Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia Area: Part Two

CONTENTS
Detailed Findings: Education
Problems with Quality: The Public Schools
Teaching Values
Table 4: Needs for the Local Public Schools
Detailed Findings: Community Life
Detailed Findings: Personal Life
Table 5: Satisfaction with Your Time
The State of The Nation – Viewed From Philadelphia
Table 6: Most Important National Issue
The News Media
Media Usage
Table 7: How often do you read/watch the news?
Appendix
Survey Methodology
Response Rate
[To Denver Part One >>]

Detailed Findings: Education

Education is high on every list in this survey and others of the issues that people say are important and that elected officials – whether local or national – should address. The nation’s public schools continue to receive fairly good marks, but the Philadelphia area schools do not fare as well, with some problems seen as evident and in need of fixing. 

“There’s no money in the schools. They lack of text books and equipment for the schools.”
— One person’s words

A majority of Philadelphia residents (55%) say that the failure of public schools to provide a quality education is at least a small problem in the area. Thirty-two percent say it is a bigproblem and 23 percent say it is a small problem. Two in five (38%) say that this is not a problem and seven percent say they do not know. These numbers show a slightly greater perception of problems in the area than is apparent nationally, where 26 percent say the quality of public education is a big problem.

There are substantial divisions in the opinions about the schools.

• Fifty-eight percent of those who live in the city say the quality of public education is a big problem, while only 17 percent of those who live in the suburbs take that view. 
• Fifty-six percent of the African-American residents name education as a big problem, compared with only 25 percent of white residents. Forty-four percent of the white residents say the lack of a quality public education is not a problem, with only 19 percent of African-American residents taking that view.
• About four in ten of those with incomes of less than $40,000 see the quality of public education as a bigproblem, while only 18 percent of those who make at least $60,000 would agree.
• There is no difference between parents and non-parents on this question.

Problems with Quality: The Public Schools

While Philadelphia residents express serious concerns about their public schools, they still give positive ratings to 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-two percent of Philadelphia residents give their local elementary public schools positive marks, including 23 percent who say they are doing an excellent job. But 36 percent give the schools negative marks, with 25 percent saying only fair and 11 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 11 percent of the entire population say they cannot rate the elementary schools.)

For elementary schools, these marks are a bit lower than the national figures. Three out of five Americans (70%) give the local elementary public schools positive marks, compared to 62 percent in Philadelphia. 

The same pattern holds for local public high schools. Only 52 percent give the local public middle and high schools positive marks, including 19 percent who rated their work excellent. Forty-four percent rate the schools negatively, with 23 percent fair and 21 percent poor. The national figures are similar, with 56 percent giving the local middle and high schools positive marks.

Among demographic groups, there are some differences on both levels of education. Looking at the question on public middle and high schools:

• Those who live in the city give the high schools a negative rating by a 26 percent to 69 percent edge. Those who live in the suburbs are positive about the high schools by a 68 percent to 30 percent margin.
• Those under age 35 are less positive than older residents. For example, 55 percent of the younger group give the schools a negative grade, while 56 percent of those 35 and over give the schools positivemarks.
• About 40 percent of those making less than $40,000 a year give the schools positive marks, while 64 percent of those with higher incomes give the schools such ratings.

Parents and non-parents have roughly the same ratings of the schools overall, both at the elementary and high school levels. But that does not mean parents are unhappy with the schools their children actually attend. When asked specifically about the schools their children attend, parents are quite positive. Fifty-eight percent of those with school-age children say they are very satisfied with the schools their children attend. Thirty-two percent say they are somewhat satisfied with their kid’s schools. Only eight percent say they are not too satisfied or not at all satisfied with the schools. 

Teaching Values

One change that Philadelphia residents are united on – along with most Americans – is that the public schools should teach values in addition to academic subjects. Almost three-quarters of the public (72%) say that the public schools should teach “values, respect and courtesy in addition to the traditional academic subjects.” Twenty-five percent say that the schools should “stick to teach academic subjects and leave teaching values to parents”. Support for teaching values in the schools spans virtually all the demographic groups in the area. The views in Philadelphia are almost a perfect match overall with the national numbers.

Looking at four areas frequently mentioned as possible paths to upgrading the public schools, Philadelphia residents see each as needed, with not much differentiation between the four. Offering parents more opportunities to participate comes out at the top, with 41 percent seeing a great need for this. Cutting class sizes and updating the educational resources in the schools come next. The analysis of Philadelphia residents of the schools’ needs are similar to the national numbers, although residents are slightly more likely to see a great need in each area.

The demographic patterns for these questions are roughly similar from one to another, with minority residents seeing greater needs than white residents and city residents seeing more needs than suburbanites.

On the issue of opportunities for parental participation, the issue may lack some of the urgency that the overall numbers suggest.

• Parents are less likely than non-parents (68% vs. 78%) to see a need for more opportunities to participate, suggesting this need may not be as great as one would think.
• African-American residents are much more likely than white residents to see this as a great need (68% vs. 33%).
• City residents (64%) are more likely than suburbanites (25%) to see this need as a great one.

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

• About three-quarters of the African-American residents see this as a great need, compared to only 28 percent of white residents.
• Those under age 50 (44%) are more likely than those over 50 (30%) to see this as an urgent need.
• Nearly two in three city dwellers see this as a great need compared to 27 percent of suburbanites.
• About half of those with incomes under $40,000 see this as a great need but only 25 percent of those with incomes of $60,000 and over do.

Somewhat similar patterns are seen in whether or not reducing class sizes is a great need. 

• Sixty-two percent of African-American residents say there is a great need for reduced class size. Only 28 percent of white residents do.
• Women (71%) are somewhat more likely than men (62%) to say there is at least some need to reduce class size.
• Reducing class sizes is seen as a great need by city dwellers (53%) far more often than those who live in the suburbs (27%).

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

• African-American residents (67%) are far more likely than white residents (26%) to see a great need.
• Those with annual household incomes of less than $20,000 (57%) are much more likely as those with household incomes of $60,000 or more (20%) to think there is a great need for teacher improvement. 
• Half of those living in the city think there is a great need for better teachers in their schools; just 21 percent of suburbanites feel that way. 

Detailed Findings: Community Life

Overall, the sense of community in the Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia area residents (36%) say they know the names of all their neighbors who live close to them. Forty-six percent say they know only some of their neighbors and 18 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.

Where Philadelphia 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: 40 percent say volunteering is the best choice and 32 percent say getting others involved is the best choice. Only 12 percent say complain to the authorities and four percent say give money. Ten percent say some other way. Two percent are not sure.

Detailed Findings: Personal Life

When it comes to their daily lives, Philadelphia residents are reasonably satisfied with the amount of time they spend in key tasks – with family, friends and relaxation. About eight out of ten say they are satisfied with the amount of time they spend with their families, with five in 10 saying they are very satisfied. (See Table 5.) Philadelphia 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 are similar to those from the national PCCJ survey. And those national figures are not dramatically different from those found in a 1993 survey for Family Circlemagazine (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). 

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

Age, parental status and employment status are directly related to satisfaction.

• As one would expect, those who are age 65 and over are more satisfied with how they spend their time than younger residents. Those in this age group are overwhelmingly retired. 
• Parents and non-parents are equally satisfied with the amount of time they spend with their families. But non-parents are more satisfied with the amount of time they spend with friends and relatives (88% vs. 69%), with the amount of time spent on hobbies (72% vs. 59%), with the amount of time spent relaxing (74% vs. 55%) than parents.
• Another group that is not as satisfied with the amount of time they have each day is those families where both the mother and father work. In these families, there is uniformly less satisfaction on all four questions than those where only one member of the couple works. For example, 56 percent of those in the two-income households are satisfied with the time they spend just relaxing, while 82 percent of those from single-income households are satisfied. It is important to remember that dual-income households does not mean high-income households: nearly two out of five of these households in Philadelphia reported incomes of less than $60,000 a year despite at least two incomes.

The State of The Nation – Viewed From Philadelphia

Philadelphia residents are just about as worried about the direction of the nation as they are about how things are going in their communities. Fifty-four percent say they are satisfied with “the way things are going in this country today”, while 39 percent say they are dissatisfied. Seven percent do not know or refuse to answer. 

Compared with the national numbers, Philadelphia residents are slightly more positive about the direction of the nation (even while they are less positive about the direction of Philadelphia.) The national PCCJ survey found that a split – 48 percent versus 44 percent – in satisfaction about the direction of the country. These national numbers 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).

When broken down by demographic group, however, the poll shows a division in perspective:

• Men are significantly more likely than women to express satisfaction with the way things are going in the country (60% vs. 49%).
• White residents were far more likely than African-American residents to express satisfaction (62% vs. 36%). Again, Hispanic residents appear to hold opinions similar to the African-American residents, but the number of interviews is too small to reach a conclusion. These findings are in contrast to those from the national PCCJ survey, where all three groups express equal levels of satisfaction with the direction of the nation. 
• Satisfaction rises with income, from 28 percent among those with annual household incomes of less than $20,000 to 77 percent among those with household incomes of $60,000 or more.

Looking at the most important national problems, Philadelphia residents concern about crime and violence again comes to the fore, putting those issues at the top of the list. One in four residents (25%) mention that complex of issues, well above the national finding but still below the elevated levels of concern that have been found nationally about such issues in the 1960s and 1970s. (See Table 6.) 

With the economy booming along with low unemployment and low inflation, economic issues are mentioned by about 11 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 10 percent of the public mentioning education.

As is true nationally, Philadelphia residents are concerned about moral issues and about the state of the nation’s political leadership. General comments about a moral decline in the nation, a lack of values, a failure to embrace religious values are mentioned by 10 percent of the public. Seven 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.

While crime is at the top of the problems list in Philadelphia, there is no one issue that the Philadelphia public thinks is being ignored by government officials in Washington. No more than 10 percent mention any single issue as not getting adequate government attention. It is important to note that economic issues and the issues of poverty, hunger and homelessness are near the top of the Philadelphia list.

The News Media 

While the Philadelphia 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.

There are relatively few issues that Philadelphia residents see as 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 Philadelphia residents, the largest categories of response to these two questions are diametrically opposed: generalized criticism of the news media (18%) national media, (11%) local media) paired against those who say they cannot think of anything that is being ignored by the news media (21%) national media, (16%) 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 with this measure, local television news is reported as the most popular daily news source, trailed by local newspapers and national network television news.

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, 30 percent of Philadelphia residents under age 35 report reading a local newspaper every day: 68 percent of those age 65 and over say they read the paper every day. While 45 percent of the youngest group say they watch local television news every day, 80 percent of those among the oldest group do so.
• The pattern is reversed for going online for news and other reasons. Thirty percent of those under age 35 report going online every day: only three 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 501 adults, age 18 and older living in telephone households in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania. The interviews were conducted from November 10 through November 27, 1999.

Sample Design

The sample for this survey was designed to produce a representative sample of telephone households in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. The selected sample is a random digit sample of telephone numbers selected from telephone exchanges in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery 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 Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery 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, 60 percent were contacted by an interviewer and 48 percent agreed to participate in the survey. Eighty-eight percent were found eligible for the interview. Furthermore, 91 percent of eligible respondents completed the interview. Therefore, the final response rate is 26 percent.