A recent “Reality Check” survey by Public Agenda, a group that describes itself as “a nonpartisan opinion research and civic engagement organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975,” found what it describes as “troubling differences in the way minority teens describe their school experiences compared to white pupils.” This was a headline story on Yahoo news this morning and the survey results can be read in full here.

Students, parents, teachers and administrators nationwide were surveyed and asked if they felt that issues such as high dropout rates, kids promoted without learning, schools short on money, profanity and disrespect, fighting, and drug and alcohol abuse were serious issues that they faced in their schools. The results showed a higher than expected number of black and Hispanic students who felt that the above issues were “very serious” problems in their school environments. The students who responded to the survey were students in middle school and high school, and the answers given by the black and Hispanic students varied significantly to the answers given by the white students.

The survey had seven major findings. I will summarize them in my own words.

Finding One- Despite the differences, it was also found that students of all races and ethnicities had a lot of similar experiences and thoughts about school, including admitting that they could be working harder on their school work, that the schools should set high standards, that they are learning and that they have had a teacher who was able to get them to enjoy and learn a subject that they had disliked in the past.

Finding Two- There were distinct and repetitive differences in the way that minority students and white students described their experiences in school. The minority students were much more likely to see dropping out, truancy, disrespect for teachers, profanity and drug and alcohol abuse as very serious or somewhat serious issues. At the same time just less than half of the black students stated that they felt that they would have the skills they needed to do well in college. Unrest and distraction were two more issues that minority students felt were present in their schools.

Finding Three- While most of the students interviewed gave positive feedback on teachers, the minority students were a lot more likely to feel that extra help was unavailable to them, even if needed.

Finding Four- The survey results from parents had similar results as those of the students, showing that minority parents were equally displeased with their children’s school environment. Minority parents were less satisfied and confident in their children’s education, in the administrators and the money that the schools received. Fighting and weapons were reported to be serious problems by minority parents twice as much as they were by white parents.


Finding Five- There were special concerns regarding academics and fairness for black parents. Black parents were a lot more likely to feel that their children were not helped to achieve as much as white children and also had unique concerns about school policies, regarding unfair punishments and discipline.

Finding Six- Hispanic parents had unique concerns regarding dropout rates and their students learning basic skills. Hispanic parents were also more likely to report serious drug and alcohol abuse issues in their children’s schools.

Finding Seven- The opinions of teachers in mainly-minority schools and those of teachers in mainly-white schools were compared. The teachers from both sets of schools shared concerns regarding the schools needing more money and several other topics. The differences were that the teachers in the minority schools were much more likely to say that their classes were crowded, that teacher morale was low, that parents didn’t control their children’s TV and video game time and that administrators did a poor job selecting principals, getting money to the classrooms and keeping schools safe and orderly. They also were more likely to worry about their students learning basic school skills.

In my next post I will share some of my thoughts on this survey.