know from research that financial motivators do not produce “improvement” when the goal is to be creative or to deal with complexity. (See No Contest: The Case Against Competition by Alfie Kohn)
Our leaders should be talking to educators, mulling over research (there’s a lengthy body to draw from) and critically examining education systems in other countries. You know, make reasoned, informed recommendations — but only after having clearly defined the problem. Because that’s a fundamental weakness in this WSJ/NBC survey (and too many public policy “solutions”): there is no clear — and agreed upon — statement of the problem.
One final note: 700 people means that this survey has a very large margin of error. How large? We don’t know because the link (“more”) that one assumes speaks to methodology is broken (404).
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com