Commonwealth Education Poll Finds Virginians Divided Over Whether School Shootings can be Prevented

By Mike Porter

Approaching the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech, Virginians are evenly divided over whether any government or societal action can prevent similar attacks, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's latest Commonwealth Education Poll.

Of those responding, 48 percent took the more optimistic view, while 47 percent said shootings like that at Virginia Tech will happen again regardless of action taken by government and society.

The poll also finds about seven in 10, or 69 percent, of Virginians said parents need to tell schools about any social and emotional problems their children are having in order to prevent school violence, while 18 percent said parents should be able to keep this information private. 

Further, 74 percent of respondents said parents should be required to provide schools with a child's history of social and emotional problems at enrollment. Two-thirds said this should be required for students entering college.

"While the legal and academic communities continue to debate privacy issues, Virginia's citizens seem to feel strongly that colleges and universities need to know more about the young people who are being admitted," said William C. Bosher, Jr., executive director of the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute, or CEPI.

The Commonwealth Education Poll was conducted by telephone with 800 adults from across Virginia between Jan. 14 and Jan. 21, 2008. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points. This is the eighth annual Commonwealth Education Poll, conducted by VCU's Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute.

Other survey findings:

• Approval of Preschool Proposal: More than three-quarters, or 77 percent, approved of Gov. Tim Kaine's proposal to add a voluntary preschool program for all children in Virginia. Nearly three-quarters, 74 percent, said providing state-funded preschool for all children is more important than limiting the program to children most at risk for lower achievement in school.

• More Arts and Creative Thinking; Less Testing: Respondents were asked to evaluate five areas covered by schools. Equal portions of Virginians, 46 percent each, said there is not enough emphasis on arts and cultural education and not enough emphasis on creative thinking. Nearly a third of Virginians, or 32 percent, said there is too much emphasis on achievement testing; a similar portion, 35 percent, said the emphasis on testing is about right and 15 percent said there is not enough emphasis on testing.

• Increased Positive Ratings of School Performance since 2001 – especially in Northern Virginia: A majority of respondents rated their local schools favorably. More than a quarter, 27 percent, said Virginia schools provide an excellent education, and 43 percent said they provide a good education. About two in 10, or 22 percent, said Virginia schools provide a fair or poor education. School evaluations have been slowly rising since 2001, especially in Northern Virginia, where 41 percent said their local schools are excellent, up from 25 percent in 2001.

• Mixed Views of the Impact of No Child Left Behind: Evaluations of NCLB are mixed.  Equal numbers of respondents considered the impact to be negative or neutral, at 30 percent each, and slightly fewer said the impact has been positive, 24 percent.  When asked to respond to federal involvement in schools, 35 percent said the federal government's involvement hurts school performance, 30 percent said it helps and 26 percent said it makes no difference. This represents an increase in negative opinion. In the current poll, 30 percent of Virginians said the federal involvement helps school performance, down from 46 percent in 2005.

Complete results from the Commonwealth Education Poll may be found at http://www.cepionline.org/polls/2008/CEPI%20poll%20report%201-29-08.pdf.