New Quinnipiac poll says voters are happy with school grades

Posted by Philissa at 12:35 PM

A new poll out of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute shows that the majority of New York City voters — 61 percent — thought the school grades released earlier this month were fair. An even higher percentage of the public school parents polled — 75 percent — said their own school's grade was fair. Just over a quarter of those polled said they are satisfied with the city's schools — the highest approval rate in years of polls. And voters are pretty split on whether Chancellor Klein is doing a good job — but voters in the Bronx are happiest with his tenure.

These poll results suggest that Insideschools readers are more critical than the typical New Yorker — in our recent poll, almost 60 percent of readers gave the grades either a "D" or an "F."

What does this mean? In contrast with national trends that show people approving of their own schools even while being dissatisfied with schools in general, a whole lot of New Yorkers must think their school truly deserves a middling grade. And if the chancellor and mayor wants to bolster their approval ratings, they ought to rethink the plan to yank principals of failing schools — only 29 percent of voters think that's an appropriate consequence.