ASQ conducted the survey to provide educators with a better understanding of some of the most pressing education quality concerns that are impacting schools today.

The survey finds that adults do NOT think K-12 U.S. schools are effectively teaching the following 21^st century skills:

• Organizational skills, e.g. to prioritize and manage time effectively (51%)
• Communications skills, e.g. listening and speaking (49%)
• Problem-solving and reasoning (48%)
• Creativity, e.g. providing innovative solutions to everyday problems (48%)
• Teamwork and collaboration (39%)
• Science and technology (36%)

Among adults who think students today need to improve such skills, (64%) say that U.S. school systems are not making these skills a priority and nearly two-thirds (64%) place the blame on a lack of parental involvement. Others think kids lack motivation to succeed (47%) and state/local governments are not holding schools accountable to adequately train students (35%).

“It ’s evident that many Americans believe our schools must better prepare students to function and contribute in a highly competitive 21^st century world, ” said Jay Marino, chair of ASQ ’s K-12 Education Committee. “While No Child Left Behind has been striving to improve test scores, the survey suggests that what adults really support are efforts to improve skills like problem-solving and creativity which are not tracked on these tests. ” Marino is also assistant superintendent for the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Other findings:

• Kids age 8 to 18 are significantly happier with what is being taught in K-12 education than adults (62% kids vs. 24% adults).
• In fact, nearly 9 out of 10 adults (87%) agree that the U.S. K-12 education system needs improvement with about half (52%) saying it needs major improvement.
• Men are more likely than women to say that the U.S. K-12 education system is not doing an effective job of training students in the areas of problem-solving and reasoning (51% men v.s 45% women), and science and technology (39% men vs. 32% women) in order to succeed in the 21^st century.
• Of the adults who think students need to improve their skills to succeed in the 21^st century, 34% of adults specifically place blame on school leaders for not having the vision to change their school system and 23% say the problem is that teachers don ’t have the right qualifications.

About the Survey

Harris Interactive fielded the online survey on behalf of the American Society for Quality between October 19 and October 23, 2007 among 2,818 U.S. adults ages 18 years of age or older and fielded a separate youth online survey between October 17 and October 23, 2007 among 1,284 youth ages 8-18. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology statement for both studies is available.