25% Think High School Graduates Have Skills Needed For A Job
Voters aren’t exactly thrilled with the skills possessed by students graduating from high school these days, but they are slightly more confident that they are prepared to enter the workforce.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 25% of Likely U.S. Voters think most high school graduates have the skills needed to enter the workforce. But that’s up from 21% last October and the highest level of optimism measured in tracking since March 2012. Sixty-four percent (64%) still don’t think most graduates have the skills needed to work. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Only 22% of voters think most high school graduates have the skills needed for college. Sixty percent (60%) disagree, while 19% are undecided. These findings also show slightly more confidence than October, but 25% of voters last July felt most new graduates were ready for college.
Twenty-six percent (26%) rate the performance of public schools in America as good or excellent. Thirty-two percent (32%) give U.S. public schools a poor rating, up slightly from October’s recent low of 30%.
Voters also remain dubious about the textbooks in these schools. Sixty-four percent (64%) believe most school textbooks are more concerned with presenting information that is politically correct rather than with accurately providing information. That’s up six points from October and the highest level of skepticism measured to date. Just 17% think the textbooks put more emphasis on providing accurate information, down from 22% in October. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 24-25, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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