Students Grade U.S. Schools in Gallup Poll

From 1999 to 2023 Gallup surveyed parents with children in school and reported in 2023, ”Currently, 36% of Americans say they are satisfied with the quality of education that students in the U.S. receive today, compared with 63% who say they are dissatisfied.” In the 2024 Student Poll, using different metrics than the adult poll, the children gave their school an overall grade of a B–. The students gave a C+ to “Teaching you in ways that adapt to your unique learning needs” and “Making you excited about learning.” (See the Student Perspective Report Card below.) Gallup states the student poll was conducted among “6 million students from more than 8,000 schools across 1,400 districts.”

The low grades students give their teachers and schools, combined with the 63% of parents who say they are dissatisfied with the quality of education our schools provide, should be a clarion call for reform—but it registers barely at all in our discussions about making school better for children. More instruction, longer school days, more homework and tests—this is still considered school reform today. What we need instead are more options for children to socialize besides sitting in a class and more adults willing to welcome children and share their knowledge and skills outside of the classroom setting.

20th century educators recognized many problems with schooling, and it was particularly bountiful in it’s school reform efforts, such as in 1930’s The Eight-Year Study that showed progressive/alternative high schools using different curricula and methods produce college graduates just as well conventional high schools did, to the 1980’s A Nation At Risk report that claimed, ““the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” In 2002 the Bush administration pushed its reform, No Child Left Behind, and Obama pushed The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015. All these reforms barely changed much in the lives of children, and the school system remains at heart as it has been: “Teach ‘em and test ‘em.”

Homeschoolers and alternative schools have been demonstrating other ways and schedules to help children learn for over a century, and indigenous cultures have long kept children involved in the mix of life instead of segregating them into schoolrooms, but most people can’t let go of large scale, factory schooling despite repeated school reform efforts. In the meantime, attending school seems more and more to be a way to train people to dislike education, as the increasing number of absent students hits record levels.

We have many answers to school’s problems that we can use, yet we continue to compel all children to engage in an activity both they and their parents think is far from optimal. We can devise better ways to spend our children’s time than experiencing unsatisfactory schooling, as the growing numbers of homeschoolers, charter schools, alternative schools, and unschooling show today. Yet the school system refuses to engage meaningfully with these new ideas, preferring to post another poor report card while telling students and parents things will get better some day. If you are dissatisfied with your school’s report card, consider trying another form of education to help your children learn and grow outside the classroom. After all, schooling is not the same as education.