Todd Rose, co-founder and CEO of the Boston-based think tank
Populace Insights says this about our nation’s current K-12 education system:
“The Covid era fundamentally altered the way most of us view
education and what our kids should get out of it. The K-12 educational system
is wildly unresponsive to what parents and children actually want.”
And, just as significantly (or more significantly, depending
on your point of view), it is wildly unresponsive to what society as a whole
(you know, the taxpayers) actually want.
This is the unmistakable conclusion to be drawn from Populace Insights: Purpose of
Education Index – an opinion poll unlike any other. The poll,
conducted with cooperation from YouGov and the data analytics firm Gradient, was
first conducted in 2019, repeated in 2020 and 2021, and again in September 2022,
spanning the Covid era.
But why should anyone trust this particular poll when so many national
polls turn out to be wrong? Todd Rose
has an answer that probably won’t surprise you.
The main reason that so many polls get it wrong is that a critical percentage
of respondents lie to the pollsters. The real question is: Why do they lie to
pollsters? He has an answer for that too.
When it comes to hot-button issues, people tend to have a public opinion
and a private opinion. When talking to pollsters, social pressure leads
respondents to express the opinions that most align with their social or political
“in-group,” while keeping their private opinions to themselves.
Pollsters have seen this phenomenon in every national election
since 2016.
Populace Insights addressed the problem head-on. They devised a cleverly
rigged (my word, not theirs) methodology to get respondents to reveal their private
opinions, instead of their politically and socially-safe public opinions.
Starting with 57 attributes (aka priorities) that interviewees and focus
groups determined that schools should deliver, respondents are presented with
two attributes at a time and are required to select the one that is most
important to them, and continue choosing one over the other until the 57 attributes
are ranked in order of their importance.
The top rankings surprised me and they might surprise you. But
before getting to them, it is important to note another feature that makes the
Purpose of Education Index unique and eye-opening as to who we are as a
society.
When respondents are asked how they would rank each of the attributes,
they are also asked how they thought most other respondents would rank those same
attributes. Take for example this one:
In the K-12 system, Students are prepared to enroll in a college
or university.
You might think that preparing students for college would rank very
high on the priority list. In fact, you might think, as I did, that it would
rank #1.
We might think this from the flood of news stories about parents’
behavior. Helicopter parents feverishly maneuvering to get their kids every
advantage possible. Parents resorting to holding their children back a year
before starting school to give them a maturity-edge over their classmates. Celebrities
going to prison for falsifying their kids’ accomplishments and bribing their
way into the college of their choice.
Before Covid, respondents ranked being prepared to enroll in a
college or university as only their 10th highest priority for K-12
education. Not first, but still near the top. But in post-Covid America, this
attribute has fallen all the way to #47 and yet the majority think that most
Americans, including parents, would place it at #3.
Or, take this gap between what most of us privately believe and
what we perceive most others believe:
Students are prepared to secure a high-paying
job.
In private, most Americans rank this attribute at #53 out of 57. That’s
the reality. But they believe that most others would rank it near the top at #9.
That’s their false perception of the majority’s view.
Privately, Americans are rejecting the “rat race” of intense
competition for prestigious universities, leading to high-paying jobs, and
hoping, instead, for kids to be prepared for finding a career that is personally
meaningful and fulfilling.
How little we know the minds of our fellow human beings!
Todd Rose refers to these gaps between reality and perception as “collective
illusions,” created by the bombardment of misinformation coming from the popular
culture infosphere and from listening to the loudest voices in our in-groups.
The current absence of honest community dialog, according to Todd
Rose, provides the oxygen for collective
illusions to flourish and provides community leaders with the misinformation they
will use to set bad public policies.
So, let’s take a look at the actual top six priorities for K-12
education that Americans, including parents, value most, even if they are
unlikely to come right out and tell you.
#1: Students develop practical skills (e.g.
manage personal finances, prepare a meal, make an appointment).
Overwhelmingly, we want schools to provide practical skills for
navigating daily life.
#2: Students are able to think critically to
problem solve and make decisions.
Teaching critical thinking has been near the very top of priorities
for the past four years and has been the only priority placed in the top 10 by
every demographic subgroup – race, gender, age, income level, and education
level.
It’s abundantly clear that our society wants children to be taught HOW
to think and not WHAT to think.
#3: Students demonstrate character (e.g.
honesty, kindness, integrity, and ethics).
What a reassuring surprise to learn that character ranks near the top!
Yet the mistaken perception is that most people would rank it further down the
list at #26. The collective illusion is that the majority of Americans regard character
to be far less important than we do.
#4: Students can demonstrate basic reading,
writing, and arithmetic.
Well, of course.
#5: All students receive the unique support
they need throughout their learning.
In 2019 and 2020, this attribute was ranked #19. In 2021, it moved up
to #16. Rising to #5 in 2022 speaks volumes about the failures of the current Covid-stressed
system.
#6: Students are prepared for a career.
Not just any career, but one that is personally meaningful and
fulfilling.
Collectively, these top six priorities tell a story of what Todd
Rose calls an “exhausted post-Covid majority,” wanting schools to refocus their
efforts on practical survival skills that will prepare students for an
unknowable future.
(For the complete story, you will need to go to the source and see the
ranking of all 57 attributes. Those at the bottom of the list are as revealing
as those at the top.)
So what grade would most of us give the K-12 system when it comes
to fostering these top six priorities?
We need only to look at the
poll’s achievement scores for the answer. Here are the percentages of
respondents who believe that schools are succeeding with their top six
priorities:
#1 – 26%
#2 – 33%
#3 – 33%
#4 - 52%
#5 – 30%
#6 – 30%
For those of us who have read the entire Purpose of Education Index, there
is one statistic that stands out from all the others. 71% of the American
public believe that more things about the K-12 system should change than stay
the same. And that includes 21% who believe that nearly everything should
change!
And now, I have an obvious question.
Where would a truly private opinion poll − directed
specifically to Watertown parents − grade WPS on the achievement scale?
Would WPS score:
Higher than 26% on delivering practical skills?
Higher than 33% on teaching critical thinking?
Higher than 33% on demonstrating character?
Higher than 52% on demonstrating basic reading, writing, and
arithmetic?
Higher than 30% on providing students with the unique support they
need?
Higher than 30% for preparing students for a fulfilling career?
We have shining new energy-efficient elementary schools and a shining
new energy-efficient high school in the works. No small accomplishment. But how
would parents and taxpayers privately grade our K-12 system on fostering the
practical values prioritized by the post-Covid majority?
Do our policymakers listen too intently to misinformation coming
from the noisy infosphere and from the loudest voices in the room?
I don’t know. But I do know this. Unless you’ve already studied the
report and are acutely aware of how Covid has radically changed societal expectations
of our educational system, you should take the time to review this first-of-a-kind
103-page report, from which you can draw your own conclusions.
Come to think of it, also showing the report to students just might
provide them with an excellent gateway to a lifelong road of critical thinking.
We are all less likely to be fooled by collective illusions when we are
grounded by facts.
Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown
