North Carolinians are pessimistic about the direction of public schools in the state. That's according to just-released poll results from High Point University.
Only a third of respondents said North Carolina was headed in the right direction on public education. Barbara Mallory, an associate professor of education at High Point University, says the results may indicate that residents may want a bigger investment in schools.
“85 percent of the poll respondents think teachers are paid too little. I think that they think that the schools are underfunded," she says. "So those are the two big issues that came out of our poll that might indicate how we could account for why they think it's going in the wrong direction.”
Also, North Carolinians are evenly split on whether the state should issue letter grades for the performance of each individual public school.
This was the first year that the state has issued those letter grades. The poll was conducted Jan. 31 to Feb. 5, and the grades weren't released until the last day of polling. Mallory says the results may change next year when more respondents have had a chance to see those letter grades in action.
“It is a new practice in North Carolina public schools that we grade schools," she says. "I think once residents become aware of their schools in their area they may become more in favor of that or less in favor of that especially as they see what that number means, what that letter grade really means.”
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent.
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