Poll: Most Oppose Paying Students for Success

This poll was taken as part of CBS News' "Where America Stands" series, an in-depth look at where the country stands today on key topics and an outlook for the future decade.

(CBS)

Fifty-six percent of Americans say such payments, which some schools are now experimenting with, are a bad thing. Thirty-seven percent call them a good thing.

There is more support for the practice among parents of children in grades kindergarten through 12, however. Less than half in this group call such payments a bad thing, while 44 percent favor the practice.

Older Americans strongly oppose such payments. Three in four respondents over the age of 65 say they are a bad thing.

When it comes to pay levels for public school teachers, two in three Americans say the country is falling short. Sixty-six percent overall – including 69 percent of parents of school-age children – say public school teachers are paid too little.

Twenty-four percent say these teachers are paid the right about, while just four percent say they are paid too much.

Most Americans favor annual mandatory student testing in public schools to evaluate a school's performance. Seven in ten supports the practice, while 24 percent oppose it.

Notably, support for such tests drops as a respondent's education level increases: While 80 percent of those with a high school education or less back the mandatory tests, just 49 percent of post-grads back them.

The Curriculum:

Most parents of school-age children believe students should be exposed to physical fitness and the arts as well as the standard school curriculum.

Seventy-nine percent say physical fitness and sports programs are a very important component of their child's schooling, and another 17 percent say it is somewhat important.

Support for arts and music programs is nearly as high, with 71 percent calling them a very important component of their child's schooling and another 24 percent calling them somewhat important.

These parents are less enthusiastic about foreign language education. While 48 percent say high school students should be required to learn a foreign language, a slim majority – 51 percent – say they should not.

Americans overall are more likely than parents of school-age children to favor mandatory foreign language education.

Two in three parents say their children receive the right amount of homework. The rest are roughly evenly split between the belief that they get too much homework and the belief they get too little.

Steven Fabian, a reporter with Channel One News, a CBS News partner, said on "The Early Show" the parents' perception is interesting when comparing the American homework amount with that of other countries.

"If you compare to other countries, it's not the same. Students in China are in school for two times the amount of time than our students are in school here," he said. "And these are people that American students will have to be competing with for jobs later on in like a global market."

Evaluating Education:

(CBS)

Thirty-six percent say it deserves an A grade, while another 37 percent offer a B. One in four say their child's education deserves an average grade of C, while just three percent give it a grade of D or F.

Most also say their child's education is better than their own. Fifty-eight percent say their child's education compares favorably to theirs, while 22 percent say it is worse. Twenty-two percent say their education is the same as their child's.

The vast majority of parents of school-age children – nearly nine in ten – expect their children to attend college. Seven in ten say their child's school is adequately preparing them to do so.

These parents are less confident that their child's school is preparing them for the job market. Just 44 percent say the school is adequately preparing them for the job market, while 35 percent say the school is not doing so.

Read the Complete Poll

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.