A majority of Michigan residents believe their local public schools prepare students to compete in the world beyond high school, according to the 1996 Michigan Education Poll, the latest in a series of annual surveys on attitudes toward the state public education system. The polling data reveal, however, that the level of confidence varies among subgroups. The survey asked 800 Michigan residents about their perceptions of the state's K-12 education system and their local schools. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percent within a 95 percent confidence interval.
All data are available to the public.
While parents are more likely than nonparents feel as if they are owners, parents are no more likely than nonparents to feel as if they are customers. Customer treatment is a good predictor of the grades given to local public schools. Michigan residents value technology in the classroom. Eighty-eight percent of all respondents think it is important, including 67 percent who feel it to be very important for every student in every grade to have access to a computer at school. Seventy-eight percent think that increased use of computers in the classroom will substantially improve the schools, and 64 percent are at least somewhat satisfied with the extent to which computers currently are used in instructing students in their local public schools.