The 2017 Education Next survey, conducted in May and June of 2017, examines current attitudes toward major issues in K–12 education and compares the results with those of prior years. Responses are broken down by political party and, for whites, by level of education. These analyses allow the researchers to see whether changes have been concentrated in any specific political or demographic group.
A sample of more than 4,200 respondents, including oversamples of parents and teachers, also gives us the chance to experiment with some of the survey questions in order to tease out nuances in public opinion. For a variety of questions, respondents were divided randomly into two (or more) groups and asked a slightly different version of the same question. For example, one group was told about President Donald J. Trump’s position on an issue while the other group was not given this information. By comparing the responses of the two groups, the “Trump effect” on public thinking could be measured. Since this same experiment was performed during the first two years of the Obama administration, the Trump impact could be compared with the Obama one.
Key Findings
1. School Choice. Public support for charter schools has fallen by 12 percentage points, with similar drops evident among both self-described Republicans and self-described Democrats. Meanwhile, opposition to school vouchers and tax credits to fund private-school scholarships has declined.
2. Common Core. Support for using the same academic standards across the states has risen since 2016—as long as the “brand name” of Common Core is not mentioned.
3. Federalism. Compared with 2015, the public prefers a smaller role in education for the federal government and a larger role for local governments.
4. Teacher policies. The public is showing an increased resistance to change when it comes to policies affecting teachers.
5. Trump effect. In general, the effect of being told the president’s position was to boost support among Republicans and reduce it among Democrats. The overall impact, however, was roughly nil.
6. Immigration and English-only instruction. Two thirds of the public prefer that students whose native tongue is not English be immersed in English-only classrooms.
7. Technology. Forty-four percent of the respondents think the effects would be positive if students spent more time on computers at school, while 35% think the effect would be negative.
8. Religious afterschool student clubs. The general public is more favorable toward allowing Muslim students to form afterschool clubs than it was in 2008.
9. Parents’ aspirations for their children’s higher education. Two thirds of the public would have their child pursue a four-year university degree, while only 22% would choose a two-year associate’s degree at a community college, and 11% would choose neither.
10. Varying views by level of education. Respondents’ views vary with their level of education on school rating, school spending, teacher salaries, merit pay, and school vouchers.
Source: EducationNext
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