Page 126 - 2015 Compass Now

All ratings of “aspects of education” varied by county of residence. Most aspects were rated higher by
La Crosse and Houston County respondents and rated lower by Monroe, Trempealeau or Vernon County
respondents. See In-Depth Analysis for more detail. Opportunities in your job to gain knowledge or skills
and community resources to learn new skills or other hobbies, by county, are shown in Figure 12. While
Trempealeau County residents rated higher opportunities in your job to gain knowledge or skills, they rated
community resources to learn new skills lower than residents from other counties.

Figure 12: Aspects of Skills Training by County of Residence

3.5 3.03 2.95
3.0 2.90 2.71 2.74
2.5 2.44 2.43 2.46 2.20 2.48 La Crosse
Monroe
2.0 Trempealeau
Vernon
1.5 Houston

1.0 Community resources
to learn new skills
0.5

0.0 Opportunities in your job to
gain knowledge or skills

1=Poor; 2=Fair; 3=Good; 4=Excellent

Aspects of education by demographic characteristics

See In-Depth Analysis for more detail.

Gender: There were no differences in respondent’s ratings of aspects of education by gender.

Age: There were only minor differences in how respondents of different ages rated educational aspects.
Respondents 21 to 50 years rated the quality of schools (4K-12) lower than older adults. Although they were
more likely to rate it as fair or poor, they were equally as likely to say it was excellent as other respondents.
Respondents under age 65 were more likely to rate community resources to learn new skills as fair or poor,
over 35% indicating this. One-third of adults over age 65 said this was excellent. (This might be reflective of
who is more likely to use these resources.)

Education: Those with a higher level of education were more likely to rate many aspects of education higher
than those with less education. There was no difference by education in rating of birth-to-three education,
quality of schools (4K-12), or opportunities in your job to gain knowledge or skills.

Income: Respondents with lower income rated lower their community as a place that meets the family’s
educational needs than those with higher education. Respondents with lower education also rated the
quality of higher education poorer than those with higher education. Finally, 52% of respondents with
income less than $25,000 rated opportunities in your job to gain knowledge or skills as fair or poor.

Race: Non-white respondents were more likely to rate the quality of schools 4K-12 as good, fair, or poor than
white respondents. No other differences were noted for ratings of education by race.

Aspects of Quality of Life

Respondents were asked to rate aspects of quality of life in their community. Results from the current survey
are shown in Figure 13 ranked from highest to lowest rating, including the mean scores from the 2011
survey when a comparable question was asked. Items with an asterisk (*) indicate a significant difference
from 2011 to 2014.

1 | APPENDIX 118 COMPASS NOW 2015