As Stephanie Simon of politico.com put it, it’s been a bad week for the Common Core. Yesterday, The conservative journal Education Next showed a precipitous drop in support by teachers in only one year–from 76% to 46%. It seems that the more they learn about the standards, the less they like them.
Then today the annual poll by the Gallup organization and Phi Delta Kappa revealed growing public opposition to the Common Core. Last year, most people were not sure what they were; now, as they know more, support is diminishing. The most important reason for opposition: people say the Common Core standards limit the flexibility of teachers to do what they think is best. While 60% of the public oppose the Common Core, 62% of public school parents oppose them.
Some other important findings in the Gallup/PDK poll:
Local public schools get high marks from public school parents at the same time that American public education gets low marks. This seeming paradox shows the success of the privatizers’ relentless attacks on public education over the past decade. For years, the public has heard Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush, and other supporters of privatization decry American public education as “broken,” “obsolete,” “failing.” Their message has gotten through. Only 17% of the public gives American education an A or a B.
At the same time, however, 67% of public school parents give an A or B to the public school their oldest child attends.
Public school parents do not like standardized tests. 68% say they are not helpful. 54% of the public agrees.
Approval of President Obama’s “performance in support of public schools” has plummeted since 2011, when it was 41%. In 2014, approval of the President was down to 27%.
The public is confused about what charter schools are, but 70% favor them. About half think they are public schools and that they are free to teach religion. 57% think they charge tuition, and 68% think they select students based on their ability. My guess: as the public learns more about the misuse of public funds by some charter schools, about frauds, nepotism, and conflicts of interest, these numbers will decline.
Only 37% of the public and public school parents support vouchers.
Here is the Washington Post summary of the poll.
Here is coverage of the Gallup poll from Edsource in California.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So these market driven standards and tests are ‘failing’? Public support is down. Teachers hate them. In business, it would be time to limit losses and run. Betcha that won’t happen.
I am interested in hearing if posters here think that the “68% who think they (charter schools) pick students based on ability” are confused about charter schools. It seems to me that the orthodox opinion here is that charter schools in fact do exactly that.
There’s also this from Gallup that came out today (August 20, 2014): American’s Wary of Federal Influence on Public Schools. Prefer local school board over federal government, 56 percent to 15 percent.
Majority of Americans Oppose Common Core to Guide Teaching: Common Core is one of the dominant topics in American public education this decade. About eight in 10 Americans say they have heard at least a little about the Common Core State Standards. Of those, the majority oppose using the standards in their community to guide teaching. Those who report they know “a great deal” about the Common Core are somewhat less likely to favor them (24%) than those who only know a little (39%).
Do you favor or oppose having the teacher in your community use the Common Core State Standards to guide what they teach?
33 percent favored the use of the CCS
59 percent did NOT support CCS
7 percent don’t know or refused to answer
http://www.gallup.com/poll/175181/americans-wary-federal-influence-public-schools.aspx
And here’s a post about a bill in Congress that calls for local boards to regain control of schools: http://waynegersen.com/2014/08/21/a-house-bill-worthy-of-debate/
Is it possible that Michelle Bachmann and readers of this blog are in agreement on an issue?!
Isn’t Michelle Bachmann a Tea Party favorite? If so, yes, because the Tea Party and their media leader Glenn Beck are totally against Obama’s Common Core agenda.
An October 2010 Washington Post canvass of 647 local Tea Party organizers asked “which national figure best represents your groups?” and got the following responses: no one 34%, Sarah Palin 14%, Glenn Beck 7%, Jim DeMint 6%, Ron Paul 6%, Michele Bachmann 4%.
Yes she is…. those of us who think RTTT is overreach are getting some interesting partners, eh?
The USSR and the US were allies against the Nazi’s in World War II. The U.S. even sent fleets of merchant ships with weapons to the USSR that included complete factories that could be set up and used to build more weapons.
Once the war was over, then the USSR and the US were adversaries in the Cold War for several decades.
I see a similarity here. The enemy of my enemy is my friend until my enemy is defeated and then the allies reset.
Petrelli is claiming that the public is misinformed. See this latest tweet and link to article.
Says common core doesn’t collect or share data. Perhaps Petrelli forgot that RTTT money mandates that schools report any and all data to states, who share w Feds. Maybe he also forgot Fordham CLIP study about student data privacy and how FERPA doesn’t cover on-line data or that 75% of schools don’t tell parents they collect data. http://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/reidenberg_testimony_final.pdf
Fordham Institute @educationgadfly · 2m
What’s behind the declining support for the #CommonCore? By @MichaelPetrilli http://gadf.ly/1o9EhhF @EducationNext
funny faux-authoritative story on Morning Edition this AM– A Tale of Two Polls:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/08/20/341668003/a-tale-of-two-polls
No mention of TESTING (aka the elephant in the room) Figure it out people– that goes for you NPR but oh, I forgot the new “education reporting” is sponsored, oh got it. Ugh.
NPR along with a Mother Jones article and love letter is just one way of fooling liberals and progressives. People need to wake up!
Bertis Downs:
The reporter’s name is Cory Turner (@nprcoryturner on Twitter). He’s been spreading misinformation for a while now. Here’s another one of his clueless features on the Common Core Standards:
http://www.npr.org/2014/08/03/337602099/debunking-common-myths-about-the-common-core
I hope some of you will contact him with questions and comments. NPR has a duty to really dig into these topics and present an accurate, unbiased picture of the controversy, instead of just supporting the agendas of their big funders.
“The most important reason for opposition: people say the Common Core standards limit the flexibility of teachers to do what they think is best.”
Oh my! How can this be? We are being constantly reminded by CC proponents that standards are a set of learning goals; that standards do not dictate curriculum, instructional materials, or methodologies. An individual learning standard is a destination, not the exact way to get there. Unless of course the non-educators who wrote the standards were understandably confused.
ELA Anchor Standard [and de-facto pedagogy] K – 12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Grade 3 Math Standard [and de-facto pedagogy]
7. Relate area to the operations of multiplication and addition.
a. Find the area of a rectangle with whole-number side lengths by
tiling it, and show that the area is the same as would be found by
multiplying the side lengths.
b. Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole number
side lengths in the context of solving real world and
mathematical problems, and represent whole-number products as
rectangular areas in mathematical reasoning.
c. Use tiling to show in a concrete case that the area of a rectangle
with whole-number side lengths a and b + c is the sum of
a × b and a × c. Use area models to represent the distributive
property in mathematical reasoning.
d. Recognize area as additive. Find areas of rectilinear figures by
decomposing them into non-overlapping rectangles and adding
the areas of the non-overlapping parts, applying this technique to solve
real world problems.
Grade 4 Math Standard (and de-facto pedagogy)
5. Multiply a whole number of up to four digits by a one-digit whole
number, and multiply two two-digit numbers, using strategies based
on place value and the properties of operations. Illustrate and explain
the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area
models.
Put a fork in it, please, as Carroll Burris likes to say. It’s dead.
Sure, there’ve been a lot of well coordinated attacks on the Common Core brand, but “dead”? It’s still on the books in 80% of the states; two of the states that wiggled out of it adopted something that’s essentially Common Core but without the name; and at least one of the states that never adopted it uses something that’s very similar.
Then there’s this: “When the words “common core” were removed from the question, 68 percent of the general public supported uniform national standards for schools, said Paul Peterson, a Harvard government professor and one of the Ed Next poll’s co-authors. Add “common core” back to the equation, and support plummets by 15 percentage points, to 53 percent.”
The public has some very interesting thoughts on unions, tenure, and tying teacher pay to student performance, too. I guess we’ll discuss those survey results another time.
Click to access 2014ednextpoll.pdf
Tim,
Education Next is not neutral on these issues. It supports privatization, vouchers, charters, Common Core. Its editors oppose teacher unions, tenure, any job protections or due process for teachers. Back when I was on the right, I was as a member of the EdNext editorial board. I know.
Regardless of their slant, you seem to think highly enough of their polling to cite the decline in the teacher approval rating of the Common Core. Is there a reason why their polling data on tenure, tying teacher pay to student performance, and unions would be less valid or trustworthy?
Obviously we need a multi-part critique of the sampling methodology, including excerpts of an e-mail flame war with the pollsters at Gallup.
Common Core isn’t dead yet; just a Zombie haunting our schools. Death is only possible if Congress can agree to re-write and re-authorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
So, how many NYC teachers will be punched in the face by Michael Mulgrew, our own UFT president for not supporting his beloved Common Core? I know I will be a target. But I will also press charges!!
Not directly related, but have you seen this?
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2014/08/sellout-fever-newly-elected-revile-er.html
A quick Google search led me to this report issued by the NC DOE in 2001— the year before NCLB. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/newsroom/news/2001-02/20010824
The findings are not all that different when it comes to PARENT’s rating the local schools, with 68% giving their schools an A or B. But before NCLB, 51% gave public schools an A or a B. The conservative NCLB architects must be smiling serenely.