Lansing - A survey conducted by The Education Policy Center at MSU shows most Michigan residents give their public schools high marks.

The center released results of a survey Wednesday that asked nearly 1,000 residents to grade their local schools. More than 70 percent of respondents gave their schools an A or B.

“The results are mainly good news in that they show improvement in public perceptions of the Michigan schools over time,” said David Plank, The Education Policy Center’s director.

The grades were improvements from a similar survey in 1997 when 54 percent of those respondents gave their schools an A or B.

“This lays down a baseline and some information about how Michigan citizens see their schools, what kinds of improvements they’ve seen and what they think is important,” Plank said. “This is informative for people in the state Legislature and on the state Board (of Education) because they convey the information that most Michigan residents are happy.”

But not all responses were positive this time.

More than 25 percent of those polled in urban areas gave their schools a grade of D or F. One percent of suburban residents gave their schools failing grades.

“The survey shows that there is a difference between satisfaction in suburban areas versus rural and urban areas,” said Michael David Warren, a member of the state Board of Education. “That higher level of dissatisfaction in those areas shows there needs to be dramatic improvement.”

Warren said the questions asked in the survey were not specific enough, and different results would have been yielded if questions were more “probing.”

“We have already identified our strategic goal for 2001-2001 to substantially improve academic performance in chronically under-performing schools, and those schools tend to be urban schools.”

State Rep. Rose Bogardus, D-Davison, said she wasn’t surprised with the results.

“People are very happy with their schools, and it doesn’t surprise me that urban areas are split,” she said. “They have been told repeatedly that their schools are terrible.”

Bogardus, a former teacher, said some urban schools are troubled and action should be taken to help the districts.

“It is the state’s responsibility to deal with those problems and help those children,” she said.

Bogardus was encouraged the public felt teacher quality is important.

“We are going into a teaching shortage, and they need to be aware of how important it is to get quality people and to help them upgrade their skills,” she said.