How would you rank the importance of our public education system as a factor in America's success globally? Would you rather use student achievement (with standardized test scores as the measure) or student progress (determined by comparing test scores before and after a certain period) as the basis for accountability in the classroom? ETS posed these questions and more in Ready for the Real World? Americans Speak on High School Reform, the organization's fifth annual public opinion poll. Parents with kids in grade and/or high school, educators and administrators were included in the polling sample.

According to the poll, Americans rank public education as most responsible for this nation's economic success and believe that our ability to compete globally will be damaged if nothing is done to improve the quality of education in our public high schools. This view echoes that in a recent report by the Committee for Economic Development which says that education reform is key to America's ability to compete effectively in the global economy.

But where should the reform be directed? The ETS poll shows that a majority of the adults surveyed feel that a lot remains to be done at the K-8 level, and believe that elementary education should remain the primary focus of reform efforts. Among the parents of high school students, more than half (57 percent) reported that most students were somewhat prepared when they entered high school, but that there are some gaps in their preparation.

This concern is shared by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and addressed in its High Schools that Work initiative. Among SREB's recommendations is a plan for high school teachers to work with middle school teachers to develop programs for kids in the 7th and 8th grades who need more instruction in math, language arts and reading before entering high school.

College Prep or Career and Technical Education?

The ETS poll shows that 76 percent of those surveyed believe that high schools have to offer career and technical education as well as college prep because students who aren't college-bound need real-world job skills. At the same time, respondents also overwhelmingly support the idea that all high school students should take one year of computer science (95 percent), four years of English literature/writing (85 percent), three years of History/civics (81 percent), four years of Math/algebra (73 percent), three years of science (69 percent) and two years of a foreign language (63 percent). This menu looks a lot like college prep.

It also looks a lot like the recommendations of :An Action Agenda for Improving America's High Schools:, proposed by the National Governors Association (NGA), in cooperation with a number of business and educational organizations, at a recent education summit. The NGA hosts a Redesigning the American High School page on its Web site.

When asked if they favor an emphasis on real-world learning which includes work study, community service and vocational courses, 64 percent of ETS respondents not only said they did, they also indicated that they strongly favor it. Similarly, 57 percent strongly favor transforming senior year to include out-of the-classroom activities (work study, industry certification/job training and college-level courses). Teachers especially liked this idea, with 70 percent strongly favoring it.

What about teachers?

Of the proposed reforms discussed in the ETS poll, the one that ranked the highest (74 percent strongly in favor) is requiring teachers to pass a certification test measuring their mastery of the subject they teach. More than half of the teachers who took the poll, 54 percent, were strongly in favor of this idea.

Organizations like the Education Trust argue that school districts need more research to identify those factors that can be shown to contribute to good teaching—education, experience, content knowledge or certification.

The ETS poll showed that more than half of the respondents strongly favor increasing teacher salaries, even if it means a tax increase, in order to hire and retain more well-qualified teachers.

These are just a few of the highlights of the ETS public opinion poll. It's clear from the findings that Americans believe high school reform is important—but much like the experts, they have not yet made a decision on the direction it should take.

Cecilia Garcia is CFK's executive director.