Public Attitudes toward Secondary Education: The United States in an International Context.

This report summarizes responses to a public opinion survey designed to reveal attitudes towards secondary education in other countries and compares these with attitudes in the United States. The survey was conducted in the United States and 11 other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED). The other countries were: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The survey asked questions related to six broad areas of concern: (1) the importance of subjects taught in schools, (2) the importance of schools developing certain personal and social qualities or aptitudes in students, (3) confidence that the subjects are taught well, (4) confidence that schools have a major effect on the development of personal and social qualities, (5) the important practices to emphasize in order for schools to achieve their goals, and (6) the importance of decision making at the school level. The report includes a narrative summary of responses, as well as a statistical analysis of the information collected from each country illustrated through 12 tables and 29 graphs. (MJP)