REPORT TO EDUCATION REFORM NOW

REPORT TO EDUCATION REFORM NOW

?FEBRUARY 2013 REPORT ON ATTITUDES TOWARD EDUCATION REFORM IN BOSTON?

Benenson Strategy Group February 19, 2013

1000 Potomac Street N.W. Suite 420 Washington, D.C. 20007 (2 0 2) 3 3 9 6 0 6 0

METHODOLOGY

This report covers the results of our research: 445 total interviews in Boston with a sample of likely 2013 municipal voters. The interviews were conducted February 4-6, 2013. The margin of error for overall results is ?4.65% and higher among subgroups.

Undecideds (Undec) are 9% of the electorate and are defined as anyone who was undecided on initial support for charter schools (Q16).

Persuadables (Pers) are 25% of the electorate and are defined as anyone who did not support charter schools initially, but moved to support charter schools later in the survey. In addition, anyone who did not strongly support charter schools initially, but moved to strongly support charter schools later in the survey, is included in the persuadable definition.

The regions are defined as follows:

North ? which represents 50% of the electorate and is defined as anyone living in Suffolk house districts: 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 15th, 17th, 18th

South ? which represents 50% of the electorate and is defined as anyone living in Suffolk house districts: 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHARTER SCHOOL SUPPORT ............................................................................................ 21 CONTEXT ........................................................................................................................ 22 FAVORABILITY ................................................................................................................ 24 JOB APPROVAL ................................................................................................................ 26 STATE OF EDUCATION..................................................................................................... 30 CHARTER SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS .............................................................................. 35 PUBLIC SCHOOL PROBLEMS ............................................................................................. 39 BUSING, SCHOOL DAY, OTHER ISSUES ............................................................................. 42 CHARTER SCHOOLS ......................................................................................................... 45 EDUCATION REFORM ....................................................................................................... 50 PRO-CHARTER MESSAGING .............................................................................................. 53 DEMOGRAPHICS .............................................................................................................. 56 PERSUASION INDEX......................................................................................................... 61

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MAJOR FINDINGS

Highlights: Boston Education Poll

Initial Ballot: Charter School Support 73%, Charter School Opposition 17%, and 9% undecided.

Top problems in Boston Public Schools: funding, parental involvement, and safety (unions and teachers are not the chief concerns).

Best Approach: Your focus should be the goals and improvements you want to make to education, with charter schools being the means to achieve those goals (rather than the chief goal of your organization). Highlight on the positive benefits of the policies you advocate, as opposed to a negative message about opponents or unions. Emphasize that your desired reform will:

o Set high expectations and accountability for teachers, students, and parents.

o Impose stronger rules on student behavior and discipline.

o Give schools more freedom to hire good teachers and fire teachers who are not doing a good job.

o You believe in measuring and rewarding success (as a way to convey accountability that benefits teachers).

o Get parents more involved.

o Benefit all students regardless of where they live or their background (rebuts a top concern about charters, which is that they only serve the few/top and do nothing to help the rest).

Charter School Messaging: Increasing the number of independent charter schools in Boston will give all our students a better opportunity for a successful future. They outperform existing public schools because charters hold teachers accountable, rewarding success and removing teachers who are not doing a good job, increase classroom time by 30%, which keeps kids out of trouble and gives them more time to focus on their studies, and set high expectations for students and parental involvement.

Refer to charter schools as independent charter schools as opposed to commonwealth charter schools.

Charter School Strong Supporters: Women, parents of school-aged children, non-white voters, upper-income households.

Persuadable Voters: Men, parents of grown children, downscale (income and education) households.

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Overview

Boston voters are generally happy with the direction in which the city is going, but are concerned about the quality of education in Boston schools, citing it as the number one problem the city should address. Education even scored higher than the economy or crime, which were the next top issues. Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) voters want to see a complete overhaul or major reforms to the Boston Public School system.

o Race and income both affect Boston voters' views on education in several different areas. Non-white and lower income voters are more likely to be happy with Boston's schools and less likely to consider education the top issue for Boston than white and upper income voters. More than 6 in 10 upper income whites (61%) and non-whites (73%) both rate schools as fair or poor, compared to 39% of lower income voters.

The top problems in Boston Public Schools that voters perceive are the lack of funding and parental involvement, followed by safety. Teachers and unions are lower down the list of concerns and not top-of-mind. Advocacy for reform will be more effective if it addresses the chief concerns of residents.

There is a good base of knowledge about charters. Three in four voters (73%) are at least somewhat familiar with the concept of charter schools and the majority knows that charters are public and charge no tuition. However, there is little knowledge about teacher contracts and the difference between in-district charters and other charters.

Support for charter schools is high (73%) and widespread across all demographics. Support remains high throughout the duration of the survey and increases slightly as voters learn more about charter schools and are exposed to positive messaging.

Voters prefer charter schools over regular public schools: a 53% majority (and 62% of Boston voters with school-age children) would prefer to send their child to a charter school than a Boston public school (which 30% prefer). On several questions, voters indicate that they are happier with the performance of charter schools than regular Boston public schools.

While voters overwhelmingly support charter schools in general, most do not distinguish and are not aware of the difference between the types of charter schools (in-district or independent). Support for charter schools is high regardless of whether they are referred to as independent or in-district charter schools (72% support Independent schools, 66% support in-district). However, when forced to choose, there is a clear preference for having charters independent of the Boston Public School system.

While support for charter schools is high, it ranks below other, more specific reforms when voters are asked to assess what would be effective in improving education in Boston. This suggests that your goal should be to visibly advocate for the top reforms (see below) and use charter schools as a way to achieve them. In other words, charters are the means to bring these improvements to fruition. Reforms ranking near the top of the list include: making it easier for schools to remove teachers who are not doing a good job, changing the way students are assigned to schools so that they attend a neighborhood school, and letting schools hire whatever teachers they want, rather than those with more seniority.

The appeal of charter schools is rooted in higher expectations and standards and more accountability for students, teachers, and parents. Focusing on the action or inaction of opponents of reform (e.g. teachers' unions having too much control over the hiring and firing process) is likely to limit the appeal.

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o Expectations and accountability for students includes both academic achievement and personal behavior. With crime being a significant concern (although lower than education), stronger discipline helps solve two problems (helps students achieve and reduces the problems they cause in school or on the streets).

o To voters, teacher accountability is not the same thing as grading teachers based on test scores. In several instances, when test scores or specific measures of accountability are mentioned, support is lower than for the general goal of "accountability" without specifying how to hold teachers accountable. Obviously test scores will likely be part of determining whether a teacher is successful, but it is more convincing to voters when language is kept simpler. For instance, 63% think making it easier to remove teachers who are not doing a good job would be very effective at improving education, whereas just 36% believe holding teachers accountable for test scores would be very effective.

o The fact that there is a strong preference for more parental involvement and support for more funding for schools indicates that charters can also be appealing because they are public schools that are open to anyone and tuition free, yet reduce the role of the centralized school bureaucracy and the overhead that entails by increasing the role of parents.

Effective arguments will be phrased in a positive, aspirational light that demonstrates how charters help schools achieve the goals people most desire, like accountability and higher expectations for teachers, parents, and students in performance and behavior. In our message testing, the top message argued that charters bring 30% more classroom time, which keeps students out of trouble and provides more time for their studies. Other high performing messages highlighted how charters provide low-income students the chance to escape underperforming schools and the opportunity to succeed in a competitive world, how charters hold teachers accountable (good teachers are encourages and teachers who fail to perform are let go), and how parents are very involved in charters. An additional component to include in messaging when possible is that charter schools serve all students, including students with disabilities and English language learners. These are not the top messages, but they will help rebut voter concerns about charters.

o At several points in the survey, voters indicate that the lack of parental involvement is a major problem that hurts Boston schools. Messaging that includes increased parental involvement (through expectations and accountability) is a key component to increasing support for charter schools.

Referring to charter schools as independent charter schools rather than commonwealth charter schools will significantly help increase support, especially with registered Independent voters. Additionally, it will help distinguish these charter schools from in-district charters.

When asked what is their biggest concern with charter schools in an open-ended question, voters were more likely to have no concerns or raise concerns about the limited availability of charters than a specific problem with a charter school education. Besides "no concerns" (22%), the top worries were "does nothing to improve other public schools" (10%), "not enough of them/too hard to get into" (8%), and "not diverse enough/only certain kids are accepted" (8%).

o The top charter school concerns (other than none) for persuadable voters are that charters are "not diverse enough/only certain kids accepted" (9%) and "the level of education provided" (8%).

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