Americans want to know more about their local schools, a new Brookings report says, and the No. 1 item on their list is teacher performance.
The report, based on a national telephone survey, says the most common source of information about schools is family and friends, followed by daily newspapers, school publications and local television. Just 37 percent said they get school information on the Internet.
Asked what kind of news they want more of, 73 percent said they want to know more about teacher performance, and 71 percent cited student performance. Also in demand was news about school crime or violence (69 percent); school curricula (68 percent); and school finances and school reform (66 percent each). At the bottom of the list: school sports. Just 42 percent said they want more coverage of athletics–perhaps, the authors suggest, because there’s so much already.