What are the most serious problems in schools?

*	Total	Elementary	Secondary
Public	25.5	20.6	30.7
Private	4.3	3.0	5.5

School principals agreed that lack of parent involvement was one of the most serious school problems. Among public school principals, poverty was described as a "serious" problem as often as lack of parent involvement. Private school principals cited poverty as a "serious" problem somewhat more often than they cited lack of parent involvement.

TABLE 2. Percent of school principals who said that each problem was a serious problem in their schools

*	Public	Private
Lack of parent involvement	14.5	2.2
Poverty	14.9	3.8

MORE SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS SAY STUDENT ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS ARE SERIOUS PROBLEMS.

Besides lack of parent involvement, the school problems viewed as serious by at least 10 percent of public school teachers included student apathy, poverty, student absenteeism, student disrespect for teachers, parental alcoholism and/or drug abuse, and student tardiness. Behaviors and attitudes of students were more likely to be seen as problematic by teachers at the secondary level than by teachers at the elementary level. Parent alcoholism, on the other hand, was described as "serious" as often by elementary teachers as by secondary teachers and poverty was described as "serious" more often by elementary teachers.

Private school teachers were much less likely to report that any of the above problems were "serious." The percentage of private school teachers rating each problem as "serious" ranged from1 percent for student possession of weapons to 4.3 percent for lack of parent involvement.

TABLE 3. Percent of teachers who said that each problem was a serious problem in their schools

Public teachers

*	Elementary	Secondary
Poverty	18.9	15.2
Parental alcoholism	11.6	12.5
Student apathy	10.4	31.7
Student absenteeism	6.1	22.9

Private teachers

*	Elementary	Secondary
Poverty	1.4	2.6
Parental alcoholism	1.4	3.0
Student apathy	1.7	6.5
Student absenteeism	1.7	4.5

Fewer teachers and principals say drug and alcohol use is a serious problem. There are changes in teachers' and principals' perceptions of the seriousness of school problems such as alcohol and drug abuse and school violence.

Before fewer secondary school teachers viewed alcohol and drug abuse by students as serious problems in their schools. Teachers' reports of the seriousness of alcohol and drug abuse declined in both public and private secondary schools.
Despite recent increasing attention to the presence of guns and other weapons on school grounds, more teachers did not report that student possession of weapons was a serious problem.

Reports of public secondary school principals indicated a decrease in the percentage who viewed drug and alcohol use by students as a serious problem. About 12 percent of public secondary school principals said that alcohol use was a "serious" problem in 1988 compared with 7 percent in 1991. The percentage who said that drug abuse was "serious" decreased.

While there was no change in the percentage of private secondary school principals who viewed drug abuse as a serious problem between, the percentage who viewed alcohol use as a serious problem decreased.

Very few public or private school principals reported that student possession of weapons was a serious problem in their schools. While only about 5 percent of public secondary school principals said that this was a serious problem before, virtually none of the private school principals said that weapons possession was a serious problem.