Public Schools Get Low Grades in Survey

California school performance slumped last year, according to a public attitude survey conducted by the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Asked to give grades like those on report cards, only 30% of the 551 county residents polled gave California public schools an A or a B. In 1986, 35% of those canvassed gave the schools good grades. The 1987 dip followed four years of improved marks.

Five percent of those polled thought the schools deserved an F.

Telephone Survey

Robert L. Grossman, director of communications for the county office, said the telephone survey was conducted in November, 1987, by the polling firm of Fairbank, Bregman & Maullin. The county has surveyed public attitudes toward education annually since 1983.

The office plans to release a special report on the survey later this month. No funds are available for a 1988 survey, Grossman said.

Respondents were asked for their perceptions of their local schools and California schools as a whole. People tend to rate their neighborhood schools higher than others, Grossman said. But local schools also lost ground in 1987. Thirty-seven percent of those polled thought that their own schools were doing a good job. However, that figure represents an 11% drop over 1986.

The biggest decline in confidence in local schools was among respondents 65 and over. In 1986, 54% of that group handed out A’s and Bs. In 1987, only 32% awarded high marks. Grades also slipped in households with school-age children, down to 40% from 49% in 1986. Single parents of school-age children were the sole group to give local schools better marks, up to 43% from 38% in 1986.

Whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians gave their local schools lower marks. The biggest drop was among whites. In 1986, half had given local schools A’s or Bs. In 1987, 35% did so.

The pollsters also found that the public has a high degree of trust in the information about schools it receives from teachers. Among the least credible sources of information, in the public’s view, are Gov. George Deukmejian and Bill Honig, state superintendent of public instruction, who were described as “very believable” by 10% and 13% of the respondents, respectively.

For the first time, questions about AIDS and the schools were included in the survey, Grossman said. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents said that teaching students about AIDS is an extremely or very important task for the schools. Fifty-five percent said the lack of AIDS education in the schools is an extremely or very serious problem.

Seventy-six percent said the schools should advocate abstinence as a method of preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Only 8% strongly opposed advocacy of abstinence for disease prevention.

The public named drugs as the most pressing problem in the schools: 80% of the respondents said drugs were an extremely or very serious concern. Other major concerns were lack of parental interest and involvement in their children’s education (74%), young people dropping out of school (71%), overcrowded classrooms (70%) and low salaries for teachers (65%).

The vast majority (92%) described California’s ranking as second from the bottom in state education spending as a serious problem. Seventy-five percent said that more money is needed to improve the county’s public schools. Almost as many (71%) said they thought the governor’s budget cuts in education will hurt the schools. More than half (59%) said they would support a tax increase to benefit public education. Only 30% said they were happy the state rebate check “was in the mail” to them. Fifty-five percent said they would prefer to see the money go to the schools.

The public was also queried about where it gets its information about education. The leading source was television, named by 38% of those polled. Latinos named English-language television even more often (55%). Twenty-six percent of all respondents said they rely on the major metropolitan daily newspapers. Twenty-three percent said they depend on their local daily or weekly paper.

Only 9% said they get their information about education from teachers. But teachers were described as very believable sources of information by 33% of the respondents. The parents of schoolchildren were also viewed as very credible, by 27%, ahead of school principals (25%) and school board members (14%).

Grossman said the survey suggested considerable public uncertainty about what the schools should be doing.

When asked an open-ended question about the most important function of public education, 16% of the respondents said they didn’t know. Parents of school-age children were even more baffled: Overall, 19% of the parents said they didn’t know.

The “don’t know” phenomenon underscores the need for better communication on the part of educators, Grossman said.