As teachers in several states protest for higher wages and more school funding, an increasing number of Americans see teachers’ unions as a good thing and fewer feel those unions prioritize protecting their members over the quality of education. Still, more than half believe the interests of these unions are more self-serving.
Education experts have long debated whether boys and girls learn differently and should therefore be catered to in school differently. But most Americans with school-age kids think schools today treat students of both sexes about the same.
Americans continue to see the importance of being a teacher, even if they don’t think many want to enter the education field these days.
An Obama-era policy allowing for more leniency in schools has been strongly criticized following the massacre last month at a Florida high school. Most Americans think discipline in public schools is too easy these days.
Some school districts in New Jersey are now doing away with homework at the elementary level, but most Americans continue to believe that homework is an essential learning tool.
As parents gear up to send their children back to the classroom, most still think highly of their local schools but not nearly as much as they did a year ago.
Many students around the country are already back in school, while those in several other states are enjoying a few more weeks of summer vacation until schools reopen. Half of adults think schools should wait until after Labor Day, but parents are more divided.
The Trump administration plans to investigate affirmative action policies at major universities in an attempt to challenge what they consider discriminatory practices against white and Asian-American students.
Americans are closely divided over a new city of Chicago requirement that all graduating high school seniors must prove they have immediate future plans, but most agree it's up to the students, not their parents or the school system, to determine that future.
College graduation season is upon us, but while Americans still stress the importance of a degree, few think the class of 2017 has marketable job skills.
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter recently cancelled a planned speech at University of California, Berkeley, following protests and threats of violence by the students. Americans are now left wondering whether free speech on college campuses is simply a relic of a bygone era.
Even after the shooting and death of an eight-year-old student and a teacher at a school in San Bernardino, California, earlier this week, most Americans still think schools are safe places for children.
More and more schools around the country are eliminating long-standing systems that rank high school students on the level of their academic achievement including the designation of senior class valedictorians and salutatorians. But Americans aren’t eager to embrace the change.
Though Americans place a lack of discipline high on the list of problems in public schools today, most don’t think teachers in the United States should follow the lead of some in the United Kingdom who are wearing body cameras to record students’ behavior.
Americans continue to place high importance on teaching as a profession but don’t think many are clamoring to become teachers.
Democrats unsuccessfully opposed newly-confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, but many Americans share her views on some key areas in education.
Americans believe more strongly than ever that the primary reason for attending college is to get a better job, but many think the attempt by an increasing number of colleges and universities to create stress-free environments through "safe spaces" and other tools will end up hurting graduates in the real world.
San Francisco State University is the latest school to begin offering “black-focused” dormitories for black students, but most Americans, black Americans included, oppose this trend and fear it could mark a return to segregation policies of pre-Civil Rights America.
In hopes of improving student performance, some elementary and secondary schools are adopting a no-homework policy, coupled with extending the school day to allow time to finish all work in class. But most parents aren't sure that's the way to go.
Americans remain critical of U.S. public schools in general, but parents are more positive than ever about the performance of their children’s schools.
