Earlier this month, MetLife released the findings of Part I of their annual education survey, which focuses on what it means to be “college and career ready.” The survey polled middle and high school teachers, students, parents, and Fortune 1000 executives to determine how they feel about the college and career-readiness goal and what students need to do to reach it. Major takeaways from the survey include the following:
- There is strong agreement among stakeholder groups that every high school student should graduate college and career ready. The difference among those polled arises in the amount of priority they place on this issue. For example, 54 percent of teachers believe this is a priority compared to 73 percent of parents.
- Students’ expectations for going to college have increased in the past two decades. In 1988, 57 percent of students said it was likely they would go to college, as compared to 75 percent of students who believe that today.
- A majority of students believe that their school does a good job of fostering a college-ready environment. On the contrary, parents and executives believe that schools could do a better job to inform students of the necessary steps to go to college.
While there is broad agreement that all students should be ready for college or a career when they graduate from high school, there is significant discord around various reform efforts being taken to achieve this goal. For example, when asked how much control schools should have to remove underperforming teachers, seventy-five percent of parents show strongest support for “giving schools more ability to remove teachers who are not serving students well.” Only 39 percent of teachers highly prioritize this goal. Furthermore, while over 50 percent of parents and executives believe that student growth data should be used to measure teacher effectiveness, only 27 percent of teachers feel the same.
In Fordham’s recent survey of Ohio superintendents, Yearning to Break Free: Ohio Superintendents Speak Out, district leaders expressed sentiments more similar to surveyed parents than surveyed teachers. Fifty percent of Buckeye superintendents said that expanding their management authority over staff would lead to improvements in student achievement. When superintendents were asked to rank which reform effort relating to staffing was the most important to them, 82 percent said that making it easier to remove unmotivated or incompetent teachers was the most important. Also, 57 percent of superintendents surveyed said that evaluating schools and districts based on student performance is a positive thing.
To read more findings from the MetLife survey or from Fordham’s Ohio superintendent survey click here and here, respectively.
The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher:
Preparing Students for College and Careers: Part 1: Clearing the Path
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
March 2011
