Tampa Area Report Pt. 2

Research – Straight Talk From Americans – 2000

A Survey for the Pew Center for Civic Journalism 
Conducted By Princeton Survey Research Associates

The Tampa Area: Part Two

CONTENTS
Detailed Findings: Education
Teaching Values
What Do Public Schools Need?
Table 6: Needs for the Local Public Schools
Detailed Findings: Community Life
Table 7: Know Your Neighbors
Detailed Findings: Personal Life
Table 8: Satisfaction with Your Time
The State of The Nation – The View from Tampa
Table 9: Most Important National Issue
The News Media
Media Usage
Table 10: How often do you read/watch the news?
Appendix
Survey Methodology
Response Rate
[To Philadelphia Part One >>]

Detailed Findings: Education

Nearly six in ten Tampa residents (58%) say that the failure of public schools to provide a quality education is a problem in the area. That includes 34 percent who say it is a bigproblem and 24 percent who say it is a small problem. One in four (25%) say that this is not a problem and 17 percent say they do not know. These numbers show a greater perception of problems in the area than are apparent nationally, where 50 percent of the public say the quality of public education is a problem and 39 percent say it is not.

“The schools, they are way behind. They are overcrowded, the pay for teachers is poor, and they don’t have the best teachers.”
— One person’s words

Looking just at those who say they can rate the schools, 60 percent give their local elementary public schools positive marks, including 16 percent who say they are doing an excellent job. But 36 percent give the schools negative marks, with 28 percent saying only fair and eight percent giving them poor ratings. For elementary schools, these marks are below the national figures: 70 percent of Americans give the local elementary public schools positive marks. 

Tampa residents express serious concerns about their public schools, concerns that are clear in their ratings of the performance of the local public schools, whether thinking of the elementary schools or of the upper schools – including junior high, middle schools and high schools.

Sixty percent of Tampa residents give their local elementary public schools positive marks, including 16 percent who say they are doing an excellent job. But 36 percent give the schools negative marks, with 28 percent saying only fair and 8 percent giving them poor ratings. Three percent are not sure. (These percentages are based on only the responses from those who say they can rate the schools. A total of 22 percent of the entire population say they cannot rate the elementary schools.) (This inability to rate the schools can have an impact in a community, since such a large number of residents without such a connection can make building support for school programs more difficult. Tampa stands out on this dimension, with 22 percent being unable to rate elementary schools, compared with 14 percent nationally.)

For elementary schools, these marks are below the national figures. More than two-thirds of all Americans (70%) give the local elementary public schools positive marks, compared to 60 percent in Tampa. 

The view of local public high schools in Tampa is less positive and sharply divided. Only 51 percent give the local public middle and high schools positive marks, including 10 percent who rate their work excellent. Forty-six percent rate the schools negatively, with 14 percent who rate them poor. (Again, these percentages are based on only the responses from those who say they can rate the schools. A total of 23 percent of the entire population say they cannot rate the middle and high schools.)

Again, the local ratings are slightly below the national figures, where 56 percent give the local middle and high schools positive marks.

Among demographic groups, there are few differences on both levels of education. Only on the question of elementary schools is there a small difference between those who live in the suburbs – who are more likely to rate the elementary schools excellent – than those who do not live the suburbs. But the overall positive ratings are roughly the same, no matter where one lives.

The people who know the most about the local schools – the parents – are even more positive when asked about the actual schools their children attend. Fifty-two percent of those with school-age children say they are very satisfied with the schools their children attend. Thirty-three percent say they are somewhat satisfied with their kid’s schools. Thirteen percent say they are not too satisfied or not at all satisfied with the schools. 

Teaching Values

One change that Tampa residents – along with most Americans – want to see in the public schools is to teach values, in addition to academic subjects. Three-quarters of the public (77%) say that the public schools should teach “values, respect and courtesy in addition to the traditional academic subjects.” Nineteen percent say that the schools should “stick to teach academic subjects and leave teaching values to parents”. The views in Tampa are almost a perfect match overall with the national numbers.

What Do Public Schools Need?

Cutting class sizes and updating the educational resources in the schools are seen as the greatest needs in the public education system. Nearly half of all Tampa residents rate these two demands as great needs in the local schools, with slightly fewer – just over a third – focusing on teacher quality and parental involvement.

The focus on class size and updated teaching resources is more intense in Tampa than elsewhere. While nearly half of Tampa residents see a great need for these changes, only about one-third of those nationwide see the same level of need in their own public schools.

Reducing class size is a particular concern for higher-income residents and parents.

• Fifty-seven percent of those with incomes of at least $60,000 say cutting the class sizes is a great need, compared with 40 percent of those who make less than $20,000.
• Fifty-eight percent of the parents see this as a greatneed, compared with 45 percent for non-parents.

Replacing outdated teaching resources with up-to-date materials and tools such as computers is clearly driven by the parents.

• Parents are much more likely than non-parents (91% vs. 66%) to see the need for more modern materials.
• About 68 percent of the African-American residents see this as a great need, compared to only 45 percent of white residents.

On the issue of opportunities for parental participation, parents are again in the lead, along with African-American residents.

• Parents are more likely than non-parents (82% vs. 64%) to see a need for more opportunities to participate.
• African-American residents are more likely than white residents to see this as a great need (82% vs. 68%).

And finally, improving teacher quality reflects familiar patterns of opinion.

• African-American residents (86%) are more likely than white residents (71%) to see this as needed.
• Parents are more likely than non-parents (44% vs. 33%) to see better teachers as a great need.

Detailed Findings: Community Life

Overall, the sense of community in the Tampa area seems reasonably robust. Many know their neighbors, and a substantial fraction know all of their neighbors. Citizens think that they can make a difference by volunteering their time or by getting together with others to make changes in their communities. And despite the increased time pressures that are a fact of life in the new “Internet Economy”, they remain satisfied with the amount of time they spend with their family, with their friends and just relaxing.

The most basic connection one can have with those who live in your neighborhood is that you know them and that you know their names, which is a step beyond just knowing someone well enough to say “Hello” on the street. A third of Tampa residents (34%) say they know the names of all their neighbors who live close to them. Forty-four percent say they know only some of their neighbors and 22 percent say they do not know the names of any of their neighbors. These figures are similar to those found in the national PCCJ survey. (See Table 7.)

NOTE: An asterisk (*) means less than .5 percent gave this answer.

Where Tampa residents see problems in their communities, they do have strategies for solving those problems. The public is split on the best way to make their communities better places to live: 45 percent say that volunteering is the best choice and 42 percent say that getting others involved is best. Only seven percent say complain to the authorities and three percent say give money. Two percent are not sure.

Detailed Findings: Personal Life

When it comes to their daily lives, Tampa residents are reasonably satisfied with the amount of time they spend in key tasks – with family, friends and relaxation. Nearly eight out of ten say they are satisfied with the amount of time they spend with their families, with nearly five in 10 saying they are very satisfied. (See Table 8.) Tampa residents express somewhat lower levels of satisfaction with how much time they spend with friends and relatives, how much time they spend on hobbies and clubs, and how much time they spend just relaxing.

These findings about satisfaction are similar to those from the national PCCJ survey. And the national figures are not dramatically different from those found in a 1993 survey for Family Circle magazine. (Telephone survey for Family Circle Family Index Project, based on 2,004 interviews of adult heads of households, June 1-June16, 1993 by Princeton Survey Research Associates.) For example, satisfaction with the amount of time spent “just relaxing” is down just a bit. In 1993, 39 percent said they were very satisfied with how much time they spend relaxing (compared with 34 percent today) and 37 percent said they were somewhat satisfied (the same as in the current survey). 

Age, parental status, and the number of wage earners in the household are related to the satisfaction Tampa residents feel with their leisure time.

• The differences between parents and those without children under 18 at home are substantial. For example, thinking about time spent with friends and relatives, only 22 percent of the parents are verysatisfied, compared with 52 percent of the non-parents. Or looking at time spent “just relaxing”, 39 percent of the parents are dissatisfied, versus only 19 percent of the non-parents.
• Those living in households with a married couple where both work are also less satisfied with their leisure time. Thinking about time spent on hobbies, clubs and such activities, 39 percent in the dual-earner couples are dissatisfied, versus 24 percent in the single-earner homes. Looking at time spent “just relaxing”, only 25 percent of those in dual-income households are verysatisfied compared with 42 percent in single-worker households.
• Those age 65 and older are clearly the most satisfied with how they spend their time (which reflects the high percentage of retirees in the group.) In terms of spending time with friends and relatives, for example, this group is significantly more likely than their younger counterparts to express this highest level of satisfaction (67% vs. 34%). Thinking about time spent “just relaxing”, the highest level of satisfaction ranges from a low of 25% among those in the 18-to-34 age bracket to a high of 70% among those age 65 and older.

The State of The Nation – The View from Tampa

Tampa residents are more worried about the direction of the nation than they are about how things are going in their communities. The public is evenly divided in terms of overall satisfaction with the state of the union: 47 percent say they are satisfied with “the way things are going in this country today”, while 47 percent say they are dissatisfied. Six percent do not know or refuse to answer. 

These Tampa numbers are close to the national figures. The national PCCJ survey found a split – 48 percent versus 44 percent – about the direction of the country. These represent a marked improvement from only five years ago. In a March 1994 survey for the Times-Mirror Center, only 24 percent of Americans were satisfied with the direction of the country and 71 percent were dissatisfied. (A telephone survey for the Times-Mirror Center for the People and The Press, based on interviews with 2,001 adults, conducted March 16-21, 1994, under the supervision of Princeton Survey Research Associates.)

There are differences among demographic groups in Tampa as they look at the state of the nation.

• Men (55%) are significantly more likely than women (41%) to express satisfaction with the direction the country is headed. 
• Younger Tampa residents – those age 18 to 34 – are more likely than those age 35 and older to express satisfaction (59% vs. 44%) with the country’s direction.
• Satisfaction with the direction of the country rises with income. Only 29 percent of those who make less than $20,000 a year say they are satisfied, compared with 71 percent of those making $60,000 or more.

Looking at the most important national problems, Tampa residents put crime and violence at the top of the list, but the concern is not a dominating one. Only 18 percent mentioned that complex of issues, a far cry from the overwhelming concerns about issues of crime or the economy or foreign policy that has been seen in national surveys on the most important national problem over the years. (See Table 9.) 

As is true nationally, Tampa residents are concerned about children and teenagers, about moral issues and about the state of the nation’s political leadership. The child and teen issues are mentioned by 12 percent and run the gamut from concerns about too many children on the streets to a lack of respect and out-of-control behavior. General comments about a moral decline in the nation, a lack of values and a failure to embrace religious values are mentioned by 11 percent of the public. Another 11 percent mention problems with politics and politicians. This cluster of issues is also concentrated moral matters: a lack of national leadership and the failure of politicians to set a moral example.

With the economy booming along with low unemployment and low inflation, matters relating to money are mentioned by about 8 percent of the public. These comments range from calls for lower taxes, to a focus on the people who are still unemployed and to those who say that prices are still rising and everything still costs too much. Education is also a high on the list of problems, with 8 percent of the public mentioning education.

Just as no one issue dominates the list of national concerns, there is also no issue that the Tampa public thinks is being ignored by government officials in Washington. No more than 9 percent mention any single issue as not getting adequate government attention. And the Tampa list of ignored issues, short as it is, is quite similar to the figures from the survey of all Americans.

Likewise, the Tampa public was offered the opportunity to identify national stories that it feels the national news media is ignoring. Most could not name a single such overlooked story. Nearly a quarter of the public (21%) takes the opportunity to criticize the national news media when asked the question about overlooked national problems. And no single issue was mentioned by more than 3 percent of the public in terms of problems not covered by the national media. 

The News Media 

While the Tampa public doesn’t fault the news media for failing to cover important problems, many do still express criticism of both the national and local news media. This survey did not ask about any local news media organization by name: rather generic references to local television news and local daily newspapers were used.

The one particular criticism that does resonate in the African-American community in Tampa – and nationally — is that the local news media unfairly runs many negative stories about minorities. (See Differing Perspectives)

There are relatively few issues that Tampa residents see are being ignored by the national or local news media. This is, of course, a difficult question for the average citizen to answer, since they are not usually in the position of making decisions of what is covered by the news media. But it is a question that can detect issues that are troubling the public, but not yet receiving major media attention. Among Tampa residents, the largest categories of response to these two questions are diametrically opposed: generalized criticism of the news media (21% national media, 11% local media) paired against those who say they cannot think of anything that is being ignored by the news media (23% national media, 19% local media).

Media Usage

There are many different methods for measuring media usage, including the public’s readership or viewership of daily news stories. And the advent of the Internet has complicated this measurement further. Whatever the measure, there is little doubt that those who run the nation’s news media organizations are worried about declining news readership and news viewership. This survey includes some measures of news media usage that provide a context for the analysis of the public’s views on the issues and it’s judgments of news media performance. Again, no specific local newspaper or television station was mentioned.

As is true nationally, daily use of newspapers and television news rises in a regular pattern with age: with increasing age comes increasing daily viewership and readership.

• For example, 21 percent of Tampa residents under age 35 report reading a local newspaper every day: 71 percent of those age 65 and over say they read the paper every day. While 52 percent of the youngest group say they watch local television news every day, 87 percent of those among the oldest group do so.
• The pattern is reversed for going online for news and other reasons. Twenty-five percent of those under age 35 report going online every day: only nine percent of those age 65 and older do so.

APPENDIX

Survey Methodology

The survey results are based on telephone interviews with a representative sample of 507 adults, age 18 and older living in telephone households in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties in the Tampa area in Florida. The interviews were conducted from October 18 through November 16, 1999.

Sample Design

The sample for this survey was designed to produce a representative sample of telephone households in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. The selected sample is a random digit sample of telephone numbers selected from telephone exchanges in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties and was drawn by Survey Sampling, Inc. of Westport, Connecticut following PSRA’s specifications.

The random digit aspect of the sample is used to avoid “listing” bias. The design of the sample ensures this representation by random generation of the last two digits of telephone numbers selected on the basis of their area code, telephone exchange (the first three digits of a seven digit telephone number), and bank number (the fourth and fifth digits). Only working banks of telephone numbers are selected. A working bank is defined as 100 contiguous telephone numbers containing one or more residential listings. 

The sample was released for interviewing in replicates, which are random subsamples of the larger sample. Using replicates to control the release of sample to the field ensures that the complete call procedures are followed for the entire sample. The use of replicates also ensures that the regional distribution of numbers called is appropriate. Again, this works to increase the representativeness of the final sample.

At least 10 attempts were made to complete an interview at every sampled telephone number. The calls were staggered over times of day and days of the week to maximize the chances of making a contact with a potential respondent. All interview breakoffs and refusals were re-contacted at least once in order to attempt to convert them to completed interviews. In each contacted household, interviewers asked to speak with the “youngest male 18 or older who is at home.” If there is no eligible man at home, interviewers asked to speak with “the oldest woman 18 or older who lives in the household.” This systematic respondent selection technique has been shown empirically to produce samples that closely mirror the population in terms of age and gender.

Weighting

Non-response in telephone interview surveys produces some known biases in survey-derived estimates because participation tends to vary for different subgroups of the population, and these subgroups are likely to vary also on questions of substantive interest. For example, men are more difficult than women to reach at home by telephone, and people with relatively low educational attainment are less likely than others to agree to participate in telephone surveys. In order to compensate for these known biases, the sample data are weighted in analysis.

Claritas Data Services provided the demographic weighting parameters for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. The population parameters are the demographic characteristics of households with adults age 18 and older, which are then compared with the sample characteristics to construct sample weights. The results have been weighted to adjust for variations in the sample relating to sex, age, race, and education. The weights are derived using an iterative technique that simultaneously balances the distributions of all weighting parameters. 

Statistical Tests

PSRA calculated the effects of the sample weights on the statistical efficiency of the sample design, so that an adjustment can be incorporated into tests of statistical significance when using these data. This so-called “design effect” or “deff” represents the loss in statistical efficiency that results from systematically undersampling (through sample design and non-response) parts of the population of interest. 

The square root of the design effect should be multiplied by the standard error of a statistic in computing tests of statistical significance. Based on this calculation, we calculate the 95 percent confidence interval for results expressed as percentages in this study as plus or minus 5 percentage points for results near 50% based on the total sample.

Response Rate

PSRA calculates a response rate as the product of three individual rates: the contact rate, the cooperation rate, and the completion rate. Of the residential numbers in the sample, 61 percent were contacted by an interviewer and 48 percent agreed to participate in the survey. Ninety-six percent were found eligible for the interview. Furthermore, 94 percent of eligible respondents completed the interview. Therefore, the final response rate is 28 percent.