Divergent Views on SCHOOL STANDARDS

"The question is whether change can take pLace when the key players see the problems--and the solutions--so differently."

OF ALL THE IDEAS about improving public schools to have emerged over the past 15 years, few have as much popular appeal as the standards movement. Simply put, this is the idea that, if you expect more from a student, he or she will learn more. In many school districts across the nation, this has led to the decline of social promotion and the rise of statewide tests that determine which students can graduate or move on to the next grade.

Every state, with the exception of Iowa, has instituted some sort of initiative to raise academic standards. Governors and corporate executives alike have come together three times over the past 11 years at national education summits to agree on the concept.

Yet, many in the education world would say that the degree to which the standards movement has caught on makes it all the more important to determine whether these ideas are actually being put into place. For this reason, Public Agenda and Education Week newspaper have collaborated in each of the past three years on a survey of the different constituencies of public education--not just students, teachers, and parents, but also the employers and college professors who encounter the graduates of public schools in the workplace or on campus. The current survey, "Reality Check 2000," finds that the standards movement has a significant way to go before truly changing certain aspects of public education, such as the expectations that teachers have of students or the practice of promoting kids to the next grade even when they have not actually learned what was expected.

"Reality Check 2000" is based on telephone interviews conducted in October and November, 1999, with the following groups, randomly selected from across the country: 604 public school teachers; 615 parents with children in public schools; 605 middle and high school students; 260 employers who interview and hire recent high school or college graduates; and 251 college professors who teach freshmen or sophomores.

To gauge just how strongly Americans believe in standards, consider how they answered questions on some of the movement's key principles:

* Majorities of all the groups--employers (73%), professors (82%), teachers (81%), parents (78%), and even students (57%)--agree that it is much worse for a child to be promoted to the next grade without having learned needed skills than to have to repeat a grade in order to catch up. Support for this concept has remained strong and essentially unchanged since the first Reality Check survey in 1998.

* Majorities of employers (87%), professors (79%), teachers (60%), and parents (79%) favor high-stakes tests--exams students must pass in order to be promoted.

* Teachers (64%), parents (63%), and students (61%) all say inner-city youngsters should be expected to reach the same standards as children from more affluent backgrounds. Earlier Public Agenda research has shown that large majorities of African-American and white parents believe that a good or excellent way to help minority youngsters in failing schools is to pass them only when they have learned what they are supposed to know.

Many policymakers have worried that the public--and parents especially--may recoil from standards when they begin to see the results: more youngsters held back, forced to attend summer school, or denied diplomas because they lack specified skills. So far, parents have been remarkably consistent in their views, and most teachers say they have rarely, if ever, been pressured to promote students who are not ready. In fact, most groups surveyed for Reality Check are not particularly pessimistic about the consequences of raising standards. Just 20% of parents, 24% of teachers, 12% of employers, and nine percent of professors strongly agree that high-stakes testing will result in public schools being overwhelmed by many failing students.

Public Agenda's larger body of research does suggest, however, some nuances in public thinking that standards advocates may want to bear in mind. First, standards are important to the public insofar as they guarantee that children will gain a strong command of English and basic math skills and a grasp of the fundamentals of history, geography, civics, and other topics. The public is less concerned about what they see as more advanced or esoteric knowledge. Second, while Reality Check shows that 79% of parents approve of high-stakes tests as a part of standards, 50% strongly believe it is unfair to hold back a student or require summer school based on the results of a single exam. People envision schools where no one graduates without strong basic skills. They do not envision a system where a child's entire academic future turns on the result of a single, high-pressure test.

Despite the support for standards and the fact that virtually all teachers (97%) say their state or school district has adopted some type of guidelines for what students should learn and at what grade level, Public Agenda's surveys have consistently shown gaps between what has been established as policy and what actually seems to be happening in schools. Forty-four percent of teachers have increased expectations of students as a result of standards, while 36% indicate that their schools automatically promote students to the next grade when they have reached a maximum age.

Even if students are not promoted based on age, it does not necessarily mean they are always moved up to the next grade based on mastery of knowledge or skills, as many standards advocates recommend. Forty-eight percent of teachers report that colleagues at their school generally pass a student who has tried hard, even if he or she has not learned what was expected. Forty percent of students and 41% of parents say this is the case.

Reality Check also shows that these groups have differing opinions on the quality of public schools and the best way to fix them, which could undermine the consensus needed to effect change. Parents, for example, tend to be much more positive than businesspeople or professors. Seventy-two percent of parents say their local schools are doing a good or excellent job, and 65% feel academic expectations at their own child's school are about right. Forty-seven percent strongly believe that their offspring's school puts a great deal of emphasis on academics and high grades. Most parents also indicate that schools are preparing their kids well. Sixty-six percent of high school parents believe their children will have the skills to succeed on the job, and 61% are confident they will flourish in college.

By contrast, people in academia and the business world indicate that they think the opposite is the case. Just 46% of professors believe that incoming students are adequately prepared. Among professors and employers, three-quarters feel that high school graduates have fair or poor skills in grammar, spelling, and the ability to write clearly. Majorities give similarly low ratings for graduates' work habits and motivation.

Since Public Agenda began asking, more and more employers have maintained that young people's honesty is fair or poor, in creasing from 33% in 1998 to 44% in 2000. The one clear area of improvement was seen in computer skills, with 75% of professors saying incoming students have good or excellent computer skills, up from 61% two years ago. Meanwhile, 64% of employers give the young people they see high ratings for computer skills, up from 53% in 1998.

Reality Check continues to reveal a sharp discrepancy between the amount of trust parents, teachers, and students place in a high school diploma and the lack of confidence employers and professors have in it. While 66% of parents, 74% of teachers, and 77% of students say getting a diploma means a youngster has mastered at least basic skills, 39% of employers and 33% of professors agree (although the figure for professors has risen from 22% in 1998).

Nor do the survey results suggest that most parents are the "critical consumers" of education that many reformers say they need to be in order to put pressure on their local schools to improve. Most parents do not, for instance, know much about how their offspring compares with children elsewhere, or how their youngster's school fares in getting kids into college or hiring qualified teachers. While 48% of parents say they know a lot about how their offspring compares academically with other children in the same grade, few can say the same about comparisons with kids in the same state (18%) or across the country (13%), much less with youngsters abroad (three percent). What's more, a mere 21% of parents say they know a lot about teacher qualifications, and 27% would be able to identify the college-admission rate or per-pupil expenditure (19%) at their child's school. In fact, class size is the only area out of 12 surveyed where most parents (72%) seem to be well-informed.

Like parents, teachers are more optimistic than employers and professors about the education that America's youth are getting in public schools. Sixty-seven percent of teachers, compared to 21% of employers and 27% of professors, believe that public schools offer a better education than private schools. Teachers (50%) are far more likely than employers (15%) and professors (22%) to say that public schools have higher academic standards. Sixty-nine percent of teachers strongly believe that public school teachers are doing as good a job as they can, given the lack of parental involvement, compared with 38% of parents who say this.

The 1999 Reality Check showed--and 2000's study confirms--that teachers are more doubtful than the other groups about many proposals connected to standards reform. Just 22% feel it is a good idea to tie financial incentives for teachers and principals to student achievement, compared with 59% of parents, 51% of employers, and 36% of professors. Teachers (32%) are also less likely than parents (51%), employers (59%), or professors (40%) to agree strongly that high-stakes testing makes teachers and students more accountable. According to other research by Public Agenda, teachers are far more likely to focus on other measures--reducing class size, increasing resources, promoting stronger parental involvement, and encouraging better student motivation and behavior--as the best ways to foster higher achievement. Controversies about standards center more often on the means--holding students back a grade, high-stakes testing, etc.--than on the goal itself.

The differences in perception between teachers and parents on the one hand and employers and professors on the other surfaced in the two previous Reality Check surveys, as did indications that some forms of social promotion are still standard practice in a number of American schools. For many in the standards movement, the lack of change in the 2000 results will come as no surprise. Few expect far-reaching change in just a few years.

Nevertheless, Public Agenda's research uncovers--once again--some troubling gaps in perspective that seem to cry out for attention. The talk about standards is ubiquitous, but teaching patterns often remain the same. Parents' satisfaction with their children's academic skills seems utterly at odds with what employers and college professors have to say. Teachers define the issues facing schools differently and have significant concerns about many of the chosen solutions. It may be reasonable to expect that change will take time. The question is whether it can do so when the key players see the problems--and the solutions--so differently.

Jean Johnson is senior vice president and director of programs, Public Agenda, New York. Ann Duffett is the organization's associate director of research.

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