Importance of skills and abilities

12.

I am going to read you a short list of skills and abilities that School District students are taught during school. For each one, first tell me how important you think each one is on a scale from 1 to 5, where a 5 is very important, and a 1 is not at all important. On a scale from 1 to 5, how important is/are:

Literary skills, reading and writing:

	IMPORTANCE OF READING AND WRITING
	Count	%
2	5	1.2%
3	4	.8%
4	15	3.5%
Very important	409	94.1%
Don't know	2	.4%
Mean = 4.913

Mathematical skills:

	IMPORTANCE OF MATHEMATICAL SKILLS
	Count	%
Not at all important	2	.3%
2	1	.2%
3	11	2.6%
4	38	8.8%
Very important	381	87.6%
Don't know	2	.4%
Mean = 4.838

Being prepared to enter the workforce:

	IMPORTANCE OF BEING PREPARED TO ENTER THE WORKFORCE
	Count	%
Not at all important	7	1.5%
2	4	.8%
3	34	7.9%
4	83	19.0%
Very important	304	69.9%
Don't know	4	.9%
Mean = 4.563

Knowledge of the sciences:

	IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE
	Count	%
Not at all important	2	.5%
2	4	.9%
3	47	10.8%
4	97	22.3%
Very important	283	65.2%
Don't know	1	.2%
Mean = 4.511

Being prepared to enter college or university:

	IMPORTANCE OF BEING PREPARED TO ENTER COLLEGE
	Count	%
Not at all important	5	1.1%
2	8	1.9%
3	51	11.7%
4	87	20.0%
Very important	280	64.4%
Don't know	4	1.0%
Mean = 4.462

Computer skills:

	IMPORTANCE OF COMPUTER SKILLS
	Count	%
Not at all important	2	.4%
2	10	2.3%
3	64	14.6%
4	109	25.1%
Very important	249	57.2%
Don't know	1	.2%
Mean = 4.368

Awareness of the importance of civics and citizenship:

	IMPORTANCE OF CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP
	Count	%
Not at all important	10	2.3%
2	11	2.6%
3	59	13.5%
4	141	32.5%
Very important	210	48.4%
Don't know	3	.6%
Mean = 4.228

Knowledge of music and the arts:

	IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC AND ARTS KNOWLEDGE
	Count	%
Not at all important	8	1.8%
2	36	8.2%
3	112	25.8%
4	143	32.9%
Very important	134	30.8%
Don't know	2	.4%
Mean = 3.830