The third in a series of surveys of young people on college completion, and their attitudes toward higher education, One Degree of Separation asks about how young Americans who don't finish further education see their future.
Research Studies: Education
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One Degree of Separation: How Young Americans Who Don't Finish College See Their Chances for Success
Are We Beginning To See The Light?: Public And Parents Buy Into The Need To Ramp Up Math And Science Education But Most Still Think Their Local Schools Are Doing Fine
Americans are convinced that math and science skills are crucial for the future, according to "Are We Beginning To See The Light?", a Public Agenda survey which found strong majorities who say there will be more jobs and college opportunities for students with those skills.
Nearly Three In Four Americans Say Bullying Is A Serious Problem In Their Local Schools:
Nearly three-quarters of Americans consider bullying and harassment a serious problem in their local public schools, though not as serious as illegal drugs and lack of respect for teachers, according to an April 2010 Public Agenda survey of adults including parents of children under age 18.
Thirty-five percent of all survey participants, and 39 percent of all parents, say they were bullied themselves when growing up. Eight percent of the public and 10 percent of parents say they were bullied "a lot."
Squeeze Play 2010: Continued Public Anxiety On Cost, Harsher Judgments On How Colleges Are Run
Are college and universities doing all they can to keep costs under control? According to a report from Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, six out of ten Americans believe that colleges mainly care about their own bottom lines instead of making sure that students have a good educational experience.
Supporting Teacher Talent: The View From Generation Y
Research by Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates examining the views of Generation Y teachers shows that 71 percent are open to financial incentives for teachers who consistently work harder and put in more time and effort, with 25 percent "strongly" favoring such measures.
At the same time, only ten percent say student performance on standardized tests would be an "excellent" measure of teacher success.
Teaching for a Living: How Teachers See the Profession Today
Two out of five of American K-12 teachers appear disheartened and disappointed about their jobs, according to Public Agenda's Teaching for a Living study, conducted with Learning Point Associates and released in association with Education Week.
Campus Commons?: What Faculty, Financial Officers and Others Think About Controlling College Costs
With budgets under pressure and anxiety about whether college is accessible to all qualified students, a report by Public Agenda points to the need for policymakers, public higher education leadership, and faculty to work together to find ways to keep public higher education costs under control.
Focus groups and interviews for our report, Campus Commons? What Faculty, Financial Officers and Others Think About Controlling College Costs, shows differing concerns among the men and women who are running and teaching at public colleges.
Squeeze Play 2009: The Public’s Views on College Costs Today
Public Agenda's latest Squeeze Play survey finds many people feeling uneasy about a key element of the American dream: a college education. Even though a solid majority considers a college degree indispensable, even more say college is financially out-of-reach for many qualified students.
Lessons Learned, Issue No. 3: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans: Teaching in Changing Times
Download our "Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans" series of reports: Issue No. 1: They're Not Little Kids Anymore: The Special Challenges of New Teachers in High Schools and Middle Schools; Issue No. 2: Working Without a Net: How Teachers from Three Prominent Alternate Route Programs Describe Their First Year on The Job; and Issue No. 3: Teaching In Changing Times.
Out Before the Game Begins: Hispanic Leaders Talk About What’s Needed to Bring More Hispanic Youngsters Into Science, Technology and Math Professions
This Public Agenda report, prepared for IBM's summit on "America's Competitiveness: Hispanic Participation in Technology Careers," is based on in-depth interviews with 19 key leaders from vastly different fields and backgrounds. Nearly all of the interviewees said that when it comes to Hispanic and Latino students, the education pipeline is all but broken.
A Matter of Trust: Ten Key Insights From Recent Public Opinion Research on Attitudes About Education Among Hispanic Parents, Students and Young Adults
This Public Agenda report, prepared for IBM's summit on "America's Competitiveness: Hispanic Participation in Technology Careers," indicates that Hispanic families share the aspirations and anxieties of many other families nationwide, and yet also describe concerns, ideas, approaches and relationships with the public school system in ways that are sometimes distinctive.
Reality Check 2006, Issue No. 2: How Black and Hispanic Families Rate Their Schools
The second in a series of Reality Check reports finds that black and Hispanic students are more likely than their white counterparts to report "very serious" problems in their schools on both academic and social dimensions.
Three in 10 black youngsters report very serious levels of disruption and unrest in their schools – not just "somewhat serious," but "very serious." Black students are twice as likely as white students to say that schools not getting enough money is a very serious problem in their community.
Reality Check 2006, Issue No. 1: Are Parents and Students Ready for More Math and Science?
The first in a series of Reality Check reports finds that parents and students do not share the concern of business and government leaders about flagging math and science skills. In fact, parents' concern about math and science achievement has actually declined since the mid-1990s.
A Lot To Be Thankful For: What Parents Want Children to Learn About America
What should public schools teach children about being an American today? This ground-breaking study investigates native-born and foreign-born parents' beliefs on whether a set of "American values" should be taught to kids by the public schools and, if so, what this would mean. Among the issues examined are conflicts over curricula – "mainstream" versus multicultural approaches to history and literature, and the teaching of science and religion; views about the responsibilities and rights of citizenship; and attitudes toward diversity. 1998. Technical Appendix: $40.00.
Reality Check '98 Fully Annotated Survey Results:
Technical appendix of Reality Check containing complete survey questions and results.
Different Drummers: How Teachers of Teachers View Public Education
This is the first comprehensive survey of the views of education professors from United States colleges and universities. Their vision of education and the mission of teacher education programs are explored including their attitudes toward core curriculum, testing, standards, and the public's parameters. 1997.
Is there evidence that teacher "talent" (“performance”, “intellect”, “motivation” or whatever vague metric you want to use) has declined or become more erratically distributed over the last century? Would providing teachers incomes that are a significant percentage of the incomes of Wall Street traders make a difference to student learning? While the Education profession has not attracted the best and the brightest in the population it is not clear to me that programs that seek to do so or at least financially reward “talent” will make a difference. Could it be that the failures of American Education are more the result of changes in American society? In the 1950s and 1960, for example, when America was striving to compete with the USSR militarily, technologically, scientifically and culturally intellectual interest in each of these areas was encouraged and funded. Kids were given chemistry, electronic and erector sets as toys not Legos and action computer games with mindless themes. I remember going to the chemical supply houses to buy chemicals, glassware (beakers, test tubes, flasks, etc.) and other equipment to conduct experiments as well as making bombs for which nowadays a kid would be put in prison. Bill Hewlett of Hewlett Packard grew up doing the same thing including making rockets. The shift from a manufacturing economy to a consumer economy paralleled a shift in status from what you invented, were interested in or made to what you consume. As kids have become the targets of all manner of consumer goods companies their intellectual interests have been subverted or perverted. Distractions have multiplied. For example, cell phones, Twitter and FaceBook are not only bottomless distractions that can consume a kid’s waking hours they are addictions that impede successful Education. Nel Noddings, the philosopher of Education (and education) points out that kids need caring to learn and develop as moral human beings yet that is precisely what American society based as it is on corrosive individualism, social Darwinism and market fundamentalism discounts.