What makes a good survey? Sure, there’s the wording of the questions, the quality of the pool of respondents and a host of other factors. One I like is the longevity of the poll. In this case, it’s 41 years for the PDK (Phi Delta Kappa International)/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools.

Here are some of the key results:

The findings indicate that Americans continue to support annual testing of students in grades three through eight by a two-to-one margin, and they favor using a single national test rather than letting each state use its own. This opinion is held by Democrats and Republicans equally.

Two out of three Americans support charter schools, although many Americans are confused about whether charter schools are public schools and whether they can charge tuition, teach religion, or select their own students. During the last five years, Americans’ approval of charter schools has increased by 15 percent.

The 2009 poll also reveals that almost three out of four Americans favor merit pay for teachers regardless of political affiliation. Student academic achievement, administrator evaluations, and advanced degrees are the three most favored criteria for awarding merit pay.  

NCLB Fatigue? Americans are also growing weary of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In fact, support for NCLB, which was passed in 2002, continues to decline as almost half of Americans view it unfavorably and only one in four Americans believe that it has helped schools in their communities. 

Split Views on Teacher Tenure. American views are split on teacher tenure depending on how the question is phrased. They disapprove of teachers having a “lifetime contract” but agree that teachers should have a formal legal review before being terminated.

Dropout Rate of Top Importance. Almost nine out of 10 Americans believe that the U.S. high school dropout rate is either the most important or one of the most important problems facing high schools today. Offering more interesting classes was the suggestion offered most when asked what could help reduce the dropout rate. 

PDK says the results are an endorsement of President Obama’s education agenda. I say it’s about time and let’s hope state and federal officials can build on the momentum and create some meaningful change to benefit all students.

State News Magazine recently identified the "most connected" governors in the United States. According to the magazine, only five governors in the country use four out of the five major social networking sites.

According to the article, none of them use Myspace, but all use Facebook, flickr, Twitter and YouTube. They are: 

• Mike Beebe (Arkansas)
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (California)
• Deval Patrick (Massachusetts)
• Rick Perry (Texas)
• Jim Doyle (Wisconsin)

Well folks, I believe I have a sixth four-out-of-fiver for you who wasn’t listed in the article — Mitch Daniels. Looks like our governor has official accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Myspace.

Other governors identified who use three of the five social tools are Bob Riley (Alabama); Bill Ritter (Colorado); Steve Beshear (Kentucky); Martin O’Malley (Maryland); Jennifer Granholm (Michigan); Haley Barbour (Mississippi); Jon Corzine (New Jersey); Bev Perdue (North Carolina); and Christine Gregoire (Washington).

Regarding the reasons for getting involved in social media, Florida Sen. Dave Aronberg says it’s an easy decision:

It’s a no brainer for a politician to use the new media. You’re not going to be misquoted if you are the one sending out your own communication. It’s also a great way to engage the voters in a two-way conversation.

I read an interesting summary of some academic research that suggests it’s not always best to be ahead of the crowd in launching a new business or product line. The deciding factor, according to the researchers, is the learning environment.

According to the research findings, in a hostile learning environment, entrepreneurs gain relatively little benefit by watching others. For example, if the relevant knowledge is protected intellectual property, studying the market before entering wouldn’t yield much advantage. In these situations, the trade-off favors entering early. But in less hostile learning environments, where entrepreneurs gain valuable information likely to increase their success just by watching other companies, companies benefit from waiting and learning lessons from earlier players.

“If you enter early, you are more of a pioneer. You can have a competitive advantage, by locking in key customers, suppliers or intellectual property," says researcher Moren Levesque. “If you cannot do any of this, then it may not be a good strategy, because there is always a cost to being a pioneer.”

But deciding when to enter a market solely on the advantages of learning is not enough. Entrepreneurs also need to launch before an opportunity closes. 

I strongly agree with that last statement. Yes, the learning opportunities are a factor, but just one of many. You have to respect the entrepreneurs who are making the critical decisions each day.

In a column for Governing, former Indianapoils Mayor Stephen Goldsmith analyzes how we think about government, and credits public officials who have made strides toward combating homelessness and enhancing school choice in America:

Private companies think about their "value proposition" all the time. What are we doing for our customers that make them happy to pay our price?

Government services usually don’t come with a price, but government managers should examine their value proposition just the same. In fact, revisiting "why" an agency is involved in a particular activity can be a crucial step in finding better, faster, cheaper ways of delivering value to citizens and taxpayers. While mayor of Indianapolis, I witnessed well intentioned public officials outsource an activity with the result that we became more efficient at accomplishing an obsolete process.

Getting the value proposition right unlocks better and cheaper results more than any single other thing government can do. Consider New York City’s effort to address homelessness. At one time, the city saw itself primarily in the business of providing shelter. In 2002, more than 33,000 people were living in city run shelters each month–no matter how many shelters were opened, they always seemed full.

Then Mayor Michael Bloomberg put Linda Gibbs in charge of homeless services. Upon taking over, Gibbs asked herself a simple but powerful question: What is our purpose? What is the value that we are attempting to deliver to citizens?

The answer to that question prompted an insight. Gibbs realized that her job wasn’t to run homeless shelters. Her agency existed to help people who were homeless–to reduce the need for emergency shelter, in fact.

Gibbs looked around and discovered that all her agency’s efforts were directed at running shelters. As Gibbs later observed, "We were smart enough to know how to help the clients’ underlying needs, but you put them in the shelters and suddenly the shelters became the solution, which is turning the world upside down."

Gibbs soon redefined the agency’s goal from serving the homeless to reducing homelessness and redirected resources to prevention. The new approach worked. By 2008, of those receiving this more comprehensive assistance, more than 90 percent had not reentered shelters within one year of being served. (For details about how this was accomplished see the Harvard Kennedy School case study, Overhauling New York City’s Approach to Shelter.)

Indianapolis-based Perpetual Technologies, Inc. (PTI) takes the “Support Our Troops” credo seriously. 

The information technology company will be honored next month by the Department of Defense with the 2009 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award – the highest recognition given by the U.S. government to employers for outstanding support of their employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve.

Few companies receive this honor – PTI is one of 15 businesses chosen from more than 3,200 nominations. The company was nominated by an employee.

One-tenth of Perpetual Technologies’ workforce consists of Guard and Reserve members or former members. Among benefits offered to employees: differential pay between military pay and PTI salary during deployments; care packages sent to employees deployed overseas; incorporation of families of deployed service members in all company functions; and recognition of military service through public events and displays at company facilities.

The National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) established the Freedom Award in 1996.  Read more about ESGR and its Indiana services in a 2007 BizVoice® column.

Perpetual Technologies will be presented the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 17.

The following is a column penned by Derek Redelman, our VP of education and workforce policy, that appeared in several Indiana newspapers. The piece continues to draw attention; see it here in the Muncie Star Press.

It is a myth that suburban and charter schools are favored by the state budget that was just adopted, while Indianapolis Public Schools and other urban districts "took it on the chin,” as the Indianapolis Star article elsewhere on this page phrases it.

In reality, the winners of this state budget are overwhelmingly urban districts like IPS. Sure, some of those districts will face funding cuts; but those cuts are disproportionately small compared to their losses in enrollment. Conversely, growing districts will receive increases, but those increases are disproportionately small compared to their increases in enrollment.

IPS, which is projected to lose nearly 4,000 students over the next two years, will start with $8,580 per student, or $9,429 when federal funds are included. Over the next two years, those amounts rise to $9,014 and $10,254, respectively. (These numbers include all state funding but do not include funds from property taxes).

That’s an increase of five percent in base funding and 8.2 percent when federal funds are included. Cumulatively, that means that continuing students in IPS will receive an increase of more than $13.6 million in baseline funding and more than $26.5 million when federal funds are included.

Contrast that with Hamilton Southeastern, which is projected to gain more than 1,600 students. The district starts with only $5,762 per student and just $5,784, including federal funds. Over the next two years, those funding levels actually fall to $5,701 and $5,772, respectively.

That’s a decline of 1.1 percent in base funding and 0.2 percent when federal funds are included. Cumulatively, Hamilton Southeastern students will lose more than $1 million in baseline funding or just under $300,000 including federal funds.

By the logic of urban school leaders, these enrollment changes are irrelevant. Based solely on changes to district-level funding, they suggest that urban districts will "suffer" while suburban districts and charter schools will be "the winners." Read the rest of this entry »

What do we know about the health care uninsureds in our country? That there are somewhere around 46 million people in this category, the national total is slightly over 16% and Indiana’s percentage is nearly the same.

Gallup, the polling people, have some more numbers. Their recent surveys tell us there are more uninsured in Texas, New Mexico and Mississippi (between 24% and 27% in each state) and the lowest totals are in Massachusetts (5.5% with its "universal" coverage), and Vermont, Minnesota and Hawaii (all in the 8.5% range). The Gallup results also show regional trends — lower numbers of uninsured in the Northeast and higher figures in the South and West. They link varying amounts of Hispanic populations as one of the reasons for the difference.

But there are more numbers that should not be forgotten: 45% of the uninsured are in that status for less than four months and only 16% are uninsured for more than 18 months. According to the Heritage Foundation, 20 million are in households with incomes more than twice the poverty level, approximately nine million are on Medicaid and nearly as many are illegal immigrants. The problem, experts say, is the lack of portability in insurance (those who change jobs often go in and out of the uninsured count). Policy changes regarding tax treatment and portability would be a huge first step in the right direction.

The point: Yes, the many Americans without insurance is a problem and part of the health care reform debate, but take a closer look at the numbers before forming your opinion on what needs to take place.