Populace Insights: Purpose of Education Index

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The Purpose of Education Index, published by Populace earlier this year, is being hailed as the first-of-its-kind multi-year, private opinion study. This study was done to better understand Americans' opinions of K-12 education priorities in America.

They state on their website, "To accomplish this, the Purpose of Education Index leverages a combination of direct questions, along with a choice-based conjoint (CBC) component that distinguishes between personal opinion and perceived societal opinion — how respondents believe most people would answer. The result is a level of insight that is not possible through traditional public opinion polling alone." In taking this approach, the researchers were able to discern what individuals felt should be the top priorities of K-12 education in America as well as what they felt that others would feel that the priorities of K-12 education in America should be.

There were five key takeaways from this study:

1. College Should No Longer Be the End Goal of K-12 Education. While this is something that many educators have been saying for years, it seems that the public is catching on. "When given 57 priorities for children’s K-12 education, Americans ranked it as #47. However they believe it is other people’s third-highest priority, demonstrating a deep societal misunderstanding of one another."

2. Practical Skills & Outcomes Should Be the End Goal. Participants want students to be able to leave high school with the skills necessary to be successful in their daily lives, such as managing their personal finances, preparing a meal, or making an appointment. This was the number one priority for K-12 education in America. "Demonstrates basic reading, writing, and arithmetic (#4), prepared for a career (#6), effectively plan, and prioritize to achieve a goal (#11), and have the skills to be competitive in the local job market (#12) vastly outperformed less practical or short term goals such as prepared for a paid internship or entry level job (#40), students learn social norms and appropriate behavior (#52), and students develop athletic talents (#56). And while respondents do not want schools instructing students on social norms (#52), they firmly believe that a student demonstrating character (e.g. honesty, kindness, integrity, and ethics) should be a vital marker of a school’s success (#3)."

3. Individualized Education Is the Future, One-Size-Fits-All Is the Past. The public recognizes that our systems need to modernize, with the vast majority of respondents preferring mastery-based advancement. "In fact student success being evaluated based on standardized tests was ranked as a bottom 10 priority (#49). Students having the time they need to learn at their own pace is ranked 13th-highest priority. In the same vein, respondents believe that all students should receive the unique support that they need (#5) rather than all students receiving the same level of support (#34). Generally, Americans do not care if all students study the same thing (#54) compared to them getting to choose courses based on their individual interests (#9). Data clearly illustrates that individualized and tailored approaches that recognize students’ unique needs are preferred."

4. Education Priorities Vary Immensely by Race. "While developing critical thinking and practical skills were common across racial groups, there are noticeable differences by group, further indicating that the current one-size-fits-all approach to education fails to address the needs and wants of students and parents. Being prepared to be a productive member of society is the fifth-highest priority for Hispanics compared to White (#48), Black (#39), and Asian (#30) respondents."

5. “Better” Is No Longer the Goal — “Different” Is. Overwhelmingly, when you read the results of the survey, it's obvious that it's time to shake things us. Public support is there to change our educational system in the ways that educators have talked about for years. "The vast majority of the general population believes more things about the educational system should change than stay the same (71%), including 21% who say nearly everything should change."

There's no time like the present to make changes that will positively impact the future of education. Now there is public opinion data that supports making those changes. This survey was shared in the New & Noteworthy: Feb 2023 posting by NCEE. I wouldn't be surprised if this information ends up in upcoming PIL courses over the next few months as well.

References:

Populace. (2023). Populace Insights: Purpose of Education Index.