Thursday, April 13, 2006

Wilmington, NC- State residents grade primary schools better than middle and high schools, and they think schools are doing a better job of preparing students to go to college than to go to work. These findings were based on a statewide telephone survey conducted by the University of North Carolina Wilmington Survey Research Laboratory between March 19 and April 6 that asked respondents to grade their county schools.

In a series of questions, respondents were asked to Assign an A if you think that overall the schools are outstanding. Assign a C if you think that overall the schools are average. Assign an F if you think the schools are failing. You can also assign a B for schools that are above average but not outstanding and a D if the schools are below average but not failing." They were asked this question for primary, middle, and high schools. The results showed higher evaluations for primary schools and lower evaluation for high schools.

Please see Figure 1.

In other questions respondents were asked to evaluate the schools for preparing students for work and college.

Please see Figure 2.

For five problem areas, the survey asked respondents to "think about public schools --primary, middle and high schools -- in your county. [and ] Just tell me how serious you think each problem is. Your choices are very serious, serious, not serious, and not serious at all." A 52% majority responded that "Losing good quality teachers" was a very serious problem.

Please see Figure 3.

The poll was conducted by Dr. Lloyd Jones, director of the Survey Research Laboratory and associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

It contacted a random sample of 517 residents of the state. The overall sample error for the poll is 4.3%.

For more information on the poll, contact

Dr. Jones at (910) 962-3788.

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