A new Gallup poll finds district superintendents increasingly concerned about teaching their students to be “engaged citizens.”
Nearly 3 in 4 superintendents considered teaching such citizenship skills a challenge for their district—a sharp spike, since only about half considered it a concern in polls in 2013 and 2017. And more than 90 percent of superintendents now consider high graduation rates and high student engagement the most effective gauges of school effectiveness, far outstripping the 61 percent who favor standardized-test scores.
In the wake of a series of school shootings this year, 42 percent of district leaders reported having armed security at their schools, up from 38 percent of superintendents in 2013, in the aftermath of the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn. The findings are based on interviews with more than 2,300 public school superintendents.
