The Harvard Graduate School of Education in conjunction with World Education of Boston will establish the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. The Center has been funded for five years and will be directed by Dr. John Comings. A previous PDK survey of the general public found that drug abuse topped the public's list of schools' number one enemy. PDK's third poll of teachers' attitudes toward public schools was developed to make comparisons between teacher attitudes and those of the public and to compare changing teacher attitudes over time. Teachers and the public do agree that local teachers are the group most committed to improving education, but fewer tachers responded that their governor and state legislature are committed to improving public edcuation.
Teachers remain unchanged in their opposition to basing promotion from grade to grade on exams.
In 1984 and 1989, teachers blamed low salaries for the exodus of teachers from the profession. Today, teachers, for the first time, point to discipline problems as the main reason their colleagues leave teaching. Teachers also were asked to rate six purposes of public education. The mail survey of 2,000 public school teachers nationwide was conducted in May 1996 by Phi Delta Kappa's Center for Evaluation, Development and Research. It also stated that students would be coerced into praying since the prayer would take place during regular school activities.