THE COMMONWEALTH EDUCATION POLL
For Immediate Release, February 24, 2000

Conducted for the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
By the Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory

Center for Public Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA 23284

Contact: Dr. William Bosher, Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute, 225-3290
Dr. Robert Holsworth, Center for Public Policy, 828-8033

Please print the following tables in the landscape format.

1. Importance for VA public schools – Teaching the basics such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
2. Importance for VA public schools – Providing skills that will be useful inobtaining a job.
3. Importance for VA public schools – Teaching basic values such as honesty and respect for others.
4. Importance for VA public schools – Teaching reasoning/thinking skills important for advanced education/the workplace.
5. Importance for VA public schools – Teaching students to be good citizens and responsible community members.
6. Importance for VA public schools – Providing the skills needed to keep up with the new computer technologies.
7. Importance for VA public schools – Teaching about the rest of the world and the global economy of the 21st century.
8. Would you say the public schools in VA have gotten better, worse, or stayed the same during the past five years?
9. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Providing the skills needed to keep up with the new computer technologies.
10. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Keeping the schools safe so that students can learn.
11. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Providing skills that will be useful in obtaining a job.
12. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Teaching the basics such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
13. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Involving parents in the education of their children.
14. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Keeping students off drugs and alcohol.
15. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Teaching about the rest of the world and the global economy of the 21st century.
16. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Teaching students to be good citizens and responsible community members.
17. Past 5 years in VA public schools – Teaching basic values such as honesty and respect for others.
18. Have the public schools in your community gotten better, gotten worse, or stayed the same during the last five years?
19. Would you say that the public schools in your community provide an excellent, good, fair, or poor education?
20. Do you think that the public schools in your community provide a safe environment for children?
21. In general, teachers should be paid more money than they are today.
22. Schools need to spend too much time dealing with issues that parents should be taking care of at home.
23. The schools do a good job of keeping in touch with parents about their children’s progress or problems.
24. In general, principals and teachers have enough authority to enforce discipline and good behavior in the classroom.