As a news reporter / pollster, you want to gather information and analyze it to see what people are thinking. Because there are so many issues calling for people's attention everyday, it's easy to lose the big picture. By polling (or giving a questionnaire) to a large enough group of real people, we can sometimes learn what a lot of people are thinking. Knowing this information can help you and your team create a solution that many people will find workable.

Specifically, you want to take a poll of the ideas and opinions people have regarding school desegregation. This is important because the opinions that people have often predict their actions.

Collecting many opinions with your questionnaire is a big part of your job, but you will need to sort the responses in various ways so that you and your team can compare and contrast how different people view the issue. How do people of different age groups, gender, and racial groups feel about desegregation? If you can make some educated guesses about this, you will be able to help your team by not ignoring people's strongest beliefs. So crack the books, click the Net, and switch on your brain.

1. Read and use the Web pages and tools linked below. If you print out the files, underline the passages that you feel are the most important. If you look at the pages on the computer, copy sections you feel are important by dragging the mouse across the passage and copying / pasting it into a word processor or other writing software.

2. Note: Remember to write down or copy/paste the URL of the file you take the passage from so you can quickly go back to it if you need to prove your point.

3. Be prepared to focus what you've learned into an explanation answering:

   What do various groups of people in your community feel about school desegregation?

   As with all reporters / pollsters, you will have to search for the truth, not easy answers.

Internet Resources

Use the Internet information linked below and these questions to analyze the current events related to desegregation:

1. What are good questions to ask people regarding school desegregation?
2. Which groups of people would be the best to ask? Parents? Students? Teachers? School board members? community members? etc.
3. What information would be good to know about the people answering the poll? Age? Gender? Race? Supporters of public schools? etc.
4. How many people have actually experienced segregation or integration?
5. What opinions would you predict you'll find?
6. Once you collect the information, create two - three lists, showing the main findings of your poll.

• Polls, Surveys & Studies
• The Gallup Organization, in particular How Polls are Conducted
• 20 Questions Journalists Should Ask About Poll Results, from Public Agenda Online
• Public Opinion Surveys
• Write your online survey, from InetSurvey.com
  
• Zoomerang creates online surveys & analysis
• "Doing a written survey" shares some ideas