Mass. Business leader education survey

A recently published poll by The MassINC Polling Group on behalf of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education comes up with some interesting results.  The report is quite favorable to Massachusetts’ schools and contends there’s too much emphasis on  standardized testing.

Forty-six percent of those polled gave Massachusetts’ schools an “A” or “B” overall; thirty-seven percent gave schools a “C”, while only nine percent gave schools a “D” or an “F”. 

Fifty-two percent of those polled said that Massachusetts’ schools had “some problems” that need “moderate changes”.  Nine percent said schools had “few problems” needing “minor changes”.  Thirty-two percent said schools had “serious problems” needing “major overhaul”. 

Of the top seven categories of comments, the top two have significant implications for standardized testing.  First on the list was “More focus on applied skills” and second was “Deemphasize standardized testing/teaching to test”.  Applied skills include: following directions; working in groups; writing clearly; oral & presentation skills; independent/critical thinking; awareness of work appropriate behavior; and setting meaningful goals. 

Sixty-three percent of those polled said there was “too much” emphasis on standardized tests, while only two percent said there was “not enough”.  Twenty-five percent said it was “about the right amount”. 

Sixty-three percent of those polled said the state should place “a great deal” of attention upon “the effectiveness of teachers”.  That’s an interesting analysis, since the same people say there’s too much testing.  

This would seem to suggest that some other criteria than test scores might be appropriate to determine “effectiveness of teachers”. 

http://www.massincpolling.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-03-Slides-MBAE-survey.pdf