Community Survey: Grading our schools

While federal and state leaders propose various types of education reform, local residents say our schools deserve decent grades — but could be teaching more practical skills.

Although 44 percent of the respondents to our most recent 1Q survey said local public and private schools are doing an “average” job of preparing students for careers and civic life, nearly twice as many respondents said the schools were doing a “good” or “great” job as felt they were “poor” or “terrible” in readying graduates for the future.

Still, when asked what skills or subjects local schools should teach more, the 200 respondents to the cellphone-based survey had plenty of suggestions. And their ideas seemed to cover about every position in the educational debate.

Some of the 200 adults in communities served by Reporter Newspapers and Atlanta INtown thought the schools needed to better prepare graduates for jobs.

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