In 1973, Gallup began asking Americans to assess their level of
confidence in several American institutions, including the public
schools. Since that time, groundbreaking educational reforms,
increased spending, a broad range of policy initiatives, the
emergence of alternative schools, and other innovations have kept
the national attention focused on the quality of American
education.
But those changes haven't done much for Americans' faith in
public schools. According to the most recent Gallup Poll*, when
asked, "Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in
the public schools," 40% of respondents said they have "a great
deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in them -- down 18 percentage
points from its high point of 58% in 1973. The current level of
confidence in public schools puts it in the middle of the group of
15 institutions tested, on par with the medical system (44%) and
television news (35%), much below the military (82% confidence),
but much higher than health maintenance organizations (17%) and big
business (22%).
The Decline of Confidence
Compared with the results from 30 years ago, confidence in many
American institutions has waned. Besides the public schools, the
most notable declines have been seen regarding "the church or
organized religion" (overall confidence has fallen from 66% of
Americans in 1973, to 50% in 2003), and the U.S. Congress (overall
confidence has fallen from 42% in 1973, to 29% today).
Confidence in public schools declined throughout the 1970s,
including a large 11-point drop between 1979 and 1981. By August
1983, shortly after the U.S. Department of Education released A
Nation at Risk, a chilling report detailing the decline of
America's education standards relative to those of other developed
nations, confidence had sunk to just 39%. However, like their
confidence in a number of other institutions, Americans' faith in
public schools rebounded in the mid-1980s, and was at 49% in
1988.
Confidence Levels Stabilize in the 1990s
In 1989, the proportion of Americans with a great deal or quite
a lot of confidence in the public schools declined somewhat to 43%.
One year later, President George H.W. Bush established the Goals
2000: Educate America Act, in an effort to put public education
back on track in eight specific areas: educational readiness of
preschool children, school completion, student achievement, teacher
education, math and science education, adult literacy, school
safety, and parental participation. Despite efforts to improve
education in America, the trend hit its all-time low point of 34%
in 1994. The following year, the National Education Goals Panel
issued a report citing a few successes -- and a number of failures
-- in meeting Goals 2000 objectives.
Confidence in the public schools has stabilized at about 40% in
the years since 1994, including the current 40% reading. This
leveling has occurred despite the fact that immigration and budget
crunches have stretched the nation's educational resources very
thin in recent years, and despite George W. Bush's significant
educational reforms.
Bottom Line
Given the historical trend, it appears as though the federal
government's best efforts to improve education have done little to
engender Americans' confidence in their public schools. More
concrete evidence of improvement may be required to boost
confidence levels.
The U.S. Department of Education's annual report, The
Condition of Education 2003, presents a mixed bag in that
regard. The report states that fourth-graders are outscoring their
peers in many other countries on reading items, and there has been
an increase since the early 1980s in the percentage of high school
graduates completing advanced-level English courses. At the same
time, reading literacy scores among 15-year-olds are only average
compared to other industrialized countries. Similarly, varied
results are seen for mathematics; while math scores for fourth- and
eighth-graders increased throughout the 1990s,
12th-graders' scores declined in 2000, and only 17% of
12th-graders score at or above proficiency.
*Findings are based on telephone interviews with a randomly
selected national sample of 1,029 adults, 18 and older, conducted
June 9-10, 2003. For results based on this sample, one can say with
95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and
other random effects is ±3%.
