The Fourth Phi Delta Kappa Poll of Teachers' Attitudes toward the Public Schools.

Just how good are our public schools today? If you ask public school teachers, the picture is bright. In fact, 16% more teachers give an A or a B to their local public schools than do members of the general public. More teachers rate the nation's schools higher, too. Teachers say that members of their profession are one of public education's most important assets, and they believe that the public schools where they teach are among the best. Most say their colleagues are doing a first-rate job in the classroom, and they think teachers should have the greatest voice in deciding what is taught there. These opinions were gathered in May 1997 in the Fourth Phi Delta Kappa Poll of Teachers' Attitudes Toward the Public Schools and in follow-up focus group interviews conducted in July 1997. As was the case last year, this poll highlights similarities and differences between public school teachers' attitudes and attitudes of the public at large by asking teachers selected questions from the annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. It also examines trends in teachers' opinions by asking selected questions from the 1984 and 1989 teacher polls conducted by the Gallup Organization for Phi Delta Kappa. The findings of this year's survey are summarized below. * Teachers' perceptions of how often their students misbehave in the classroom have changed since 1984. Fewer teachers today say they frequently find that students are truant or absent, vandalize or steal school property, skip class, drink alcohol, or have sex at school. But 17% more elementary teachers think that children frequently disrupt class than in 1984, and 12% more say that children are often disobedient. Ten percent more high school teachers than in 1984 believe that their students frequently dress inappropriately or use drugs at school. * Teachers are less likely to say parents will support them if they tell parents their child is disrupting the classroom than if they tell parents their child is not working hard at school. More high school teachers (63%) than elementary teachers (48%) say parents would support them if their child were not working hard. Moreover, teachers' expectations of how much support they will get from parents fall short of what parents themselves say they would do. * The greatest percentage of teachers say public schools have improved over the past five years, but more elementary teachers (45%) than high school teachers (29%) believe schools have improved. Fewer teachers in the East than in the South, West, or Midwest think their schools have gotten better. * Teachers rate the schools where they teach highest (73% give them an A or a B) and their local schools second highest (62% give them an A or a B). Midwestern teachers rate their local schools higher than do teachers in the East, South, or West. Teachers grade the nation's public schools lowest; 28% give the nation's schools an A or a B. Still, teachers rate all schools higher than does the public. * Most teachers give high marks to their colleagues: 81% give an A or a B to teachers in the local public schools. They tend to be less generous with their administrators (47% give administrators an A or a B) and even less so with local school boards and parents (35% give an A or a B to their school board, and only 18% give an A or a B to parents of students in the local public schools). * Majorities of teachers and the public agree that higher-achieving students would be more likely to move to private schools. Teachers and the public do not agree about the effect on academic achievement of public school students who would move to private schools: 46% of teachers say their level of achievement would remain the same, whereas 65% of the public says it would improve. * Teachers disagree with the public about the effect of part-time jobs on student achievement: 51% say it harms academic performance, whereas 32% of the public says it does so. …