Victorville California is a town on the outskirts of Los Angeles; at least that’s what Mapquest says. I’ve never been there.

The Victorville Daily Press published a story on Sunday October 28th about how much trouble schools were in. Having a thimble-full of understanding of the media industry I would guess that publishing this article on a Sunday was not an accident, but a calculated decision to get the story in front of as many people as possible. It took a nice swipe at just about everyone connected with education and used a “poll” to justify the story.

The VV Daily Press did a poll, like thousands of other newspapers in the country. We don’t know if the poll was scientific or not, nor do we know who responded. We, the reader, only know that the VV Daily Press asked this question:

Do you believe that public schools are doing a good job of preparing students for the future?

I don’t have enough space to write down all the things that are wrong with the VV Daily Press poll. It would overwhelm me. According to them, 344 people said “no” and 106 people said “yes.” The paper concluded that the responses were “overwhelming.” They might be right on that one, as long as you define overwhelming. If there are only 561 people in Victorville, then, I would agree, the response is overwhelming. Unfortunately the question is so bad that the barely 2 to 1 response rate is meaningless. Perhaps the fires are causing their judgment to be clouded.

Was the question asked on their web page? If so, then the same person could respond more than once. That, my friends, takes all the science right out of it. Was the question asked by telephone? If so, how did the Daily Press decide who to call? Perhaps it was one of those automated phone calls where you press “1 for yes” and “2 for no” provided you understood the question, or understood English. Did the people who responded to the poll actually have children in the schools or live in the community? What schools were they referring to when asking the question? I could go on and on.

And what about that question? The problem lies in the question itself. For example, the paper quotes a parent as saying: “Schools are a joke. Thugs run the campus, creating an unsafe environment, and principals cower to the pressure of parents instead of doing the right thing for the students who are there to learn,” said parent Kasey Ruiz. “No wonder drop-out rates keep climbing. Kids are saying, ‘What’s the point?’ ”

As a former principal, I take offense to that quote. I never cowered. I might have hid in the bathroom once or twice, but that was to avoid reporters, crazy people, or lunch duty.

This quote is typical of a phenomenon in society. The Gallup Poll people (they actually know how to conduct a poll) found that schools to which people assign low grades do not exist. Many people make generalizations about schools that they do not have children attending or assign low grades to schools in communities in which they do not live. Many people’s perceptions of schools are derived directly from information gleaned from the media.

I have some advice for the Victorville Daily Press. Ask the question again, only this time, re-word the question without the implied bias. Perhaps this might work:

Do you think that your child’s school is doing a good job preparing your child for the future?

Oh, that’s right. Getting the correct outcome, whatever that might be, won’t be…well…overwhelming.