Times Orange County Poll : Schools Not Making the Grade, Most Residents Say

Orange County residents give their public schools a mediocre report card, with more than half rating them a C or below in a poll for the Times Orange County Edition.

But the schools received better ratings in the poll from parents with school-age children--the group educators say is most familiar with the schools. In that group, 55% gave the schools As or Bs.

The survey also asked residents to rate Orange County schools on a variety of programs and problems. Schools received their best rating in teaching computer education but their lowest in teaching values and ethics. The biggest concern about schools today was drug and alcohol abuse by students, according to those polled.

“Compared to inner-city schools, obviously the schools are rated pretty well here,” said Mark Baldassare, who conducted the poll. “But when you think of the wealth that exists in Orange County, and the high education of the population here, these are rather average grades for a group of people who certainly expect more than average for their own children.”

Of the 600 Orange County residents polled Aug. 6-8, only 7% gave the public schools an A. Thirty-five percent gave them a B; 40% a C; 8% a D, and 3% an F.

But of the 200 or so parents asked what grade they would give public schools in their area, 11% gave them an A; 44% a B; 32% a C; 7% a D and 5% an F.

The overall findings are similar to results of a nationwide Gallup Poll released Aug. 24, which showed that most people would give a B or a C to public schools.

Local educators said they were surprised there was so little difference overall in results of the Times Orange County Poll survey and national polls, since Orange County schools generally score higher on achievement tests, teachers here tend to express greater job satisfaction and school facilities are better maintained than in larger urban areas.

“I am a little disappointed because I thought the figures would be higher here in Orange County,” said Cynthia Grennan, superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District.

On the other hand, educators say, local schools may have been given the mediocre rating precisely because Orange County’s population is wealthier and better educated on average than the rest of the nation, according to recent research. The thinking goes that amid a nationwide trend to demand more from public schools, Orange County residents may apply an even higher standard to their public schools than the rest of the nation.

Parents who were polled listed a variety of factors that kept Orange County schools from rating an A+.

“It’s not a bad grade, is it?” asked Judy Simpson of Laguna Niguel, the mother of two school-age children who gave the public schools a B. “But teachers gravitate to the good, easy type of students. When you have a more challenging student with different types of learning problems, they don’t react as well.”

After much frustration with a South County school that, she said, couldn’t cope with her son’s slight learning problem, Simpson decided to put him in a private school.

Simpson said her main complaint about schools is that taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth. Because of the rapid growth in South County, districts cannot build new classrooms fast enough.

“They’re well-run schools, yet it’s inconvenient,” she said. “The school almost went to double session, and people were real disgruntled. This is a high-tech area; we pay $2,000 a year for property taxes. Why do we have to wait so long (for new schools to open)?”

Parents who took part in the survey and agreed to be interviewed cited specific situations with their own children and teachers as reasons for the ratings they gave. Their examples, educators said, illustrate the importance that parents place on their relationship with their child’s schools and teachers.

But school administrators say the public has demanded more of schools even as society has become more complex and more ethnically diverse. Meanwhile, technology has advanced at a faster pace than the schools can keep up with, they said.

“Schools have been getting a bum rap for years,” said Ed Dundon, superintendent of the Garden Grove Unified School District. “Yet, on the other hand, schools are also being asked to be educators, doctors, dietitians, priests, preachers, nurses, jailers and all that kind of stuff. We have to provide health education, marriage counseling, drug addiction education--more subjects than those who answered the survey remember from their school days.

“And then people wonder how there’s any time left to teach the three Rs.”

But several administrators and school leaders said they consider the poll results a signal that they need to improve their performance, as well as the image of schools among the general public, particularly people without children who also vote on school tax questions.

“I’m disappointed, but that doesn’t really surprise me,” Rudy Castruita, superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District, the county’s largest, said of the mediocre grades given the schools by poll respondents. “If you look at the criticism education has gone through in the last five or six years, there would seem to be a cloud hanging over us all over the state, and people appear not to be pleased.

“But it gives us a real challenge to improve. I’d like to see those Bs and Cs move to As.”

In their own defense, administrators and school officials say they are trying to improve schools at a time when state funding is severely limited. They also note that California schools have the largest class sizes in the nation.

Teachers fared better in the survey than schools. Only 13% of respondents said they were “not satisfied with the quality and training of teachers,” while 20% indicated they were “very satisfied” and 55% “somewhat satisfied.”

More than three-fourths of the respondents said teachers deserve higher pay, with 46% saying they should get a “moderate” raise and 32% a “substantial” raise.

Teachers said they were pleased by the poll’s findings on salaries, especially at a time when the public generally rejects more taxes.

“Everybody likes to receive services for as few dollars out of pocket as possible,” said Jim Harlan, executive director of West Orange County United Teachers, which represents teachers in five school districts. “Any substantial teacher pay increase would come out of tax dollars, so I think that says something when 78% say we should raise salaries.”

While 54% of those polled said public schools did an excellent or good job teaching computer education, less than half thought they were doing an excellent or good job teaching reading and language, math and science, arts and culture, thinking and reasoning and teaching children with special needs.

Sixty-two percent of all respondents said they thought the schools were doing a fair or poor job in teaching values and ethics.

Among parents polled, however, schools got far higher ratings, with 60% of the parents giving excellent or good ratings for reading and language, and 53% giving excellent or good ratings for math and science.

In overall ratings, South County respondents gave schools the best grades. In that group, 11% gave the schools an A, while 39% gave them a B, and 36% a C.

One possible explanation comes from a previous Baldassare poll for the Times Orange County Edition, which shows that South County residents overall are more content with their life styles than residents elsewhere in the county.

In the August poll on education issues, more than half of the respondents in the central, western and northern parts of the county gave a C or lower to the schools. One respondent offered an explanation.

“I’m very displeased with the system,” said Maria Patterson of Santa Ana, whose daughter attends a junior high school in the Garden Grove Unified School District. “We have lived in Orange, in Costa Mesa and in Santa Ana, and the worst school is this one.

“If my daughter was late a few minutes (at her former schools), they would call me to ask about it,” Patterson said. “Here, they don’t care. . . . I went and talked with one of her counselors to see if she needed to go to summer school, and they said somebody would get in touch with me, but they never did. So to me, they don’t care.”

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Orange County Poll, consisting of interviews with 600 adult county residents, was conducted Aug. 6-8. The survey was taken on weekend days and weekday nights using a random sample of listed and unlisted telephone numbers.

The margin of error for a sample of this size is plus or minus 4%. For subgroups, the margin of error is higher. The margin of error for a subgroup such as the approximately 200 parents with children in school, for example, is plus or minus 7%.

All respondents were guaranteed anonymity. However, some of those who agreed were later interviewed again for news stories on the poll.

The poll was conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates of Irvine.

OPEN ENROLLMENT

Orange County residents overwhelming favor allowing children to attend any public school their parents choose. Page 28.

Report Card Overall, what grade would you give to the public schools in your area? 7%: A 35%: B 40%: C 8%: D 3%: F THE TIMES ORANGE COUNTY POLL Overall Grade

“Overall, what grade would you give to the public schools in your area--A, B, C, D or F?”

Don’t A B C D F Know Total 7% 35% 40% 8% 3% 7% Have schoolchild 11 44 32 7 5 1 No schoolchild 4 31 44 9 2 10 By Region North 8 32 43 9 2 6 West 3 36 39 10 4 8 Central 3 35 43 10 3 6 South 11 39 36 4 2 8

Performance Ratings

“How good a job are the public schools in your area doing in teaching children . . . ?”

Don’t Excellent Good Fair Poor Know Computers 14% 40% 20% 8% 18% Reading and language 9 34 30 16 11 With special needs 10 32 22 11 25 Math and science 7 33 29 13 18 Arts and culture 5 31 34 14 16 To think and reason 4 28 33 20 15 Values and ethics 3 21 35 27 14

Percent saying “excellent” or “good”:

Total Schoolchild No Schoolchild Computers 54% 58% 52% Reading and language 43 60 34 With special needs 42 46 40 Math and science 40 53 33 Arts and culture 35 49 29 To think and reason 32 48 25 Values and ethics 25 35 20

Perceived Problems in the Local Schools

“As far as the local public schools in your area are concerned, how much of a problem is each of these issues?”

Big Some Small None Don’t Know Student alcohol and drug use 4% 21% 9% 13% 15% Lack of funding 30 22 11 20 17 Overcrowded classes 29 18 9 22 22 Violence and gangs 24 16 13 38 9 Run-down facilities 10 13 18 46 13

Percent saying big problem:

Drugs Funding Classes Gangs Facilities Total 42% 30% 29% 24% 10% Have schoolchild 38 33 33 20 10 No schoolchild 44 29 26 25 11 By Region North 41 30 27 23 11 West 42 31 28 22 13 Central 52 36 32 37 13 South 35 25 28 14 6

Blaming the Students

“What do you think is the single biggest problem with the public schools in your area today?” (open-ended)

Total Schoolchild No Schoolchild Students 25% 19% 28% Funding 14 17 13 Teachers 13 14 13 Overcrowding 9 15 6 Curriculum 6 7 5 Parents 4 4 3 Facilities 1 2 1 Other 8 7 8 No problems 4 7 3 Don’t know 16 8 20

Rating Teachers

“In general, how satisfied are you with the quality and training of public school teachers in your area?”

Very Somewhat Not Don’t Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied Know Total 20% 55% 13% 12% Have schoolchild 28 59 9 4 No schoolchild 16 54 14 16

Note: Results may not add up to 100 % because of rounding.