Annual poll looks at Americans’ opinions on education The 56th PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools finds that Americans’ top educational priorities include the preparation of students to enter the workforce (84 percent) and the attraction and retention of good teachers in public schools (81 percent).

However, 60 percent of Americans would not support their children pursuing a career in teaching, citing inadequate pay and lack of student discipline as reasons why.

Other top priorities include an increased focus on student mental health (73 percent), helping students who have fallen behind academically (72 percent) and college affordability (70 percent). Two other priorities attract smaller majority support for increased federal attention: protecting students from discrimination (58 percent) and the availability of public pre-kindergarten programs (56 percent, rising to 67 percent among public school parents).

The 56th PDK Poll repeated questions from past polls to gauge support for students choosing a teaching career. Sixty percent of Americans would not support their child to take up teaching in the public schools as a career. That is consistent with results from a similar question asked on the 2022 PDK Poll — yet far from the 75 percent of Americans who supported their child becoming a teacher when the question first was asked in 1969. Among the six in 10 who would not want their child to teach in the public schools, most cite inadequate pay and benefits (33 percent) or a lack of student discipline (27 percent) as the primary reasons why.

REACH Network releases analysis of discipline in schools An initiative aimed at reducing discipline disparities has released its baseline analysis of 10 LEAs in California and their practices and policies related to exclusionary discipline. The report was released in October by the Race, Education, and Community Healing (REACH) Network, a statewide collaborative founded in 2023 and co-led by UC Berkeley’s Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity and the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. The report highlights 10 LEA grantees’ efforts to address exclusionary discipline and provides lessons and recommendations that can inform similar efforts at other schools. Among the key findings, the report authors find that “persistent and multifaceted disparities in discipline practices and policies exist across REACH Network sites.” Patterns of suspension disproportionality, particularly affecting Black students, also persist across REACH Network grantees. While Black students make up 7 percent of students at these 10 sites, they account for 11 percent of suspensions. The authors note that the unprecedented disruption to education during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how entrenched discipline disparities are. “The data shows that while suspension rates slightly decreased post-pandemic, the underlying patterns of inequity remained largely unchanged,” according to the report. “This persistence of pre-existing disparities underscores the deeply rooted nature of these challenges and emphasizes the urgent need for systemic, transformative change in our approach to school discipline.” The report highlights the 10 LEAs’ approaches to address exclusionary discipline, such as SEL, mentorship programs and targeted professional development. Drawing on findings from the first year, the report also reveals a number of lessons and recommendations for the future. For instance, the authors state that while many LEAs are collecting valuable data on student discipline, some LEAs struggle with analysis and application. The authors recommend targeted trainings, user-friendly data analysis tools and partnering with data analytics firms to leverage the “untapped potential” of data to drive change. The report is accompanied by a school profile document that contains data on each LEA’s current state of discipline, its goals for reducing disparities and the initiatives it is undertaking to achieve its goals. Read the full report at https://transformschools.ucla.edu/research/california-race-education-and-community-healing-reach-network-baseline-report.