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Most Americans do not believe that academic study is the main reason for attending school, a new nationwide survey has revealed.

Just 45 per cent of adults polled said preparing young people academically should be the main purpose of public education. Just a third of those surveyed said they felt strongly that way.

A quarter of respondents said the main job of schools should be to prepare students for work, while another quarter said schools’ main goal should be making students ready to be good citizens.

The vast majority - 68 per cent versus 21 per cent - supported the idea of schools providing additional work-based and technical skills, rather than advanced academic classes, according to the poll by PDK International, a professional association for educators.

Overall, Americans rated their local schools positively, although more than 40 per cent said they wanted higher academic standards.

There was strong correlation between the ratings given by respondents and their willingness to pay more in local taxes to support education. People who were happy with their local schools, were more likely to support tax increases to pay for improvements.

The survey of more than 1,200 adults from all American states is the 48th time the annual survey has been conducted.

There was mixed news for teachers who oppose standardized testing, with 59 per cent opposed to allowing parents to excuse their children from the assessments.

In the biggest one-sided result in the whole survey, 84 per cent of people said that when a school had been failing for an extended period of time, the best thing to do was keep it open and improve it, rather than shutting it down.

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