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Each year the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools provides an in-depth look at how Americans perceive public schools. This year’s poll probed the public on a wide range of hot education issues. How hot? Think the federal role in public education, school and teacher quality, teacher salaries and evaluation, student learning and rewards and the importance of college.

The results, released to the public yesterday, provide food for thought for educators and policymakers on all sides (and in the middle) of the ideological debates often dominating the education media. It is well worth a read.

One overarching conclusion, drawn by a panelist at the release event: The American public is not necessarily having the same conversation as policymakers when it comes to education.

Highlights of what Americans think:

• The state is responsible for education, not the federal government. It is responsible for funding schools, setting standards, deciding what should be taught and holding schools accountable.
• Improving teacher quality should be the top national education priority. Not developing demanding education standards. Not creating better assessments for students. And not improving the nation’s lowest performing schools.
• Of the four school improvement models currently in vogue, keep struggling schools open while providing comprehensive support to the existing principal and staff. This finding holds across political affiliation, age, level of education, geography and other demographics.
• The primary purpose for evaluating teachers is to help them improve their ability to teach, rather than to establish salaries based upon skills or document ineffectiveness that could lead to dismissal.
• Schools shouldn’t pay students to read books, attend schools or strive for better grades. And most parents don’t pay their children for those things, either.
• A college education is important. But students today are less well-prepared for college or work than they were in the past.
• Charter schools are a good idea. Most Americans would support a large increase in the number of charter schools operating in the US, as well as a new charter school in their community.
• My child’s school is good. But other public schools in America are not.
• School funding is one of the biggest problems facing public schools.

Of course, knowing what the public thinks is one thing. Using that information is another--and some claim that it is unnecessary to do so. They believe that we should just leave education decisions to the experts.

But while most of the public are not experts in education, their thoughts provide a valuable starting point in discussions of specific strategies for strengthening our public schools. After all, when the public doesn’t buy in to school reform strategies, they oftentimes fail.